14 votes

The Grandmaster who got Twitch hooked on chess: Hikaru Nakamura is the top-ranked blitz chess player in the world—and his channel has seen a meteoric rise as he coaches streamers in the ancient game

4 comments

  1. [3]
    tunneljumper
    Link
    PS the funniest video I've watched all week: Pogchamps tournament, cr1tikal checkmates Nakamura-mentored xqc in six moves
    8 votes
    1. cfabbro
      (edited )
      Link Parent
      cr1tikal's video on the win, where you can hear his commentary from while it's happening, and all the blanked out parts from the chess.com video, is pretty damn funny too:...

      cr1tikal's video on the win, where you can hear his commentary from while it's happening, and all the blanked out parts from the chess.com video, is pretty damn funny too:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekMVSQBlSOo

      6 votes
  2. viridian
    Link
    Just started playing chess after watching a bunch of Chess streams. Once you know basic theory, the game becomes about 100x more fun than I remember it as a kid/teen. It's simple knowledge stuff...

    Just started playing chess after watching a bunch of Chess streams. Once you know basic theory, the game becomes about 100x more fun than I remember it as a kid/teen. It's simple knowledge stuff that changes how you think about the game, like never having your knight up against a wall, doing your damnedest to control the center four tiles, the inherent value of diagonal rows of pawns, and how rooks are super slow to become active, but generally determine the fate of the game (draw vs. checkmate).

    I always thought Chess was too freeform and memorization based as a kid, but playing in the beginner's brackets has really sold me on chess as a fun little competitive hobby.

    7 votes