Kingscrusher's top 50 viewed Youtube Chess playlists over a 14+ year period :)

Hi all

Introduction to Youtube "Playlists"

Youtube "playlists" are groups of Youtube videos that can be ordered in a few different ways. Sometimes it is useful for such groupings to organize a Youtube channel better. In a sense, perhaps a Playlist can be considered as a kind of free chess course - without too much of a sophisticated structure - but rather just example after example within the Playlist perspective.

One issue which may exist with such playlists is that the URLs aren't particularly memorable or shareable. As an example, take the following Playlist ID : PL9JCz2Gsbqe6A-nrQLSqAWfVuWk-HstNk - isn't it better to refer to it as https://kingscrusher.tv/scalps - I think so :)

Anyway, so I thought it might be a good idea to create some short URLs for them. And as I was doing this, I stumbled onto great ways of checking past analytical data on them. So I thought I might share these on this blog.

Playlist analytical data

I was checking out my Youtube analytics and in particular my most popular chess playlists over the last 14 years. Here are the results, and you can also find links as well if you want to check them out or share them :)

Popularity Rank | Playlist title | Views | Watch time (hours)

1. | Kingscrusher Scalp Alerts! https://kingscrusher.tv/scalps | 179907 | 21487.8898 |
2. | Magnus Carlsen - https://kingscrusher.tv/carlsen | 165059 | 34133.8717 |
3. | Brilliancy Amazing Games! - https://kingscrusher.tv/brilliant | 127518 | 26463.118 |
4. | MIkhail Tal - https://kingscrusher.tv/tal | 100732 | 20678.6942 |
5. | Bobby Fischer classic chess games - https://kingscrusher.tv/fischer | 100635 | 17972.7297 |
6. | The "Must See" Immortal Game Collection! - https://kingscrusher.tv/mustsee | 99370 | 19456.034 |
7. | Chess Traps - Sometimes you can win quickly with these naughty traps! https://kingscrusher.tv/traps | 95014 | 8782.7067 |
8. | Evolution of Chess Style -https://kingscrusher.tv/evolve | 85570 | 12233.6608 |
9. | Bobby Fischer's 60 memorable games - https://kingscrusher.tv/fischer60 | 72646 | 11326.6367 |
10. | Garry Kasparov - https://kingscrusher.tv/kasparovchess | 64832 | 12010.6703 |
11. | Kings Indian Defence - Chess Opening - https://kingscrusher.tv/kid | 64182 | 5564.9295 |
12. | The Kings Gambit collection https://kingscrusher.tv/kingsgambit | 59733 | 7045.6737 |
13. | Mega-exciting notable amazing chess games https://kingscrusher.tv/amazing | 54647 | 10380.9904 |
14. | Bobby Fischer - 11th World Champion https://kingscrusher.tv/fischergames | 50298 | 10510.5687 |
15. | Amazing Immortal Chess Games - https://kingscrusher.tv/immortals | 41882 | 8498.0181 |
16. | Leela Zero - Neural Network https://kingscrusher.tv/leela - Please share :) | 41386 | 5451.2974 |
17. | Computer Chess - https://kingscrusher.tv/computers - Engines Rybka Stockfish Houdini Komodo TCEC Deep-Blue | 40005 | 6142.0066 |
18. | Sicilian Defence: Najdorf - https://kingscrusher.tv/najdorf - Chess Opening | 37666 | 3608.4687 |
19. | Bullet Chess and blitz fun tournaments - Lichess tournaments https://kingscrusher.tv/lichess | 36345 | 15573.8841 |
20. | Caro-Kann Defence - Chess Opening - https://kingscrusher.tv/caro-kann | 35243 | 3203.8952 |
21. | Chess Openings: https://kingscrusher.tv/openingtheory -The theory of different opening systems often with illustrative games | 34547 | 3998.541 |
22. | The Kings Indian Attack - https://kingscrusher.tv/kingsindianattack | 28019 | 2310.2641 |
23. | Nimzo-Indian - https://kingscrusher.tv/nimzoindian - Chess Opening | 25679 | 2265.1528 |
24. | English Opening - https://kingscrusher.tv/english Chess Opening | 25418 | 2160.5156 |
25. | Sicilian Defence: Smith-Morra Gambit - https://kingscrusher.tv/smithmorra Chess Opening | 25311 | 2919.8046 |
26. | https://kingscrusher.tv/otbchess - Kingscrusher's own personal Over the Board (OTB) chess games | 24898 | 5074.6853 |
27. | Sicilian Defence - https://kingscrusher.tv/sicilian Chess Opening | 24443 | 3071.6099 |
28. | Hikaru Nakamura - https://kingscrusher.tv/nakamura - Chess Super Grandmaster | 23105 | 5027.5569 |
29. | Queens Gambit Declined - https://kingscrusher.tv/qgd | 22365 | 2067.6295 |
30. | Hikaru Nakamura - https://kingscrusher.tv/nakamura - Chess Super Grandmaster | 21920 | 4593.6686 |
31. | Kingscrusher music favorites - https://kingscrusher.tv/music | 21918 | 1286.0872 |
32. | Bobby Fischer vs Boris Spassky - https://kingscrusher.tv/fischerspassky - World Chess Championship 1972 | 21699 | 2216.4914 |
33. | Vishy Anand vs Vladimir Kramnik - https://kingscrusher.tv/anandkramnik - World chess champ. 2008 | 21660 | 1425.9983 |
34. | Tigran Petrosian https://kingscrusher.tv/tigranpetrosian - 9th World Chess Champion Games | 21121 | 3840.0663 |
35. | Chesscube Warzone Tournaments - https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscube | 20345 | 6316.7148 |
36. | Chess Tips and Chess Middlegame theories - https://kingscrusher.tv/middlegame | 19987 | 2314.2378 |
37. | Garry Kasparov classics - https://kingscrusher.tv/garrykasparovchess | 19450 | 3446.1039 |
38. | Paul Morphy - https://kingscrusher.tv/morphy - American Chess Legend | 18801 | 3113.2478 |
39. | Grunfeld (Grünfeld Gruenfeld) - https://kingscrusher.tv/grunfeld - defence - Chess Opening | 18559 | 2078.2904 |
40. | Chess Traps - https://kingscrusher.tv/chesstraps - tricks to win fast (Please like and share!) | 17553 | 1293.0277 |
41. | Vishy Anand : https://kingscrusher.tv/vishyanand - World Chess Champion 2007 to 2013 | 16667 | 2799.9675 |
42. | Albin Counter Gambit - https://kingscrusher.tv/albin - Chess Opening | 16468 | 1651.0642 |
43. | Sicilian Defence: https://kingscrusher.tv/grandprix - Grand Prix Attack - Chess Opening | 16067 | 2031.4514 |
44. | Slav and Semi-Slav - https://kingscrusher.tv/slavopening - Chess Openings | 15738 | 1518.473 |
45. | Live Blitz / Speed Chess - 5-minute chess - https://kingscrusher.tv/blitz3000 - 3000 onwards | 15474 | 1830.9237 |
46. | Wei Yi - https://kingscrusher.tv/weiyi - Chinese Super Chess Grandmaster and Child Prodigy | 15384 | 2842.5094 |
47. | Rashid Nezhmetdinov - https://kingscrusher.tv/nez - Mikhail Tal's trainer - super-dynamic aggressive chess master! | 15286 | 2458.791 |
48. | Live Blitz / Speed Chess - 5-minute chess - 1801-2000 - https://kingscrusher.tv/blitz1801 | 15056 | 1789.8322 |
49. | The Ruy Lopez (Spanish Game) Collection - https://kingscrusher.tv/ruylopez | 14965 | 1631.3864 |
50. | Sicilian Defence: Dragon - https://kingscrusher.tv/dragon - Chess Opening | 14845 | 1478.4363 |

