The most popular chess streamer on Twitch
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At least two of them and likely all 3 are going to be in the candidates, so this is just going to be an entirely different level of competition. The betting odds put Hikaru at <10% chance to win, which seems about right to me. Hikaru was also in trouble at various times in the FIDE Grand Prix but escaped some very bad positions with draws, which against higher level competition he might not be so lucky.
I'm not necessarily a Hikaru fan, but I enjoyed his post-game recaps after the grand prix matches, because that type of analysis isn't something any other top level players are going to do for fear of revealing some weaknesses that opponents can seize upon (and believe me... Hikaru's opponent's teams will be scouting those videos). However, not caring can only get you so far as the level of competition increases.
He's earned the recognition already, he's a former #2 in the world and one of only a handful of players to ever have an ELO over 2800. Just enjoy his resurgence and see where it takes him.
It's not discrediting Hikaru to say that there are strong players that can't participate.
That's an exceedingly good argument that he's unlikely to do particularly well (and it's likely his betting market is somewhat inflated by his fan base, his real odds are probably lower!)
I point out that its odd the number of people going out of their way to discredit Hikaru, so a bunch more people follow up by doubling down on discrediting Hikaru.
Anyways, if you're familiar with what makes Hikaru great, you understand why Hikaru has as good a chance as anyone.
This is factually true. He was like 6/16 in elo in the first and 7/16 in the third leg. He'll be 8/8 in the candidates. Literally nothing I've said discredits him. His performance was unexpectedly strong, that's giving extra credit for an impressive performance. But I'm also realistic.
> Anyways, if you're familiar with what makes Hikaru great, you understand why Hikaru has as good a chance as anyone.
Lol no, and Hikaru would be the first to tell you he has at most an outside chance. You claim you're not defending Hikaru, but you really, really are. In fact, you're reading things into comments that weren't actually said, and assuming these things that weren't actually said are criticisms of Hikaru and it's worth asking yourself why you're doing that.
> seems his strategy is just to survive the openings and then try to outplay or flag people later on, which is a surprisingly viable strategy.
This doesn't work when people are both stronger middlegame players than you and know your strategy. And of course Ian and Alireza are liable to put hikaru in time pressure even if they don't straight outplay him.
It's just not obvious to me that any of your statements about the other players being so much stronger than Hikaru are true. It's really hard to objectively estimate his classical playing strength because he just didn't play for two years and the rating has been volatile since he started playing again, but (for example) he played 4 classical games with Levon Aronian between the two legs with a +1 -1 =2 score, and +2 -0 =0 in rapid tiebreaks. Aronian is a roughly 2780 player, world #5, likely to be the strongest player who missed candidates. Hikaru also scored 50% in classical Grand Prix matches with Wesley So and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, two other strong top-10 players.
If the best Hikaru can do is draw against So and Aronian, that's not going to cut it in the candidates. Maybe he can o better than that, but there's nothing we've seen that suggests that.
Remember way back in 2021 when Hikaru won the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz? Going undefeated in the entire event ahead of Caruana, Rapport, So, Mamedyarov...
Furthermore, Hikaru has always outplayed Nepo. His lifetime record against him including rapid/blitz is 19 to 12, with 29 draws.
Hikaru also drastically out performs Duda: 26 to 9, with 17 draws.
I guarantee you every top chess player is favoring Hikaru a lot more than you are. Even Danya has said as much. People that know, know. It's that simple.
Your criticisms so far have little to do with actual chess, despite your attempts to make them as such. You have a clear bias mixed with a casual understanding of the game and it doesn't hold up very well.
Yes, as are many of the players he beat in the Grand Prix, most of whom would stand no chance whatsoever in the candidates. One can acknowledge that he's one of the best players while also acknowledging that he's clearly not one of the top 3 in classical chess.
He knows that too. That doesn't mean I don't look forward to him competing and seeing how he does. I do! Despite what you think I like Hikaru and enjoy his content and play! But like I said, I'm realistic about his chances.
Then his rating would be higher.
His live rating takes his performance into account. And it's more likely that the high performance was luck, since every player has good and bad streaks around their rating. A few wins does not magically make one a solid 2800 player.
