[Yanu-3452]

Unironically chess is an e-sport and this recent explosion is because Hikaru, Botez, Hess et al. have woken up to that idea and embraced it.

The best computers can easily beat the top humans just as an aimbot could beat Navi easily at CS:GO.

So the focus in chess has moved away from manually exploring to find optimal plays and new opening styles as was the trend in the 19th century chess rennaisance to a focus on preparation so that a player can quickly find best moves, under significant pressure, in any given match.

That makes it much more like a strategy game.

Embracing memes makes it more accessible to viewers who are used to watching hearthstone, csgo, league, dota or other esports and it's been really fun to watch.

I started watching chess on twitch a while ago during the Tata steel tournament and I thought back then it would quickly grow if they focused their commentary on casual level viewers and it's been fantastic to have been proved correct.

[SkyBelow]

>So the focus in chess has moved away from manually exploring to find optimal plays and new opening styles as was the trend in the 19th century chess rennaisance to a focus on preparation so that a player can quickly find best moves, under significant pressure, in any given match.

There is a certain skill level, which I want to say is somewhere around 1400 to 1500 but it has been over a decade so don't quote me on that, where most the players at that level seem to focus on memorizing openings. It ended up being what separates them from the players a one to two hundred points lower. This leaves them vulnerable to a bit of a hack, as using a non-standard opening can completely remove any usefulness of their memorized openings. It almost disorients them and makes it much more likely for them to make a mistake that can then overcome the disadvantage of such a non-standard opening. I loved playing in this area as I hated memorizing openings so I just used non-standard openings to not to avoid having to. Eventually I hit the ranking where players were good enough to take advantage of my non-standard opening more than any advantage from disorienting them and I quit playing because the only option to advance would've been to go back and memorize openings.

[kingaillas]

I also hated memorizing openings. I did it, years ago when I was a middling level chess player and played in tourneys, like everyone else, because of the time pressure from the chess clock. Nobody could afford being stumped 4-6 moves in, pondering what to do, when you had a better chance arriving to the mid-game with a non-terrible position. Burning too much time here meant you'd lose on time.

I was not good enough to play an unknown variant and come out better, as you were!

So over time I drifted to variants like bughouse or speed chess variants, to play for fun and not feel like it was studying or being constrained by the standard moves.

And then boardgames took over; for me personally I need to have a mix of luck and skill in a game to enjoy it.

[marcusverus]

Fischer proposed a variant of chess, which somewhat randomized the position of power pieces for each game, as a solution to this problem.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fischer_random_chess

[SkyBelow]

I've also moved on to board games that have some element of randomness as otherwise I try optimizing to the point where it ceases to be fun and becomes work. Overall I've found myself way too competitive, especially around younger family members, and these days I instead play the role of GM while letting them play. Most board games don't have a role for GM, but with a little creativity it is easy to modify the game so that players focus more on the fun of playing their own roles while I 'run' the game. It also allows for the interjecting of a story into the mechanics that I have found younger players to greatly enjoy.

[zxcmx]

This is a really silly question, but if you don't memorize openings how do you make sure you're avoiding the standard ones? Not a chess player.

[gizmo686]

Not a chess player either, but I'd imagine it would be easier to know the begginings of a standard opening, then just play a wrong move. At that point it ia unlikely to transpose back into a standard opening.

I do this trick a fair amount in Go, and actually have accumulated some "standard" non-standard openings that I play when the oppurtunity arrises. Because I play them fairly often, I actually have more experience with them then my opponent, so end up with the "memorization" advantage.

Also, in my experience, players will notice the mistake and then try a bit too hard to take advantage, instead of being satisfied with getting the "normal" result.

[SkyBelow]

I asked a few people much better than me and they couldn't think of any standard openings similar to what I was using. A few were able to point out some openings it was similar to, but those were rarely used openings.

[eyerony]

I'm such a bad chess player I barely count as an amateur, but it's definitely possible to know simple jerkass bidding systems in bridge and just enough about some of the "standard" systems to screw with people and often win, without being capable of playing any of the standard systems.

Nb however that most tournaments and such ban loads of bidding strategies with all kinds of special rules, so you can't do this just anywhere.

[blub]

It would be hilarious but rather unlikely that OP has been playing some obscure opening variations without intention all this time.

[thirtythree]

I have similar feelings about memorising in chess. It gets to the point where it's boring for me

[mrslave]

Late in life chess learner here.

