The PogChamps tournament series hosted by is possibly the peak of the game’s dominance on Twitch this year, which saw popular streamers like Félix “xQc” Lengyel and MoistCr1tikal compete for a $50,000 prize pool. It’s not how you get new players into the game.” That tournament coverage exists but it’s really only for experienced players. "No one wants to watch a super long, six hour classical tournament on Twitch. “I think speed chess is more interesting to watch, which is one of the reasons why chess is blowing up so much recently," Andrew adds. You have to be good at chess to play speed chess. “It’s completely unreasonable to not call it real chess. But it’s just a bit of a different skillset in my opinion,” Andrew says. So you’ve got a lot of these older players who think speed chess isn’t real chess because it’s not as deep, not as correct, you don’t have as much time to think. “Lots of older people started playing when Bobby Fischer became world champion, especially in America. Read more: Chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen reveals honourable reason for resigning after mis-click.Among the chess community however, there’s often debate, and purist snobbery, over whether speed chess should be valued equally next to traditional chess. With matches over in a few minutes, it’s become the most popular form of chess for online streaming. This means players have to analyse and respond with lightning reactions, working just as much against the clock as an opponent’s mind. Unlike traditional chess which allows lengthy periods to analyse the board, Bullet chess is a variant on blitz chess which gives players three minutes or less in total move time (with faster variations called hyperbullet and ultrabullet). At aged eight, he started playing chess online against people around the world, where he developed a particular skill and passion for Bullet chess. Hopefully I can bring more exposure to them, and to young kids at the tournaments.”Īndrew started playing aged four when he joined a chess class in pre-school taught by a parent. I have no idea how older people will react. “Wearing my Cloud9 jersey to tournaments is definitely going to stick out. I completely want to be a part of that, so there was no way I was going to say no. I’ve been watching Twitch and these kinds of things for a long time, so it’s really cool to see esports organisations getting involved with chess. I definitely didn’t need that much convincing. “I was extremely excited as soon as contacted me. “It’s just you vs your opponent and nothing else. “It’s the ultimate individual mind game,” Andrew tells GINX TV. With over 30,000 followers on Twitch and 15.8k YouTube subscribers, he’s one of the most popular chess streamers, who hopes signing with an esports organisation can bring chess to a wider audience. This was followed by the high-profile acquisition of Hikaru Nakamura to Team SoloMid, a five-time US champion who started 2020 as the number one blitz chess player in the world.Īndrew “penguingm1” Tang, 21, was subsequently signed by Cloud9. Counter Logic Gaming signed Qiyu Zhou back in August becoming the first esport organisation to sign a chess grandmaster. This boost in popularity has ricocheted into interest from esports organisations too. While Netflix’s critically-acclaimed drama, released in October, likely contributed to this increase, it’s a trend seemingly sparked by COVID-19 lockdowns around the world - peaking in June with 12.6 million hours watched on the platform. On Twitch, over 8 million hours of chess were watched in November 2020 alone - a massive jump from 1.13 million the previous year (via Twitch Tracker).
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