I remember a wise cracking kid Named Ben Finegold at the East Detroit ( Michigan ) Chess Club in the late 1970's ( 1978 ) who was a joy to behold. He would play blindfold speed. He gave the ridiculous advantage of 5 minutes, and he only took 1 minute for himself. He would call moves and his helper would hit the clock. He either won outright, or forced you to lose on time. He was unbeatable. The adults couldn't win, the other teens couldn't win, he was simply a gift we all enjoyed while he was with us. I was the only person in the whole club who could out-wisecrack him. I think he didn't like it too much, but we both had fun with it. I used to tease him about being a good player for his age, and he would come back with something being a good move for it's age when the occasion arose. Ben would use an electronic clock, and his reflexes were so great, he made 6 moves and hit the clock 6 times in 1 second. The clock didn't move until he made his 7th move. Ben, I just found the chess section on youtube, and you are all over the place. Congrats on the life you've made for yourself, almost 40 years on, and you're still wisecracking your way through the game. I haven't played professionally in over 30 years, but play online all the time. I'm glad our paths crossed all those years ago, you made the life I had playing chess a lot more enjoyable, and I even learned a couple things. And you're wonderful for all the work with kids you're doing. That is a good move by anyone at any age. I would enjoy hearing from you. GG (Mike)
holy shit. No wonder everyone was begging for more Finegold on all your past videos... He's witty *and* a great teacher. Laughed my ass off as he made joke after joke that none of the kids understood, but just doubled down when they acted confused. Thank you for existing, Ben.
Omg! 7:25 "Every move I make, every breath I take." I'm crying. How can you expect anyone in 1PM class to get it? XD I've been watching you, Finegold, I've been watching you.
He's so good with the kids! He is constantly giving simple questions to give confidence while at the same time not worrying about going over their heads. He doesn't condisend to them. He jokes around as if they were adults, so what if they don't know who Tony Danza is, they'll catch up eventually, and the sooner the better.
well while his platonic teaching style (asking in a way, the student can get a vague idea of what´s right and fill in the blanks) is great, from my experience as a tutor (maths and chemistry) it´s the best working teaching method for most kids, he makes WAY to much adult jokes. like political jokes or wordplays or flat out racist jokes, that go way over the kids heads. like how would kids know what "retreat like a french man" means. they hardly even know there was a world war. let alone the second one. at least i´d guess that from the kids voices i heard in the video. i mean jokes like "when do you make a loosing move? i take 2 answers" "never" "i´ll take that, or when playing me" that´s a joke the kids can work with. but trump jokes, or the frenchmen joke are too much for children. i´m not saying they are not funny quite the opposite this guy nails my sense of humor perfectly. if he ever gets tired of chess he should become a comedian, i´m saying they are not suited for a childrens class. many jokes like that i´d only do with older students. like i´d even do really offensive jokes or borderline insulting ones. "you do the rest. you´ve got something between your ears yourself" "something between my ears?" "if you ask like that: pudding" but only with students ,that are old enough for this type of humor. i had a latin teacher who did that with exery student and a lot of the younger ones cried on a regular basis. cool dude great teacher for older students, strict, fair and funny if you are old enough for dark humor and sarcasm, burt totally not suited for younger children. Finegold reminds me a bit of him
He makes those jokes because this video was going on the internet. He's not just demonstrating for the kids, he's demonstrating for the internet audience as well.
0:19 says kids will be quiet as the class will be on the net. Then says they won't see themselves, but hear themselves. Thats a real incentive to be quiet.
from the perspective of someone in his late twenties who didnt even know that castling was possible on queenside and what en passant was, these lectures are worth gold. very good for absolute beginners like me.
I love this man so much. The infamous 1 o’clock class. May be my favorite Ben Finegold lecture. I laughed my ass off. I sometimes listen to these videos without even watching...and I don’t have the ability to play blind, but love them. And I do learn a lot.
Great teacher - love the dry humor with the kids, winking to adults. This is the most impressed I've been with hi humor. I now understand it. Please may I use this in my little chess club. Thank you.
He is great in teaching these kids something. Kids maybe dont get all this ironic or sarcastic jokes but they will understand what he is pointing out for them. Love it.
Literally just starting to learn how to play chess and I never thought I would find stand up comedy at the same time! I was laughing so hard at some of his jokes and the comments from his (fans?) viewers as well.
He has turned chess lessons into a Punch & Judy show 5:50 "I wonder what my Bishop's attacking?" "It's behind you ... its the Queen!" He takes audience participation to a completely different level and that's just the adults who are watching...Lol
The humor is just so above them it’s hilarious 😂😂😂 like every sentence has a genius joke in it like when he was talking about Star Wars and said “they were saying I went Rogue”😉
Prime example of how the new generation is gaining an edge over the others. If only I watched this video when I started to learn chess, what kind of player would I become
I want to see more 1o clock classes! I love'em (person who aint play chess here, but klnows the rules and watches this channel just to learn sth bout this game)
