Chess Commentators

So my options for watching the Olympiad at the moment are Svidler/Leko, Neiskins/Santoramo and Polgar/Marin. I don't understand why these are all English language broadcasts and there isn't a single native English speaker among the six.

I'm sorry, but I just can't handle listening to some of their accents and the way they butcher the language. It's just too distracting. Svidler is the best of them and even he keeps saying beeshop and seeks. I don't understand how such intelligent people with money can't find a good teacher and improve their accent. I teach kids and adults English as a second language and almost all of them have a better accent than these grandmaster geniuses.

Santoramo is just awful. It's like she doesn't know the present simple tense exists and her exuberance is just mentally exhausting. And Leko has just a terrible, terrible accent. Does he really not know that bishop isn't pronounced beeeshop? Is it really that hard to say bishop correctly?

Anyway, it seems like I'm the only one that's bothered by all of this. Where is Yasser, where is Jennifer, where is Danya, here is Maurice, where is Jeffery? 

Svidler and Leko are more knowledgeable than Yasser, Jennifer, Danya, Maurice, or Jeffery. 

I don't think they are more knowledgeable than Yasser or maybe even Danya and Jeffery. But even if they are having knowledge isn't everything. There are many viewers like myself who are not very good players, but just enjoy watching chess tournaments. 90% of the viewers aren't titled players. There is Polish coverage of the Olympiad. And coverage in other languages. Why can't the English language coverage be done by native English speakers? 

#1 it's Santeramo, maybe you should learn spelling before critcizing meaningless things like accent

Personally I never found the accents to be much of a problem, although I do agree that it would be nice to have a native English speaker. 

Commentators for the Olympiad are sleep inducing.

He wants to have seeks with the beeshop? 

Doesn't The Church frown on that sort of thing?

Judging from heestory… no. 

Idaho Russets and Yukon Golds are fairly common taters. 

Yasser was a commentator for the first few games of the Olympiad. If you don't like the accents just mute the sound.

I like Danya’s commentary

Dimitri, hands down, legs up.

I couldn't care less about the accents myself, but I understand if that's one of your priorities and it causes issues. (I'm familiar with Russian and Hungarian accents, so it's like hearing someone from Boston or whatever for me).

I think Leko and Svindler have, unquestionably, the highest-quality analysis and commentary, but I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who wasn't at least a bit into chess. They aren't going for entertainment value, it's what I'd call a "kibitzing" stream. That works for some, but not others.

If that's not you, go for whoever's the most entertaining. Definitely give Chessbase India a try. Danya is brilliant, and has no slavic or Russian accent to deal with. I'd go with one of those two, but this is a very personal choice.

I hope everyone is as thankful as I am that we've had so many options. That is, inarguably, fantastic. 

I would rather hear Einstein explain relativity in his strange accent than an Oxford professor.

Somebody listened to me. Danya was on today.!!!!! LOL 

It's not so much the general accent, but the way non-native speakers throughout the world aren't taught how to say the "i" in words like six, big, with, his, city, etc.

When I teach my students that's one of the first things I stress. When people say "Warsaw ees a beeg seety" it drives me absolutely crazy. And when intelligent grandmasters speak that way I just find it too annoying to listen to. Even Svidler who has a great accent in English makes that mistake. Beeshop to b seeks. Aaaaarrrgghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I might be on my own here but I thoroughly enjoyed Neiksans commentary… it’s my first time watching chess live. I was pretty happy when Yasser was commentating on the first couple of days and saw that Neiksans couldn’t understand his humour… they weren’t connecting with each other.

But once Yasser went on holidays and Arturs was leading the analysis he came out of his shell and the quality of his analysis was amazing. I felt I learned a lot from Arturs Neiksans from this Olympiad and I’m now going to watch some of his other streams.

Yasser is also great on his own (and was my favourite chess YouTuber before this). But Arturs and Yasser together. Nope.

Also… I found when Yasser was commenting there was too much focus on USA Team but I guess that stopped being the centre of attention the more they failed in the tournament. Maybe that doesn’t have anything to do with Yasser.

I have no idea why this bothers you, it doesn't matter one bit. But to each her own.

 

I agree with all of this. And Danya and Neiksans were great together today.