is mike kummer really bad at chess or just have many haters?

i was watching chess videos with mike kummer on YouTube. he seems like a good player but many ppl in the comments say hes a horrible teacher and that his advice is bad.

He's 1700 so... yeah. Some things he knows, and some things he'll be clueless.

Ideally you have a master to teach beginners, but it's not like 1700 is so bad.

Anyway, so my answer is it's somewhere inbetween. He's not particularly bad or good. I have seen him say some dumb things, but some of the things people have raged about in comment sections have been totally fine.

all I remember from Mike Kummer is "If you play the ruy lopez, play the exchange variation, or else just play the italian game"

He's certainly not a strong player. That said, a lot of what he says that is wrong or just plain stupid is because of him as a person, not his chess knowledge. I don't think he's the brightest spark...

                                                                                                               Oups!  I'm sorry. That was a typo

Glad you joined Chess.com. A lot of people like your videos for the Saint Louis Chess Club. I enjoyed the 1000th video the other day.

The 1000th Video : A collection of the funniest moments from the previous 999.

Is there a way to verify this is him? Seems kind of random. 

He was in fact the 1998 MO Scholastic Champion, according to the Saint Louis Chess Club site.

His Ruy Lopez video on the SLCC youtube channel is still the worst chess video I've ever seen.  Still don't know if he was serious or trolling...why would SLCC even allow someone to teach others such blatantly stupid ideas?  

hes as retarded as fischer

I am sure he is enjoying your welcome...

You really think thats him?  Its clearly a troll.  

Not even close.  

So the question becomes, would a troll have access to this information?

Never heard of him until now, so I looked up the YouTube video on the Ruy Lopez.  It was no use to me.  I could have revised Fischer's games with the Exchange Ruy, looked at what GlIgorich had to say about it, and checked out recent developments in a database in less time than he described the first four moves.   confess that I also found his slow, drawling voice annoying too.

But the video is not meant for experienced players. 

It is aimed at beginners.  Maybe it is appropriate at that level.  I don't think it should be automatically dismissed.  He has clearly put a lot of effort into his videos and they may well work for players at a fairly low level of skill.

And let us face it, the teachings of IMs and GMs don't seem to help beginners much.  It is possible that someone closer to a novice's skill level can teach them better.

Exactly.

I made a well thought out post in #2, and said the same things lol.

   Now we have 2 threads about him.                                                                          https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/wheres-he-from