How I Learned to Appreciate GM Ben Finegold
The Power of Storytelling in Chess Education
It took me a while to appreciate GM Ben Finegold’s unique teaching style. At first, I found him arrogant and even a bit annoying. To be clear, I only knew him from his YouTube videos, and my initial impression wasn’t exactly great.
But as I got deeper into chess and started to understand his way of explaining things, I really began to appreciate him—both his analyses and his teaching methods.
The way he presents chess, especially to kids, is incredible. He is a storyteller. And yes, even a "kid" like me—despite being 52 years old—finds his explanations engaging.
Screenshot from one of his YouTube videos.
It’s not rare to be a storyteller, but when it comes to chess videos, many can feel dry, and I often struggle to retain the information. GM Finegold, on the other hand, has a unique way of explaining moves—especially to kids, but also to adults. His use of sound effects like "buuu" and his well-crafted catchphrases make his lessons not only fun but also memorable.
He understands the art of capturing attention. He connects almost every move to a story or personal moment, making it much harder to forget.
Why Your Brain Loves Stories: Insights from Make It Stick
After I read the book Make It Stick I realized and understood how storytelling and giving things meaning make it more memorable.
The cover of Make It Stick.
Here are a few bullet points from the book to explain this a little bit better:
How Storytelling Helps Memory:
Creates Meaning & Connection
The brain remembers concepts better when they are connected to a narrative. Instead of isolated facts, stories provide a logical sequence that makes the information easier to understand and recall.
Engages Emotion
Emotionally charged stories are more likely to be remembered. This is because emotions activate multiple brain areas, strengthening memory formation.
Provides Structure & Context
Information in a story follows a cause-and-effect sequence, helping learners predict outcomes and relate new knowledge to what they already know.
Improves Retrieval Practice
When recalling information, it's easier to reconstruct a story than to recall scattered facts. A well-told story serves as a framework that naturally cues memory.
Practical Takeaways:
When learning or teaching, frame concepts within a story.
Use personal experiences or historical events to anchor facts.
Incorporate emotions, stakes, and consequences in the story to enhance memory.
When learning something new, think of a real-world example or a personal experience that relates to it.
Instead of memorizing random facts, build them into a story with logical progression.
Stories with emotions—whether surprise, fear, or humor—activate multiple brain areas, strengthening memory.
When teaching or explaining something, frame it as a personal anecdote.
After learning something, try explaining it as a story to someone else or writing it down in narrative form.
Create exaggerated, silly, or vivid mental stories to remember abstract concepts.
This aligns with the broader research on cognitive science, showing that we are wired to remember narratives more effectively than abstract information
The Smarter Way to Study Openings Without Wasting Time
I have now changed my approach to studying openings. I’ve quit drilling responses to weird, low-rated moves that I often encounter in my games. And since I’m a low-rated player, I see a lot of them.
It simply took up too much of my time, and I see no point in memorizing a move that might appear once in a thousand games. It just made my chess life unnecessarily complicated.
An image of my brain working overtime trying to remember all the sidelines.
Instead, I’m doing what I should have done a long time ago—I’m keeping things simple. Now, I only study mainlines and ideas, and it has made my life so much easier. My method for studying openings is straightforward:
I already have all my games in a database in ChessBase, so I can easily see which moves are most common.
I also check the games of 2500+ rated players to identify where I deviate from the main lines.
To find games with video annotations, I use a website/app called Chessvision.ai, which allows me to search for videos based on moves, openings, and specific YouTube channels.
If I’m lucky, I find multiple videos covering the same game—usually a top-level game—which I then use as a model game.
I like watching the same game from different videos to get different perspectives.
I create a ChessBase file with the game or opening, adding my own explanations in my own words—this really helps make it stick.
Finally, I take my selected model games and upload them to Chessable to reinforce my memory and learn the game move by move.
The more I understand the moves, the easier they are to remember, along with the middlegame plans and ideas.
Besides that, my chess coach told me that I already know a lot about my openings and that my main problems don’t usually arise in the opening phase of the game. Instead, I should focus more on tactics and other areas of improvement. So, I try to study openings this way—even though it might seem time-consuming—because I feel it is the most effective approach for me and allows me to spend more time focusing on other areas of the game.
And finally, here are some useful links.
Ben Finegold's YouTube pages.
Ben Finegold on Wikipedia.
Make It Stick: The Science of Successful Learning.
The ChessVision app.
I hope you never play f6!