Chess has been booming since the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit” and the corona pandemic. But the world chess association FIDE has slept through the latest trends, explains the most well-known chess streamer Levy Rozman, aka “Gothamchess” in an interview with Sportschau.
The 2023 World Chess Championship will take place in Kazakhstan from April 7th – without the superstar and world number one Magnus Carlsen. The five-time champion couldn’t pull himself together to defend his title again. “I’m just not motivated enough to play another World Cup. I don’t have much to win. And while I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons, I don’t feel like it and won’t be playing.”the Norwegian explained his motives in a podcast by a betting provider.
In Astana, Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi (competing under a neutral flag) and China’s Ding Liren will battle it out for the world title. “Nepo” lost the 2021 World Cup final against Magnus Carlsen after a few mistakes, Ding Liren could become the first Chinese world chess champion. But the absence of Carlsen, the “GOAT”, the “Greatest of All Time” casts a shadow over the finals.
Booming online market
Meanwhile, Carlsen devoted himself more and more to online chess – also as a businessman. The apps and websites of the “Play Magnus Group”, which he co-founded, dominate the digital chess market. Chess is booming on the internet – and not just since the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit”. Many people started playing chess online during the Corona pandemic. In February 2023, a chess app took first place among the games in Apple’s App Store for the first time. Carlen’s allegations of fraud against US talent Hans Niemann also recently made headlines and attracted further attention.
Levy Rozman, aka “Gothamchess”, is one of the most well-known chess streamers on the web. The New Yorker feels the growing interest in his channels. At first he streamed in front of 80 people on Twitch, now more than 3.5 million people follow him on YouTube – and the trend is rising. Above all, short upright clips on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube Shorts have boosted his number of followers in recent months. Interest in chess has grown so much that many of the major platforms’ servers have recently gone down.
Streamer Levy “Gothamchess” Rozman
Increased interest in chess
“I think January 2023 was the greatest month chess has ever had”explains Rozman in the Sportschau interview. “And I say that even though after Queen’s Gambit I thought it couldn’t be beaten. How can you compete with a Netflix series that has been watched by hundreds of millions of people, about 60 million households? As it turns out, “There was more going on. It’s going down again, but right now chess interest is still about 10 times what it was in 2021 or 2022 in terms of daily views, subscribers and all.” Also thanks to the viral upright videos “Many millions more people around the world are now playing chess.” He speaks of “latest chess boom”.
Chess is developing more and more into an eSport – but its development is not yet over, sees “Gothamchess”: “Many video games are already successful. Games like ‘Hearthstone’ or ‘League of Legends’ can sell out some of the biggest arenas in the world, such as the Madison Square Garden. I mean, you go to Madison Square Garden to see the New York Knicksthe New York Rangers and see boxes. But you can also go there apparently to watch ‘League of Legends’. Maybe the day will come when chess can sell out a 20,000 person arena, which would be crazy. It would be totally insane. But we still have a long way to go to get there.”
World Association has some catching up to do
While chess has evolved online in recent years, classic chess on the board has stagnated, as evidenced by the organization of the 2023 World Championship tournament, Rozman says. In the weeks before the big tournament, there would be little information about the event. Marketing has some catching up to do. The prize money has not changed for 30 years. The world chess federation FIDE has overslept the trends, the 27-year-old thinks.
“Yeah, I think historically that’s because the best chess players haven’t made that transition to social media and a big following. They haven’t made that transition to what’s needed in the eSports world done. I think that top-level professional chess and the chess boom are on two different planets when you look at the World Championship.”