Best Chess, board games & puzzles videos, as recommended on Hacker News

18 videos about chess, board games & puzzles that Hacker News commenters keep recommending, mentioned between 2009 and 2026. Mostly demo, explainer, tutorial. Channels that come up most: suckerpinch, John Bartholomew, Google DeepMind, Veritasium. Sorted by how consistently HN recommended them over the years.

The most recommended is AlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentary: HN commenters call it a moving, well-made human story about AI and Go that works for non-technical viewers and does not date.

documentaryAlphaGo - The Movie | Full award-winning documentaryGoogle DeepMind · 10 HN recommenders · 2020–2025
demoComputer program that learns to play classic NES gamessuckerpinch · 9 HN recommenders · 2015–2025
explainerThe Expert MythVeritasium · 6 HN recommenders · 2022–2026
explainer30 Weird Chess Algorithms: Elo Worldsuckerpinch · 8 HN recommenders · 2019–2026
demoTom Scott vs Irving Finkel: The Royal Game of Ur | PLAYTHROUGH | International Tabletop Day 2017The British Museum · 6 HN recommenders · 2019–2025
tutorialClimbing the Rating Ladder: Up to 1000John Bartholomew · 4 HN recommenders · 2015–2023
lectureChess Fundamentals #1: Undefended PiecesJohn Bartholomew · 3 HN recommenders · 2017–2021
demoInfinite Mario AI - Long LevelRobin Baumgarten · 3 HN recommenders · 2009–2012
talkLichess founder Thibault Duplessis lectures on Lichess (2017)Lichess · 3 HN recommenders · 2020–2022
explainerI Solved Klotski2swap · 3 HN recommenders · 2025–2026
demoI Built a COMPUTER in Magic: The GatheringBecause Science · 3 HN recommenders · 2019–2026
explainerAlpha Zero's "Immortal Zugzwang Game" against Stockfishagadmator's Chess Channel · 2 HN recommenders · 2019–2025
tutorialA simple trick to design your own solutions for Rubik's cubesMathologer · 3 HN recommenders · 2019–2022
demoLongplay: The Incredible Machine (1993) [MS-DOS]Dosgamert · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2024
commentaryHow AlphaZero Completely CRUSHED StockfishGothamChess · 1 HN recommender · 2021–2022
explainerThe Unbeatable Game from the 60s: Dr NIMStand-up Maths · 1 HN recommender · 2016–2023
lectureFeynman :: Rules of Chessdefjam99b · 1 HN recommender · 2011–2023
demoDerren Brown vs 9 Chess PlayersDerren Brown · 1 HN recommender · 2019–2022