27

I'm aware of several excellent youtube channels that are free and provide some great insight into the game, such as:

What are a few other good resources (free only please!) that a new player can find and how can I use them effectively to improve?

Andrew
  • 15,144
  • 4
  • 65
  • 105
Mog
  • 661
  • 7
  • 15
  • Hi Mog, I closed this question because right now it's very subjective - it's more or less asking for a list of available free learning sites/resources. For more information you can also check the StackExchange blog. – Andrew Sep 09 '12 at 18:31
  • 3
    Well I totally agree with you, it's asking for a list of available free learning sites/resources. Though, I can't understand how that'd be subjective. Free is not subjective, and whether or not one can learn from a resource shouldn't be either. – Mog Sep 09 '12 at 18:32
  • Mog, I do understand where you're coming from, but questions that are basically polls don't work as well with the Stack Exchange format. If each answer is equally valid, or one line answers are valid, then the question isn't focused enough. (http://chess.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask) The question is subjective in that which answer is "correct" depends on the person and their own opinions. – Andrew Sep 09 '12 at 18:37
  • 1
    Fair enough! Sad though, would have been interesting for lots of people. – Mog Sep 09 '12 at 18:38
  • Yes, definitely. The prevailing wisdom is that for things like this (on Stack Exchange), [chat] is the right place for this discussion. Or perhaps a tag wiki (like the one for [tag:learning]: http://chess.stackexchange.com/tags/learning/info) – Andrew Sep 09 '12 at 18:41
  • 3
    I reworded the question slightly in order to reopen it. Questions that solicit just links are less good, so hopefully now answers will be lengthier. – Andrew Sep 09 '12 at 19:22
  • 1
    Thanks a lot for taking the time to turn this into a nice question! – Mog Sep 09 '12 at 22:24
  • I'm still a little confused. Do you want only video resources or any resources? – Justin C Sep 10 '12 at 00:08
  • Nah I'm not limiting the type of resource. Feel free to propose anything :) – Mog Sep 10 '12 at 00:16

8 Answers8

16

Here are some sites that I have found to be of great value:

chessopenings.com - NM Dereque Kelley explains openings very well.

The Chess Website - Excellent videos.

ChessVideos.tv - An abundant resource of top notch videos.

Exeter Chess Club coaching section - Excellent articles

ChessCafe columns (especially Dan Heisman's Novice Nook columns and Mark Dvoretsky's Instructor columns) - I can't recommend Dan Heisman enough, his videos on ICC (not free) are excellent. Note: since the demise of the ChessCafe site these links point to the archive.org saved version.

50 Chess Games for Beginners - I stumbled upon this. Looks helpful, especially since the games are annotated.

Chess Visualization Training - Improve your visualization.

Brian Towers
  • 96,800
  • 11
  • 239
  • 397
xaisoft
  • 16,753
  • 10
  • 72
  • 140
  • Exeter Chess Club's pages are a fun read, although some of the content is fairly 'old' and no longer withstand today's engine scrutiny. – prusswan Sep 17 '12 at 04:22
  • @xaisoft: Great additions!

    Unfortunately, ChessCafe is now fee-based. They will give you access to all of the PDF archives of articles, including Dan Heisman's Novice Nook, for a donation of $25 to their educational fund. As a result of the new member login requirement, the link you included no longer hits the right landing page; it generates a 404 Page Not Found error instead.

     – jaxter Sep 15 '16 at 13:07
12

A bit of self-promotion, I put together this PDF:

A solid understanding of pawn structures and their corresponding plans will improve your game by leaps and bounds, because books rarely do a good job of explaining this powerful area of chess knowledge so it will probably be mostly new information. Hope you find it useful! :)

Brian Towers
  • 96,800
  • 11
  • 239
  • 397
Andrew Latham
  • 3,651
  • 2
  • 23
  • 38
  • Very nice, I have Soltis's book, but haven't read it all the way through yet, since I keep putting it aside for other books that I think are more my level. I think it's still a bit advanced for me. When I do read it, your pdf will make a great companion/supplement. Thank you. – EvilSpudBoy Dec 11 '13 at 03:00
10

I notice (unless I missed it) that no one has mentioned Daniel King's youtube channel Power Play Chess. You can subscribe for free. I enjoy his "what happens next?" series, where he plays through a grandmaster game, stops at a crucial moment, and asks the viewer to pick the correct continuation from two possibilities. The viewer then clicks one of two links to find out if they are correct.

Morgan Sherman
  • 201
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
    didn't know about it. Seems like it is a great channel, thanks :) – Mog Sep 20 '12 at 05:16
  • Just to clarify after almost one year: DK's channel proved to be amazing during this last year. I think I even prefer it to ChessNetwork (which is crazy considering how much I like ChessNetwork). The analysis is of really good quality and DK has a visible passion for the game that is very nice indeed (this last sentence was an hommage, it's an expression he uses a lot :D). – Mog May 02 '14 at 12:29
5

There is an absolutely PHENOMENAL book on tactics, oriented towards beginners, available for free on the web. It's called "Predator at the Chessboard", by Ward Farnsworth, and you can find it at http://www.chesstactics.org/

The depth of coverage is good for even intermediates. But he really takes time to explain the tactics in English, which makes it very understandable to beginners.

Charlie Flowers
  • 151
  • 1
  • 4
  • This has been a really useful book to me as a beginner. The book breaks down a bunch of ways that you can attack pieces and come out with an advantage. – Daniel Neel Mar 15 '17 at 19:30
4

I've found Mark Weeks' Chess for All Ages to be an excellent, free resource. There is a lot of advice for beginners and intermediate players alike on topics such as

  • Building an opening repertoire
  • Tactics and positional ideas for the middlegame
  • Explanations of basic endgames

There are also a dozen or so annotated "classic" games, where every move is explained in depth. I found this to be especially useful because I often missed the point of quiet moves.

Some of the material is quite dated and a few of the links are dead, but don't let that put you off - the overall quality of the articles is excellent.

Ralph
  • 1,231
  • 2
  • 10
  • 13
1

Chess Strategy Online - A new site with free tutorials for beginners and novices.

Chris W
  • 11
  • 1
0

one best game one can download through torrent that is "KASPAROV CHESSMATE" there are such many examples to solve with kit ta have many ideas.

Dhaiwat budh
  • 25
  • 3
  • 1
    I know you're talking about obtaining Kasparov Chessmate for free, but is that software actually intended to be free? – ETD Sep 10 '12 at 01:15
  • It seems like there is a free version (limited) and that it's not even possible anymore to buy the full version, since its developper doesn't maintain the necessary infrastructure for that. – Mog Sep 10 '12 at 15:01
  • 1
    @Mog, I see; thanks. Dhaiwat, could you give some more detail about the useful features of Kasparov Chessmate? That will make your answer more helpful to other users. – ETD Sep 10 '12 at 19:11
  • yap.. definitely... you can have certain examples of master minds as Garry Kasparow, Vishvanath anand and many more. Except this you can play this this game through LAN on internet via cable. It also provides to save your game which can be played at locally and with your mate to have a look on that game future. – Dhaiwat budh Sep 11 '12 at 09:07
0

I think the best of the Learning material is Chessgames.com . There you have a Tool called Guess the move . This allows you to make a move and then gives a Score to your move . Often it is best to be at par with GM thinking lines .

link below

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/guessthemove

Seth Projnabrata
  • 2,003
  • 8
  • 13