Anyway, maybe these playlists and data are fun for you to be aware of. I thought that maybe I should add friendly URLs to them for sharing - please do share them with friends if you like them :)

I was interviewed recently by the excellent Perpetual Chess podcast with Ben Johnson about the channel and current activities here:

https://youtu.be/Dw1o0opNJ-s

Personal observations, regrets, conclusions, new emerging epiphanies, etc

Perhaps too many blitz videos!

I do wonder if I spent too much time in a lazy way of creating chess videos - especially recording blitz videos. The new professional youtube nowadays probably does best to cover the "big names" e.g. Carlsen, etc. If one does so, then there is no personal ego at stake. Having said that, it does seem that when I do sometimes win against a Titled player especially GM, the views on those videos as one might expect goes up.

The King's Gambit is very popular!

The King's Gambit is one of the real gambits you can get to play quite easily on the board because it starts so early in the game. It is a kind of gateway iconic opening into the so-called "Romantic era" of chess when gambits such as this were in their peak popularity.

The credibility of the gambit is perhaps enhanced by all the crushing victories of Paul Morphy - an unofficial world chess champion of his day. But also other Romantic era players such as Adolf Anderssen also played the King's Gambit with great success. Anderssen played the more standard 2.Nf3 200 times, and 2.f4 106 times. Morphy played 2.Nf3 94 times, and 2.f4 39 times. So in fact Anderssen seems to have more practice with this gambit overall.

The playlist I have is: https://kingscrusher.tv/kingsgambit

Perhaps too many games with the Albin Counter-Gambit!

This seems to be the "bad addiction" within the "bad addiction" of too many blitz videos. For some reason, I thought this gambit was cute or something, and to do this day, still feel compelled to play it.

