Behind The Scenes At The FIDE World Championship (And Other Stories)

Mick

Jun 29, 2023, 6:00 AM | 81 | Other

WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili is a professional chess player, streamer, and commentator born in Georgia. She is heavily involved in nearly all aspects of the chess world, and most recently moderated the 2023 FIDE World Championship.

We had the chance to talk to Keti about her origins as a young chess player, the importance of chess in Georgia, and the many considerations to take into account when moderating the world’s most important chess match.

You earned the WGM title in 2011 and were an established part of the chess world long before you joined Twitch. When and why did you decide to start streaming chess?

I started to stream chess less than two years ago. The reason why I started was that I was doing a lot of commentary, and then I understood that people watching at home didn't know me. They had no idea who I was. When I was doing commentary and my co-host was a streamer, I could see how many people were supporting them... but there was no one for me in the chat!

It might sound a bit ridiculous, but when you're working for hours and hours—sometimes commentary can last for five or six hours—and you're so focused, sometimes it’s so good to know that there is someone who supports you.

Now we have this theme of crocodiles; every time there's a crocodile emoji in the chat, I know that's someone from my chat. It’s a little thing but it can make me smile and can make my day really happy. I like that.

Who are some of your own personal favorite chess streamers or content creators, and why?

It’s hard to name just one chess YouTuber, streamer, or any chess account. I see it as teamwork involving all of us, and at the end of the day, it's about creating an attraction for the viewers so we have more people enjoying chess. So I see it as a chain process: someone does that work to attract people, it then goes to the other platform, it goes to the other, and then it also comes to me!

All of us get the benefit out of this process, and I think streamers like Hikaru, GothamChess, BotezLive, those are the big ones who just kicked it off and inspired us all to start doing something similar. I think I would say them but there are also lots of great smaller creators, and this chain reaction is a benefit for chess in general, and for all of us; that’s how I see it.

The look before & after long day of #chess 🫣😸 pic.twitter.com/vctk8qXGpb
— Keti Tsatsalashvili (@keti_chess) October 16, 2022

How do you balance your career as a chess player with streaming and making content?

It’s very difficult! It takes so much energy and emotion, especially sometimes when things are not going that well. Life is beautiful, but not always, right? You have some challenges in life and sometimes it's hard to put things together and start talking and smiling.

But a stream is your own space that you're creating and you can just be yourself. You can talk about your problems, you can talk about your challenges, you can talk about your successful days, it's up to you.

The streams that I was doing from this last World Championship match I think had a very good balance for viewers on my channel and the general public. After the official part of my moderating, I was going to my channel and just described how I was feeling. It was really hard to be honest because you have to work the next day as well, and also we cannot show too much of our emotions, but I found a good balance in that.

I'm not very friendly with the technical points of streaming. I'm still struggling with the technicalities; I would also like to stream, for instance, my real-life games, but it's just very difficult for me to handle that with equipment like microphones or making sure the internet is always working.

You did an amazing job moderating the questions and interviewing GM Ding Liren at the FIDE World Championship match. What was the experience like for you?

Oh, it was really tough! There was so much tension that sometimes I could hear the players breathing because they were so close. We spent so much time together. After a while, I could just read their mind by their movements, by their look, by their breathing, what they liked, what they didn’t like… I think we had good communication between the three of us that the viewers couldn’t necessarily see.

When it's live, the viewers only see one camera, one person per time. But they don't see what happens between us off-camera, or what happens between the other two of us when one person is talking. A lot of very interesting things were happening there.

But what I should say is that I felt so much respect from the players, for me and for each other, that was the key in these press conferences. They were very polite to each other, they were funny in a way, they were sometimes moody in a way, but hey, that's normal; I don’t judge anyone, and they do what they have to do.

I think it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. It was really a super match, and I was in the middle between these two players! How many interesting things were happening there, all these details, I loved it.

A lot of people asked me if I was nervous, but I was enjoying the moment so much that when it was a free day, it was a really sad thing for me! I wanted to be there and get all these emotions from the audience and the players. The only really nervous moment for me was the opening… This tension before the game, so many cameras, silence, this big group, everything.

What are some of the considerations you have to keep in mind when talking to the players in such a high-stress environment?

There were a lot of things. First of all, in terms of my approach in the match—and I was repeating this all the time for the livestreams—people were asking me “Who do you support?”, or “Who do you like?” This question was formulated in many ways, sometimes directly, sometimes in a sneaky way!

