Why Chess is cool again – why Twitch is a Kingmaker –
and why future chess grandmasters might look like her:
The Skinny:
- Chess reinvented itself as an esports on Twitch with PogChamps: a tournament featuring popular streamers
- Huge audiences tuned in to watch their favourite video game streamers learn to play chess; the result was 20 million hours of chess watched
- TV changed the way sports were played; so has Twitch changed chess forever
Why Chess is Cool Again: Because Cool Streamers Played It
Two weeks ago, a quarter of a million people watched a chess match – possibly the most public interest in Chess since the Cold War.
Or maybe, people were tuning in to watch a League of Legends pro play a veteran video game streamer on Twitch.tv for $50,000.
It was the finals of PogChamps 2, a tournament sponsored by Chess.com. 16 popular Twitch streamers/YouTube content creators/Internet personalities were given three weeks to prepare for the tournament, with pro players as chess coaches.
They were all new to chess, but what they did have were followers and audiences. The competitors included such diverse names as Twitch/Overwatch phenomenon xQc, poker pro EasyWithAces, YouTube talk radio host David Pakman, and for some reason The Mountain from Game of Thrones (??).
After three gruelling weeks (and a thousand hours of chess streamed) the winner was Hafu, a veteran streamer since 2012 with close to 800,000 followers on Twitch. She’d proven herself at the top level of popular video games/esports like World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and Teamfight Tactics.
And now, she’d not only added chess to her repertoire, but catapulted Chess onto front page of Twitch.
All of a sudden, chess wasn’t a boring, complicated game played by old men and James Bond Villains.
Chess became esports: a game you played with your friends, something you watched streams of, a community with Reddits and Discords and streamers and memes.
Chess broke into the top 20 games on Twitch – the 1,500 year old game sitting alongside big-budget bestsellers like League of Legends and Fortnite. Chess became a spectator sport to rival the World Cup or the Olympics; In the last 30 days, viewers watched 20 million hours of chess on Twitch.
Chess is cool again.
Twitch is a Kingmaker – and may change games forever
Is a game popular because many people play it, or do many people play a game because it’s popular?
You may have heard people talking about Among Us, a simple social deduction/sabotage game. It was released in 2018 to little fanfare but has suddenly exploded into popularity as streamers started playing it together with other streamers.
Just like Among Us, ASMR and low-fi chill hop beats, chess became an Internet obsession. When Cardi B does ASMR or Will Smith launches lo-fi beats, is it popular people getting on a popular trend, or the other way around?
The first PogChamps was a huge success for Chess.com; PogChamps 2 coincided with the explosion of Chess all over Twitch. Already, Twitch has left its mark on Chess. Magnus Carlsen is the current world champion, but you’re more likely to know the name of Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura.
GM Hikaru was the first professional chess player signed to an esports organisation; maybe because he was the youngest American to earn the title of Grandmaster, or possibly because he has 500,000 followers on Twitch.
Or you might have read about ‘the Botez Gambit’ – a daring chess stratagem named after popular chess streamer Alexandra Botez.
For centuries, chess openings and gambits have been named after obscure 16th-century priests or historical Russian chess scholars. Today, you can watch a YouTube of people playing the Botez Gambit 39 times against Botez herself, then watch her fail on a Twitch dating show. Botez – and PogChamps – may be the reason a new generation learn to play chess.
Both these chess pros had been building up steam for chess on Twitch. Don’t take my word for it – check out Hikaru’s recent interviews in The New York Times, The Verge, The Next Web and more. Botez herself was featured on NBC and Yahoo News.
Twitch has helped these chess pros reach audiences and turned them into celebrities; it has also made chess more accessible – and no doubt made Chess.com a lot of money.
Twitch means viewers, viewers mean money – and pandering
I like NPR’s How I Built This – a podcast interviewing founders, innovators, and people who created multimillion dollar brands and businesses. I was extremely amused when the latest episode featured Pokimane, one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. She talked a lot about how she built an audience, and that audience later helped her launched her own business and brand later.
Here’s how you know chess has really become an esport, with an audience worth sponsorship money. GM Hikaru was involved in Twitch drama, and been accused of selling out the venerated game of chess for bits and subs. Secret Lab, the popular chair for gamers, has partnered up with Chess.com. There was even a fantasy football contest for PogChamps.
The game of chess has also changed. When Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov, the game was over in 19 moves – but it took over an hour to play. These days, Hikaru, Botez and most chess streamers play Blitz chess — three minutes each — a format much more suitable for bite-sized games and Twitch highlights.
And when Chess streamers take a break from broadcasting, they play lighthearted, simpler games like Among Us and Fall Guys – like every other streamer on Twitch
Chess pros like Anna Rudolf, Eric Rosen and even Grandmaster Ben Finegold have a second career as YouTube content creators slash Twitch streamers. They vlog on YouTube, play chess against subscribers, and even commentate on chess competitions.
Broadcast television changed the colour of the tennis ball and the way golf matches were scored. More people watch the Super Bowl halftime show than the game itself. The introduction of TV sponsorship money transformed college basketball & football into media industries in the United States. Twitch streaming has already changed Chess – what else is next?
For me, I regard the PogChamps tournament as a brilliant (!!) move by Chess.com