Brace yourselves – chess is becoming cool again.
Chess Grandmaster is growing rapidly on Twitch, currently sitting at over 230,000 followers and averaging around 15,000 concurrent viewers as of this week. He has a storied career in professional chess, achieving 5 US championshi꧂p titles alongside a peak worldwide rating of #2 via 2015 FIDE ratings. But isn't the only reason why he is becoming so popular.
Destiny commented on the matter on Tra🌊inwrecks' podcast. After giving the game of chess a backhanded compliment, he praised Hikaru, stating, "that dude is really funny – really entertaining. He networks with people. I think you could get literally any game to go big on Twitch if you had the right name behind it." After viewing the Grandmaster's broadcas♔ts, Destiny's remarks appear quite accurate.
Hikaru's streams are captivating. Aud𝓡ience members don't n🔴ecessarily have to be interested in chess to enjoy his content, despite the game always being its central element. This is largely due to Hikaru's likability. He operates his streams with high levels of chat interactivity, going along with current memes and frequently viewing clips that are offered up. He also received a large amount of exposure by .
Hikaru's recent success has been generally on the platform. Except for certain colleagues in 📖the chess field, that is.
Ben Finegold is another chess Grandmaster with a particularly strong personality. 📖Clearly, he's not too happy with Hikaru's success and collaborative nature with other Twitch personalities. Hikaru, however, has been a vocal critic of chess elitism. Despite his skill, he's done a great job staying humble and handles feedback well.
Sure, Hikaru is a bit geeky and quirky, but his self-awareness and ability to roll with humor has earned him a loyal fanbase. In fact, the chess player is quite fond of the prospect of being a full-time streamer. He's already amassed over 5000 subscribers (plenty of fina🔯ncial stability) and remarked that Twitch streaming just might be h🍃is "calling in life."
Hopefully, Hikaru continues to bring chess into the mainstream on Twitch. It's great to see so much interest generated around a classic, over-the-board game. With any luck, we'll continue to see more talented creators bring whoꩲlesome, diverse content to the platform.
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