My approach was very simple: don't even think about that question, because if you start to think, of course you're gonna have a side. And when you have a side, it is so visible, you can't hide it.

So I couldn't allow myself to choose a side as it might somehow affect either of the players. I don't think someone who is allowed to get so close to the player at that moment should do that. At that moment actually, they have security and teams around them, so no one can really approach them. I always did my best to totally avoid any personal contact with the players.

For instance, there was one moment when I was going to the gym in the morning; the one time! I was waiting by the elevator. As it opens, I’m going to walk in, I’m very happy, finally a gym day, and then I see Ding Liren and his mother in the elevator. I was like oh, you guys can go, I’ll wait! Not to have too much contact or whatever. And then Ding said, no, it’s fine, you can join. There were these kinds of small moments, but nothing more than that.

Of course, I wanted to create an atmosphere in the press room where they would feel very comfortable and confident. I didn't want them to feel like I was attacking them in any way, like by asking spicy questions or very personal questions and so on.

Creating a good atmosphere was my approach as a moderator. There was also the press, who could ask a lot of questions. Of course, myself, I'm very curious, but I will not ask these things because I don't think I should ask that in my role; but if someone asks from the audience then it’s totally fine.

There was this question about pink shirts… I think that's one of the most iconic moments from the tournament. And I wanted someone to ask this question because there were so many pink shirts, right?!

I thought maybe I can push a little bit, and when the answer was a strict no, I was like, okay. That's fine! I think that was a really funny moment. A lot of people asked me afterward if I felt bad about Ian’s response—if I felt like it was too rude or anything, but I think it was one of the funniest moments from the tournament.

The questions are there to be asked; some of the questions can be good, some of the questions can be not so good, but I think what matters is just if the person is answering. If they want to answer the question they will, but they also have the right to just skip the question.

People also don’t necessarily need to be professional journalists to ask a question. If you want to know what one of the players ate for dinner, it's fine. It is totally okay to ask these questions and sometimes when you have these kinds of silly questions it leads to these interesting moments that stay on the internet.

You mentioned that the cameras only capture a small part of everything that’s happening. Do you have any favorite behind-the-scenes stories from the World Championship?

This is something actually very personal, which I can share because I think a lot of people actually saw it and this is my own perspective on it. The last day was incredibly hard for everyone, certainly for Nepo [GM Ian Nepomniachtchi]. It hurts. And then for Ding actually, you couldn’t say that he was the happiest person in that moment either. He was so tired, and also very emotional.

When the game ended, when I was seeing the last moment, all of us thought it could be a draw. And I had my notes, I put down “draw” actually, and I was already preparing the form for the Blitz portion…

Suddenly, it just escalated and everybody in the press room, hundreds of people, were just staring in silence. I think my eyes were so big and I was just thinking, oh my God, what's happening? Like, you don't see the game. I don't even remember how the game ended. I just remember the emotions and thinking that’s it, that's the end.

The moment that Ding walked into the room, there was a lot of applause, and a lot of tears as well. That was the hardest day for me to hold everything together; it would have been so bad to cry! But it’s hard when you're seeing all these emotions so close, especially if you have been in their shoes once in your life, which I’m sure all chess players have. All professional chess players have lost out on important titles and you know the pain at that moment.

So Ding is here with his team, everybody happy, laughing, crying, all these emotions together… and then on the other side, there's no Nepo. He's not appearing. Eventually, I heard some applause from outside and knew that Nepo was coming. You could hear people clapping and shouting their encouragement. It was so hard to see him walk in, as a person who just lost a title. He sat down and when I announced that the 17th world champion was Ding Liren I saw a lot of people in the audience start to cry.

It was hard to find a balance and be understanding to Ian Nepomniachtchi and be happy for Ding Liren… and while I was thinking about all of this I asked Ding how he was feeling, and he said “I want to cry” and I remember thinking to myself “You just need to ask this next question very fast and get through it!” because I could barely talk. I’m a super emotional person, and when there’s so many emotions all around you… It was hard even for me, so I cannot imagine what was going on in their minds at that point.

Georgia has a very strong chess culture. What was it like to grow up in Georgia, and how would you describe the cultural significance of chess in the country?

When I say that I’m from Georgia, people usually go “Oh… so what’s wrong with your accent?”, thinking I’m from the United States. Then I have to explain that it’s a very small country in the Caucasus region.

If you want to describe the country, it would be food, wine, and chess history. Chess is super popular there. We have two legendary chess players: Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze. They are so famous that when you say “Nona” or "Maia", everybody in Georgia knows who you’re talking about without any context. You can imagine how much they have contributed to chess and to Georgia.

