Boston Mike Meets Top Notch Streamers
It's not every day that the fast mouthed, trash talking, Youtube star, Boston Mike, gets to meet his favorite heroes and internet stars. Yes, he has played with the likes of Botez, Hikaru and Fabi but he still turned into a little kid last Friday, June 16th 2023 at the Las Vegas International Chess Festival. A star studded panel of six top streamers came together in a presentation moderated by long time Festival organizer Glenn Panner. As we walked into the giant ballroom used to host the games of the 1200+ players that played the 2023 National Open, he started to spot some of his favorites. IM Erik Rosen, GM Ben Finegold, Elaynah, IM Kostya Kavutskiy (HelloKostya), Eliana Lopez (ChessXercise), and Sara Herman (zefcatt)
Boston Mike’s smile beamed from ear to ear as soon as he walked into the giant hall. Yes, he’s a youtube star with 80+ million views but at the end of the day he’s just a big chess fan. And, the fact that the streamers were milling around with the audience of over 100 attendees increased his joy. He snapped photos with all of them until Glenn announced that the panel would begin.
Attending this event was not in my plans but I was pleasantly surprised by how well run it was. Glenn did a great job balancing the panel with a diverse group of streamers. His questions to the panelists were insightful and highlighted how these streamers enrich the chess world. Glenn asked a poignant question to GM Finegold, “If you had the [modern] tools… do you think your career would have been different?”
GM Finegold responded with, “The internet and all of the chess sites, allow us to play chess more often now. With zoom, you can get coaching. It used to be if you lived in a rural area and you wanted a chess coach, there was nothing you could do. And, it was hard to improve. I think it’s a lot easier to improve now… before it wasn’t easy to find information. When games were played, we didn’t find out for months, we didn’t have live Grandmaster analysis. We didn’t even have the Stafford Gambit when I was a kid… I can’t believe the state didn’t take me away from my parents. No Stafford Gambit… the world has totally changed”
GM Finegold, with his sharp witted humor, is one hundred percent correct. Technology has changed the entirety of the chess world. From a small insular world where only a few grandmaster know the deep ideas to one where everyone has access at their fingertips. These streamers themselves are adding to the content and making it all the more accessible.
They are putting themselves out there and to sometimes comical effect. IM Rosen told a story, “Before the tournament began, about a week ago, I was walking through the casino and some drunk guy came up to me. He wasn’t here for chess or anything. He just saw my face and said ‘I know your face’. But, he couldn’t pinpoint where he saw me so I had to explain, oh you probably saw me on youtube and he so excited that he met a real life youtuber.”
A short time later, IM Kavutskiy chimed in with his own story, “A couple of months ago…I think it was at the American Cup… a super strong event…We were walking from the opening ceremony at the dinner with the top players were there Caruana, Aronian, Hikaru… I remember a car crossed the light and a then just pulls over right next to us. The car hadn’t even stopped moving yet, a guy literally jumped out of the passenger seat, he’s like ‘Yo Hikaru can I get a photo of you’… he just saw him and was like Bro stop the car!”
Along with these fun stories, there was a great discussion about the differences between the Chess Culture in the US and Latin America. Eliana Lopez was the 1998 Columbian Women’s Champion and the founder of the ChessXercise group that combines chess and exercise. She said that the amount of tournaments is slowly improving but access to these events is limited. She said “We love chess, there is a lot of chess culture in Latin America, [but] the government doesn’t help to get like a good team and to travel get to the [tournaments] to get good competition to improve yourself. And, also I’m starting to stream and people don’t know much about Twitch. So my community is on facebook.” She made it clear that the culture and interest in chess is strong in Columbia but that the support is just starting to arrive. Streaming is clearly changing the entire game which I infer gives her the ability to support chess in her home town financially.
Another storyline that particularly intrigued me was that of Eleyna. She has just started playing and streaming chess 9 months ago. But, she has been streaming on Twitch for over 5 years and has amassed a very solid 17+ thousand followers. She said, “I first learned to move the pieces at a Christmas Party in 2021. After that, I don’t think I played until at least a year later… just a lot of people in my audience play chess… so I just started playing more often and I actually enjoyed playing the game myself… I went for from 400 – 1600 online the last 9 months.” That is incredible progress. Since the panel, we have shared a couple of meals and I am impressed by her dedication. Maybe it is her Eastern European heritage but I can see that she has an incredible drive. Elaynah played the Beginner U1300 introductory event and finished in 6th place out of 128 players!
The sheer amount of hours that these streamers put in playing, studying and promoting chess in the digital world is impressive. But, they are no parasocial weirdos. They live quite interesting and well-balanced lives striving to improve their abilities along the way. I was surprised to hear Sara Herman aka zefcatt say in response to an audience question about the ways to improve “As far as board vision… I think the best thing is to get a chess board out and study end games, because it’s the best way to actually help your board vision.” Who says streamers don't value the real world? Sara clearly has a good idea how to get good at chess. Study your endgame folks!
After the event, Kostya was gracious enough to play a few games with Mike and I'll leave you with this really funny exchange and the start of their game. Guess who won in the comments below:
Boston Mike thanks you all for reading the blog. There are some big things in the works with Boston Mike signing off on a documentary of his life coming soon. Look for future posts about his journey to get his fair share.
If you enjoyed this blog please join the King Chess Exclusive Club, where we will have tournaments and you can win free diamond memberships! PLUS, if you love chess film, I am running a promotion right now that if you buy a T-Shirt and support my upcoming film King Chess, you get a free sneak peek copy to watch BEFORE it's released!