As such, since Nak's current rating fully accounts for his last performance, and even with that (which even he says was simply good luck, not some fundamental new mastery of chess), Nak is currently live rated at 6th of 8 candidates (assuming Ding is the last one, which seems likely)).
So, given that it's more likely for a player to have random ups and downs (as borne out by millions of games of chess evidence across all players, including Nak), Naks performance last month is most likely above his rating.
You can argue all you want about what you feel. The ratings are a much more solid prediction of performance than all the good feelings in the world, especially since most of the Candidates have performed at the current level of ratings for years and years and years, including Nak.
On Twitch, the most successful players almost never have the most viewership.
I see Hikaru similar to Ivanchuk (who also peaked at nr. 2 in the world). Brilliant player but rarely the favorite for long chess competitions.
> but escaped some very bad positions with draws, which against higher level competition he might not be so lucky.
Hikaru is well-known for being able to defend insanely well, and highly capable of escaping with draws against any level of player. This is such a strangely critically toned comment.
How many times has he lost the big game on demand? He's good, but he plays around his rating. The Candidates will be a whole different level than he's played in for years.
Almost all of these players are on equal footing if they are given unlimited time do digest their matches after the fact. Hikarus opponents are likely gaining nothing watching him analyze his matches, as they all do it equally well.
The top GMs are made by those that can make these decisions during a match, and who can compute these faster. Given enough time, every match would be a draw
Watching Hikaru and Danya has really helped my board visualization and how I think about the game. My ideas are a lot more abstract now than they were years ago when I was still a "strong" player. I'm stronger now than ever before and I no longer actively train, and I credit this entirely to players like Hikaru helping me view the board in a drastically different way than I was previously. Something just clicked after awhile.
I’m at the same chesscom rating as you and have watched a bit of Hikaru content but somehow felt like I was procrastinating on “real chess study”. Your comment has given me an excuse to try again!
Previously I was just looking for tactics and calculating the best possible moves in a very linear manner. Now I look at the board and visualize ways the position would work better in my favor and kind of work my way back from there. Linear calculation is still required, but getting an idea first and then trying to find the path of least resistance to that idea is just so much more fluid for me.
Remove the tunnel vision and treat the entire board as an organic structure that you can reconfigure.
This is probably only beneficial after like 1700-1800 because it assumes you have a solid tactical / positional understanding obviously.
The only other "training" I do is solving puzzles but that's more out of entertainment than actual training.
1. GothamChess is the most educational and entertaining. The video format also varies quite a bit which helps.
2. Agadmator is less entertaining than Gotham, but very consistent.
3. Hikaru is of course very strong, but sometimes he doesn't care about explaining what he's thinking and even when he does its harder to follow.
I've ben watching Gotham and Agadmator, almost daily. My wife is a bit annoyed sometimes, but I remember it could be worse. I could be into football.
Levy (GothamChess) is a much better player, although it's tedious that a lot of his content is silly stuff like laughing at beginner games. He also tilts really hard which makes me feel really bad because I just want to sit down with him and show some him positivity and I can't, but maybe that's just me.
IMO the best of the chess streamers for actually getting better is Eric Rosen, and maybe John Bartholomew but he's not as prolific. Both are very good but also good at explaining good ideas. Hikaru is almost too good to be instructive, given that he solves hard tactical puzzles completely with muscle memory instead of analysis.
Agadmator channel is educational and informative when it comes to chess scene, drama and history. In this regard, I think he’s the best and most comprehensive.
Overall I enjoy Gotham, Agadmator, Hikaru, Eric Rosen in that order.
The perfect format to enjoy the beauty of the game.
The snoozing dog in the background completes the perfection of it all.
Blindfolded Hikaru against the Botez sisters is a timeless classic.
The Botez sisters playing against (and often losing to) some chess hustlers is incredibly entertaining. The thrash talk is just something else...