As a kid, I had access to talk and even play with them, Nona and Maia, and I would never realize how awesome that was. We had this kind of tradition; every time there was a tournament where I met Nona, I would take a selfie together. When I posted these and people saw that I had all these selfies with Nona, they told me I was so lucky to have these moments. That was actually when I realized how privileged I was to be around them!

They are both so competitive; you can learn so much from them. In fact, the reason I’m in the chess world right now is because of them. My grandmother was a huge fan of theirs, she loves to play chess; she has an account on Chess.com and plays every day!

She very much loved to play chess but she was very busy with work. I was the only girl in the family and she had always wanted to have a daughter to teach how to play chess; I was the first granddaughter, and from the moment I was born, it was already decided. So I’m super grateful for those two legends; they’re the reason that I’ve been in the chess world for more than 20 years already.

We also have the Georgian national team, which has won world championships, Olympiads, European championships… On the other hand, it’s super challenging—especially for young girls who want to play in the team—because the competition can be brutal. Everyone is so good, and it leaves little room for the younger generation to get the chance to play on the national team, which is a big achievement.

You are also known to many younger fans as the Happy Crocodile. What do you like about working with ChessKid?

I love this platform because first of all, there’s so much planned and scheduled material. If I was a little kid starting to play chess, I would love to have access to so many things that nowadays kids can enjoy from around the world. They can listen in their own language and even have the opportunity to learn a new language through chess as well.

I always think if I had this opportunity when I was a kid—I didn’t have a computer or internet—my progress as a chess player would be just skyrocketing right away.

I love the opportunities that kids can get to win competitions and even travel. One of the tournaments that really amazed me was the 2022 ChessKid Candidates Tournament. The winners went to Madrid to actually play in person on the same chess boards as the top grandmasters playing in the Candidates Tournament. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the current world champion, were actually there, sitting in the same chairs with these little kids playing on these big chess boards.

The memories that ChessKid created for these kids will be something they will never forget. All of us have these proud childhood memories, and it somehow pushes us to become really good at our profession or whatever we do. I think the kids who were there would have been the happiest kids.

Young chess stars prepare to play on the same boards as grandmasters for the ChessKid Intercontinental Candidates Tournament pic.twitter.com/GSCJRnVgOh
— ChessKid.com 👑 (@ChessKidcom) June 22, 2022

Imagine you could do a chess-based collaboration with anyone in the world. Who would it be, and why?

That’s a tough question. All of us have a favorite chess player… or maybe you want to play the strongest chess player or a singer or actor and so on… My mind goes to one person in this case, and it’s Natalie Portman. I love her! She’s a role model for all the girls who are smart; she’s very successful, talented, and beautiful. I think she would be a very good ambassador of chess too, and have her own perspective on chess—if she knows how to play, I don’t know!

Final and very important question: Please tell us more about this beautiful bear.

So this bear is about 20 years old. It looks really good for its age, right? When I started to play chess, I was traveling to tournaments. At my first tournament, my whole family was there but then it narrowed down to just my mum because we were traveling abroad for tournaments and it was becoming harder financially.

Eventually in one tournament when I was around 11 or 12 years old, I had to travel alone with a delegation. There was a moment when I missed the support of my mum very much. She doesn’t know chess too well, but her support for my chess career was so big that I couldn’t imagine playing chess without her support at that point. If I didn’t listen to her encouragement and advice for years and years I wouldn’t have won the U16 world championship.

When she had to stay behind and I had no emotional support from her during the difficult moments, I think she understood that very well. When I arrived back in Georgia after the tournament she was at the airport with this bear in her hands, and she told me that she cannot travel with me from now on, but if I miss her, this bear will always be with me, and I will always remember that I have someone next to me.

Since then, it’s traveled everywhere! I think the furthest is Vietnam. The whole Georgian delegation was taking care of my teddy bear, it was like a person! It has a lot of history. It’s a memory from my childhood that will always be there, and every time I see this bear it makes me smile.

Watch Keti on Twitch, learn from her instructional videos on YouTube, follow her on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, or listen to her commentary on Chess.com and ChessKid events.

Is there a chess personality/streamer/content creator you would love to learn more about? Let us know in the comments!

Previous Streamer/Creator of the Month articles:

Behind The Scenes At The FIDE World Championship (And Other Stories)

Can You Solve A Puzzle From A Five-Time Armenian Chess Champion?

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