Although this line seems to be winning for me many games in bullet chess because London system players seem to be on autopilot with:

So from the perspective of beating "auto-pilot" London system players in bullet chess, it does seem to have a good thing going for it.

The playlist for this is: https://kingscrusher.tv/albin

When an opening is given a name, it does not necessarily mean it is great. All that it means really is the opening has been identified!. If there is a big takeaway from this blog, perhaps it is this one. Perhaps in general aspiring chess players with dreams and hopes should beware of named openings where they think the name gives opening credibility. Or even if that Opening was played by World champions - some openings such as the Modern Benoni had their heyday in 1960 when Mikhail Tal became world champion. Today because of computers, and engine scrutiny such openings have largely fallen by the wayside.

The modern Benoni has a weak d6 pawn, and the key strategic break of e5 by White has really torn apart players in many example games.

The playlist I have for this is (not a top 50 playlist): https://kingscrusher.tv/benoni

I am to this day unsure of the Smith-Morra Gambit!

I know Marc Esserman is a big leading exponent and lichess resident. And I know I played the Smith-Morra gambit a lot even before learning of Mark's passion for it. One big advantage is on a non-technical level - it avoids the heavily prepared Sicilian defense player. If you are inside their "pet variation", maybe you will experience a lot of tactical pain from their preparations. Maybe they have a tonne of stem games in the back of their minds and may have even been memorizing critical variations etc.

Doesn't this line just tame the Smith-Morra Gambit?

The engine indicates white might have a small edge here.

Line 0.0
rnbqkbnr/pp1ppppp/8/2p5/4P3/8/PPPP1PPP/RNBQKBNR w KQkq - 0 1
Analysis by Stockfish 14:
1. +/= (0.41): 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 b5 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.Qe2 Qc7 8.0-0 Be7 9.e5 b4 10.Na4
White is slightly better
(Gavriel, 31.10.2021)

Now before you say, I am condemning it just on stats alone - not quite. I am not that technologically determined by engines. But I remember a big lichess tournament, where I was getting nothing but horrid losses in the decline variations of the Smith-Morra, and then I switched to 1.b3 (playing on a mobile phone) - and the wins started occurring!. With 1.b3 you are often guaranteeing more an attacking bishop pointed at the opponent's king - and often a great deal more improvisation needed on the opponent's part. So here is the key comparison question for the attacking player:

Is it better to play 1.b3 or is better to play 1.e4 and if the Sicilian happens risk the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune if the Smith-Morra decline variations are played?

And before you say 1.b3 is pure rubbish, Nakamura did win an ICC prize blitz tournament once with 1.b3 and b6 as black.

https://youtu.be/IDtgBEabVmQ

Anyway, the playlist for my Smith-Morra gambit examples is: https://kingscrusher.tv/smithmorra

Passion for some aggressive dynamic players comes through in certain playlists!

I think my passion for aggressive dynamic players comes through in certain playlists - and these players might not even be world chess champions. Examples include:

• Hikaru Nakamura - https://kingscrusher.tv/nakamura
• Rashid Nezhmetdinov - https://kingscrusher.tv/nez
• Wei Yi - https://kingscrusher.tv/weiyi

I find also quite seriously doing a chess course on Mikhail Tal recently was more exhilarating deep down to me, than covering Tigran Petrosian overall. Although Tigran Petrosian was a tactical monster at times, he chose generally a more conservative risk-free style compared to Mikhail Tal. For me, I think a "passion" within a "passion" for chess, is the dynamic aggressive "risky" players. Not so much the more "universal players" such as Fischer or Capablanca.

Key takeaway points

• It is funny how genuine passion comes through videos - the expression on a face or even just the voice sounding enthusiastic before the time of the web cam - the vibes come through it seems when I am myself genuinely excited - this seems to influence the popularity of some playlists to some extent
• Playlists are a useful resource that let one group related videos together
• There are a lot of chess playlists on my Kingscrusher channel
• I think I take for granted all the videos I have done over the last 14 years. However given the choice of being an Accountant or a Chess Youtuber, I feel I would choose Chess Youtuber in almost all parallel universes except in one's where somehow Accountants have become rock-stars
• I did find it and still find it fun to do chess videos
• The popularity data is interesting perhaps to check out - what does it all really mean - and what is it about the Albin Counter-Gambit which causes both guilt, and a compulsion to keep playing it to this day. These are questions I might not be able to fully answer. It seems to have a new upside recently in beating the London system with 2.Bf4 players rather quickly as they blunder an entire bishop with e3 when pre-moving
• It was really nice to be appreciated with an interview by Perpetual Chess podcast :)

Hope you enjoyed this blog :). Any likes and follows are really appreciated. Also, I also have some interesting chess courses at https://kingscrusher.tv/chesscourses to check out.

Cheers, K