As a service aimed at helping our subscribers improve your understanding of chess, as well as your enjoyment, I would like to make a few remarks about the way we label each lecture as being “beginner,” “intermediate,” or “advanced.”
In reality, there are things to be learned from every lecture, for every level of player, regardless of the main level for which the lecture is primarily aimed.
GM Yasser Seirawan first put an explanation of this into words for me, in the mid-1980s, as he spent several years creating his “Pro Chess Video Chess Mentor” video series for an experienced publisher of training videos. In every lecture, there are points of information which viewers are “ready to learn”, while some points can be taken for granted (such as when an advanced player pays no attention to the fact that in the Scotch Game, of course the number of attacks and defenses are equal when White plays 3.d4), and other points may be so “advanced” that we are not ready to really focus on them yet – but if we come back and watch the same video after improving further, we can feel like we are hearing this advanced comment for the very first time, because now we are “ready” to hear it.
This week we have lectures on strategy, openings and tactics. All of these lectures are intermediate – but in keeping with the above, please note that Friday’s description mentions information aimed at beginners, too. Whether such things are mentioned or not, though, they are almost always there.