I broke through a plateau by studying openings more than memorizing them. Slowly working through the early possibilities to separate what works from what doesn't helped to reinforce basic principles.

So like hammering away at 30+ identical problems in high school math class, with some tedium it really did help me internalize the principles. I did not continue to memorize openings and common lines to any great depth. I remain a meager, but much more contented, chess student.

[tajd]

An alternative approach is to work through endgame problems. Learning the key different endgames helps you direct the middlegame towards positions you know you can win. There's also something about learning to handle small numbers of pieces well which translates really well to the rest of the game.

[ehsankia]

To me it seems like the current explosion is the genius idea of pitching the most famous Twitch personalities against each other in a tournament. This is similar to how Dr. K blew up by giving live therapy session to Twitch personalities with huge followings. If you add up the followers of all the participants [0], you already have a huge pool of probably over a million viewers to start with, all rooting for their favorite streamer.

[0] https://www.chess.com/article/view/chesscom-pogchamps

[jmcgough]

It also makes chess way more approachable to see novice players play and see GMs discuss why a move is good or bad. I picked up chess about two weeks ago from watching the tourney, and the streams where GMs give lessons to tournament participants (or even random popular streamers) have been pretty helpful for someone who never really understood the strategy of the early game as a kid.

[bradly]

I got into Chess a couple years ago and Twitch and YouTube were a huge part of it. I had gotten started watching Ben Finegold's kids classes. Getting to see grandmasters play and hear their thoughts and ask them questions is an unbelievable resource. I was surprised how good Chess was as a spectator sport.

[hawkesnest]

I kept waiting for him to post a video for the U800 kids. That's about my level right now.

[SubiculumCode]

Ever hear why Ben Finegold got banned from twitch several weeks ago?

[noir_lord]

https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/gwasmp/ben_finegold_...

He read out a nasty email someone sent him on the stream apparently, his ban should expire shortly if it hasn't already.

[Obi_Juan_Kenobi]

Worth noting that Twitch usually doesn't make a statement about bans / ban reasons. This is Finegold's claim, and he is far from a neutral party.

Also the specific issue was reading the email address, not the message. This, naturally, invites chat to send messages to that address. Regardless of intent, this is a very reasonable expectation to have. If the email is not a troll, that amounts to inviting a horde of people to send nasty messages to a suicidal person.

[slau]

Ben insulted xQc and his community. He called them racists, low-IQ, etc. https://m.livestreamfails.com/post/82089

He seems to have streamed yesterday and the day before, so he was probably unbanned after 24 hours with a warning.

[hawkesnest]

He got banned? Terrible.

[SubiculumCode]

Chess has definitely become an esport. Interestingly, blitz and bullet game formats are forcing themselves into upper classes of the chess world, defying long standing denigration as not being "real chess," because the watching public enjoys that format..and it can be legitimately exciting. The recent IM not a GM championship hosted by chess.com, GM Hess, and GM Narodotsky was fantastic entertainment...especially as I am a dedicated viewer of IM John Bartholomew, who blew his competition away.

[LanceH]

chessnetwork (a Canadian National Master's name on twitch) is a warm and welcoming streamer as well.

[kohtatsu]

Seconded. Jerry makes thorough yet cosy and approachable content.

Edit: he also covers engines which I find pretty interesting, a lot of Leela but my favourite so far is this game with AlphaZero and Stockfish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m5oXlZ_e_A

[stephsmithio]

As someone that used to travel the world and play chess competitively as a kid (fun fact: against Botez), it's been great to see chess embraced as an esport and the definition of a "sport" be rethought entirely.

I remember growing up in the chess community being asked whether chess was a "sport". Most people within the community would say yes, while most people outside the community would unequivocally say no, since it wasn't physical.

[zakk]

> Unironically chess is an e-sport and this recent explosion is because Hikaru, Botez, Hess et al. have woken up to that idea and embraced it.

Let me also mention Mato Jelic. His videos got me hooked!

[cryptonector]

There are also lots of commentators on youtube commenting on past games, recent games, and games between AIs.

[cauthon]

What channels do you recommend watching? And how do you find out about tournaments?

[myle]

Channels: Daniel King Chess24 agadmator

Tournaments and news on reddit.com/r/chess

[minkzilla]

Power play chess (Daniel King’s channel) is my personal favorite. It’s just the right amount of entertaining and instructive

[zakk]

I love Mato Jelic's channel.