IMJohnCox wrote on 01/17/07 at 18:50:27:


That's an interesting question.  If you transcribed all the commentary on a 5-hour DVD, how many pages would it fill?

But yes, my general impression is I can watch a 5-hour DVD and feel prepared enough to take the opening out for a test spin, whereas I spent much more time than that reading Palliser's Closed Sicilian, for instance.  Probably closer to 20 hours.  And I'm not sure how much of it stuck.

IMJohnCox wrote on 01/17/07 at 13:36:15:


I don't think so.  For a weak amateur such as myself, a well-produced DVD makes it much easier to get up and running with an opening.  It's sort of a 10,000 ft view of the opening, with more emphasis on general plans and piece placments than concrete variations.  And when the opening lends itself to consistent objectives -- such as Martin's piece placements and the ...c5 break in the Scandinavian -- well, the DVD is almost all you need to get started at the amateur level.  Just trying to achieve that will get you 10 or 12 moves into the game -- far enough along to feel pretty good about where the game is going.

On the other hand, I was a little put out with Martin's Ruy Lopez DVD in which he generally recommends a c3, d4, Nbd2 setup.  But suddenly in the Cozio he's recommending 4.Nc3.  Now I've got to remember that in all the other lines I'm aiming for c3, d4, Nbd2, etc, but against the Cozio I'm supposed to play 4.Nc3.  It's inconsistent and, I've come to find, unnecessary.  4.c3 is fine, and consistent with the rest of my repertoire.  That sort of simplicity is why we all love crap openings such as the Colle.  I don't have time for theory.  I need to know where to put my pieces and what the strategic objective is.

I think DVDs by their nature do a better job of verbal explanation than books.  I think Wells' book on the QID is one of the best of its kind, but I still learned more about the QID specifically and chess in general from Aagaard's offhand remarks on his DVD.  Similarly, reading that Black's KB is a very important piece in the French Defense does not have nearly the same impact as Zeigler grinning slyly at the camera and saying, "but I would never exchange this bishop unless I absolutely had to."

There's just more room for this kind of informative chit-chat on a DVD.  The kind of stuff that probably gets edited out of most books.

If a book's target audience is players <2000, I think publishers and the strong players who write the DVDs or the books should realize that those players probably want material that is long on explanation and short on variations.  For one thing, most amateur openings do not follow book lines past the 6th or 7th move or so, and then we're on our own.  Yes, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 h5? is a ridiculous move and not worthy of analysis.  But when an amateur sees it on the board, he's likely to think, "Oh sh*^, what am I to do about this?"  I don't need to see any analysis, but perhaps a reassuring voice telling me not to worry, simply develop your pieces, be prepared to meet ...h4 with h3, and maybe try to get a N into g5 to exploit the weaknesses, and go on about your plan of <insert plan here>.

(Heck, it's getting so I can't even recognize ridiculous moves any more what with GMs hurling their g-pawns up the board in every opening, and 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 being all the rage these days.)

Another thing -- amateurs ask a lot of dumb questions -- such as "why?"  When a variation ends with +/=, amateurs probably are aksing "why?"  Sometimes I think I can figure it out, but I'm not strong enough or confident enough in my abilities to know for sure.  A little reaffirmation would help.

I'm like a 4-yr-old child.  After every declarative statement, I'm asking "why?"

When someone writes "the queen is not well placed here," I'm probably asking "why?."

When one rook is developed and not the other, I wonder "why?"

When someone recaptures with the c-pawn instead of the e-pawn, I'd like to know "why?"

DVDs seem to address these questions better than books.  The guy on the DVD has 3 or 4 or 5 hours to fill.  So he just starts talking and ends up imparting a lot of interesting insights that there just isn't room for in a book.

I think the two -- DVDs and books -- are actually quite complimentary.  The DVD is a quick way to get started using an opening, a book adds polish to one's repertoire.

Of course, I can see how very strong or titled players have no need for this kind of thing, but would rather have some original theory to spring on the 24th move against their similarly titled opponent.

Anway, just some opinions from the fish pond.

well lazy people don't even like to move the pieces! So the DVD is better for couch potatoes.

think Sherbakov in NIC yearbook 74, when covering 9. Nd5 /... Bg5 line, said Black should play "around" the d5 knight instead of against it, so perhaps Black can ignore that knight after all!   

When i look at the positions from White's perspective (especially from books), Black's positions in the Sveshnikov always looks great, but when i look at the board from Black's perspective, the weaknessess do seem alarming!

i suppose that for many players who aren't yet master-level, their ability to visualise positions are limited to a certain extent, and thus may have difficulties (or find it tiring!) reading a chess book without a chess set, particularly if the book does not have sufficient diagrams. In this respect the DVD is a godsend.

will be first to get your Sveshnikov book. When is it out?
Van Wely says the Sveshnikov is a tool to draw games in an ugly way. Do you agree?

Hello everyone. 

I have completed watching Van Wely's new Sveshnikov DVD once. The games chosen are excellent 
(in fact almost all are important for theory), and Van Wely's annotations are concise and accurate, never a superfluous variation.

Van Wely is a man of few words though, and mostly spouts variations.  He has no problems with english, but i think he is just an intense and serious person (lighten up dude!), you can tell that his mind is racing through all sorts of crazy variations and he's showing you a small fraction of what he sees..Ziegler was far more thrilling than Van Wely in comparison. 

Indeed i can imagine many pple will say Van Wely is the most boring presenter from Chessbase. Van Wely is like Kasparov in his Najdorf DVDs, only less talkative and completely missing in the anecdotes department... 

Yet despite this, i loved the DVD  even more than Ziegler's French or Aagaards Nimzo/QID. Perhaps its more to do with the opening in question?! The Sveshnikov does lead to hairy games.

Note that Van Wely only presents games that are relevant to his repertoire, hence no Novosibirsk (10... Bg7) and no 9. Nd5 Qa5+ or 12... Rb8. There is also no early deviations like 7. Nd5. imho this DVD is not sufficient to form a complete repertoire, but good if you only want to focus on critical lines.

Anyone seen this DVD and care to share your impressions?

p.s. what is it with 1. d4 players and the Sveshnikov?! Kramnik, Radjabov, Van Wely, Rogozenko, and now i hear John Cox is going to write a new Sveshnikov book too.