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When reading chess articles or watching videos online, my criteria for often determining if it is worth reading or watching is if it is made my someone with a FIDE title (IM, FM, GM, etc), but what other criteria should I use to determine if someone or something is worth reading or watching?

Some that I can think of myself are:

  • The author of the article/video has a FIDE title.
  • The website where articles or videos are found has a large following.
  • The author is relatively widely known even if they don't have a FIDE title.

Also, are there any red flags that should indicate that if I watch or read this, I probably will get incorrect/stale information?

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    I think it is really hard to tell. Even a relatively low rated player can make a good article/youtube video if they put time and effort into it, and a GM can have rubbish with a few engine lines and little insight. Plus some presentations styles work for some people, but not others. You might want to ignore this comment though, since I am not a titled player--not even close :).
    – Akavall
    Dec 6, 2012 at 23:36
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    Same here, feel free to disagree, but being a good player, and being a good teacher (chess coach, trainer etc) are two different things, the vast majority of chess book authors are titled though, not so for the youtube vids. I would go for it, and decide based on the content.
    – Helio
    Dec 6, 2012 at 23:45
  • I agree with both your comments. This question mostly has to do with online sources. Besides what I list though, there has to be some criteria for what you will read/watch.
    – xaisoft
    Dec 7, 2012 at 17:12

1 Answer 1

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Here are some ideas about whether or not a source can be trusted.

-Not all titled players are good in teaching.

-Chess.com is great because its members are excellent chess players and will not allow a poor article or video to be published.

-chess.about.com is good because it hires professional people, but not as good as chess.com

-thechesswebsite.com is great because kevin (the man behind the site) has many subscribers on youtube, kingcrucher is another great youtube channel because it offers in depth analysis, but they focus too much on blitz.

and then you have Roman's lab, Roman is the greatest chess teacher of all time.

What else do you have? When looking at books, you can check the Amazon rating and reviews.

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  • This is a good answer. There are numerous online chess videos by some great authors. You pointed out some that are all good. MatoJelic is good as well, check his YouTube channel out.
    – xaisoft
    Mar 20, 2013 at 0:33
  • @xaisoft thanks sir, amazing channel, i just subscribed :)
    – Lynob
    Mar 20, 2013 at 0:52
  • Great, that was my first thought when I saw his videos. I like how he gets straight to the point and they are all very concise.
    – xaisoft
    Mar 20, 2013 at 11:27
  • I'd add its counterpart to "not all titled players are good at teaching": not all people who are good at teaching are titled players
    – David
    Jul 1, 2020 at 13:38

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