Inspiring The Next Generations Of Women To Create
In less than two years, Phoebe Witte has already earned more than 15,000 followers on Instagram and another 17,000 on Twitch. In addition to everything she does on her own channel, Phoebe has also brought her commentary skills to WGM Dina Belenkaya's tournament game streams.
Chess.com recently spoke with Phoebe about her inspiration to begin streaming and producing other chess content, her favorite content, her creative process, and more.
How long have you been creating chess content, and what made you decide to start?
I've been creating for one and a half years! It started as idea that me and my friends made but my main drive is to spread how fun chess is and to get more women and girls enthusiastic about chess.
What are some ways you’ve achieved that goal? Perhaps any specific positive experiences? Or do you see it in your engagement?
Yeah, I do get comments and DMs on Instagram, sometimes from girls and women too, that they really appreciate me playing so much chess and promoting chess. And just positive comments from women on my posts, I really enjoy seeing that they're engaged with chess content.
What’s your favorite thing about creating? What makes it fun?
Engaging with other people and seeing how they relate to my content and hearing their chess stories! But also being creative and finding new fun ways to show people how cool chess is.
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Who are some of your favorite chess content creators, and why?
I really like Anna Cramling, BotezLive, Dina Belenkaya and so many others! I really enjoy seeing all the content from every chess content creator out there. It makes me really happy to see that there are more and more chess content creators who are spreading chess and showcasing how fun it is.
And they're all very strong players. And so I also just like watching them play over-the-board chess. I think it's very educational, especially Anna, she plays a lot of live tournaments. It's really nice to see that she's trying to bring women more into OTB tournaments. Because when I walk into a tournament hall, it's mostly male dominated, most of time I’m the only woman. So I really enjoy seeing them just also play a lot. I think it's really inspirational to other girls and women too.
What is your single favorite piece of chess content you've ever created?
I think it's a recent Instagram reel of mine from a tournament that I played. It was a clip from during my game where I couldn't open my water bottle and then my opponent offered to help me. I initially felt a bit embarrassed that this happened during the game, but thought it would be a funny reel, and the reactions that I got on it where very wholesome. Now looking back to it, it is kind of a wholesome moment during a very serious chess match.
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What is your single favorite piece of chess content that was created by someone else?
It is difficult to pick just one piece of chess content but my favorite pieces of chess content are these videos where other chess content creators play against street chess hustlers. I find it so entertaining to see and also funny!
Imagine you could do a chess-based collab with anyone in the world. Who would it be, and why?
I would love to do a chess-based collaboration with Anna Cramling! I really like Anna's enthusiasm for chess and whenever I see her stream or see her videos she is just radiating positivity and I try to do the same in my content. Before I started streaming she was one of the only streamers I watched and I still really enjoy watching her content so that is why I would choose Anna.
Can you tell us a little bit about your creative process?
I mostly get inspired by videos I see on Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and certain trending sounds and I like to give a chess spin to videos that I personally really like. I also get inspired by events from my personal life and chess journey and when I think they are funny or entertaining I make videos out of them too!
There was this one type reel that I saw on TikTok a lot, it was a trend a couple months ago, where people are just in the frame and they say, “If you don't like this, you should try this. And then If you don't like this game, you should basically try again until you like it." So I did this with chess. It was mainly trends from other niche groups, like Star Wars creators. I look a lot of to their videos, what they do because it's all very niche. And I think that fits a lot with chess.
Nathaniel Green is a staff writer for Chess.com who writes articles, player biographies, Titled Tuesday reports, video scripts, and more. He has been playing chess for about 30 years and resides near Washington, DC, USA.