"I wouldn't be surprised if most viewers have no actual interest in chess"
Now I admit that this would surprise me. I might expect that of some viewers, but not the majority. Not sure if there's any way of actually verifying this though
> It is only in this context that Nakamura’s “I don’t care” mantra approaches truth. Once hailed as the future of American chess, Nakamura has devoted his life to an ultracompetitive game, one that only two or three dozen people can make a comfortable living solely from playing. As he rose up the world ranks, he treated opponents like enemies and used criticism as fuel, becoming a highly disliked member of the chess scene. In online chess, where he was known for his blitz prowess since the two-thousands, he often accused opponents of cheating and fired off nasty messages after losses. The “I literally don’t care” mantra itself is a reference to Nakamura’s bitter reaction to a fluke online loss in which he repeated the phrase many more times than one would expect from someone who literally did not care."
Just great for starters and advanced players. Stjepan is a great teacher and 2013 ELO so not a GM but on the way towards that goal.
Learning from online YTubers/Twitch streamers can be a mixed bag. They make the moves seem so easy and logical, without explaining a lot of the why's. Danya is one I love to watch, but he just sees things that players below his level have a hard time envisioning. Rosen is the chillest to watch, but his love of dubious gambits can encourage bad habits as well.
For example, imagine I'm restoring a classic 1980s Mini. There's a lot of detail that's only really interesting to people who are actually doing the same task - which is hardly anyone. That's not going to be a highly-rated youtube series.
Whereas a magazine series that shows restored classic cars and provides some details and advice, but keeps things light enough you can half-watch while eating and you won't miss too much? Much more accessible, much bigger audience.
Project Binky goes against this, great series
After all, nobody is following along at home, putting a Toyota Celica engine into their own mini.
When they need to make a wiring harness, or configure an ECU, they're not showing it one cable and one adjustment at a time - that would make for very boring viewing, even if it would be useful as reference material for anyone trying to reproduce their project.
Just like a chess youtuber, very few of Project Binky's viewers are there to study, following along with pencil and paper. Most of their viewers are there to be entertained.
I will admit their videos are substantially more technical than most on Youtube. But because of that, they don't make enough money to go full-time. Actually doing the work constrains them to a video every 1-2 months. In contrast, Hikaru has put out 13 youtube videos in the last 7 days.
Rapid-fire, easily accessible content with broad audience appeal brings in the ad revenue that makes a channel self-supporting.
Slowly produced, niche content for study and reference has to be subsidised by the youtuber having another job.
Offering some great clarifications, context, etc. The internet is great.
I think if you're a subscriber (I'm not) you can replay his stream from earlier.
I do remember he said somethings like...
> 'the chess stuff that they're talking about isn't 100% accurate, but close enough. No one will know/care about that who's reading the article'
> 'it seems the things they're quoting they've pulled from previous streams'
I will start a game of Go, completely relaxed and with the goal of staying relaxed and enjoying the game. Sometimes it works if my opponent falls behind early, but if my opponent is worthy... watch my heart rate over the course of the game.
There is no point in playing if you don't care about the outcome. I wish there was, I wish it was like making a painting, I wish it was nothing more than making something beautiful with the go stones.
It's impossible to play as much Chess as he does and truly not care, but I think he is figuring out ways to care differently, and that might be key.
That said, its not something I have. I'm OK not being the world's best at something -- I'm OK just enjoying riding my bike through the park.
For more general definitions of success, being able to not be so intense can SOMETIMES be a benefit.
He's headed to the candidates where I hope he takes it. It will be amazing for chess to see him compete for world championship.
*: https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chess.pl?page=2&pid=52948&pi...
I can personally attest to this but Hikaru has been unusually strong in classical in his return. Hence why he's headed to the candidates.
Also remember... Hikaru might just end up being champion. Carlsen said he'll only fight firouzja.
Oh ya I agree, I think such a competition would be amazing.
Since Hikaru has far fewer recent classical matches than the other upcoming Candidates participants (with the exception of current world #2 Ding Liren, who still needs to finish 30 games before May), he'll have an edge when it comes to preparation. However, unless he prepares like a madman, he'll be at most a wildcard candidate, perhaps beating a favorite or two but unlikely to win it all.
I'll personally be rooting for Ding and Fabi. I like Hikaru as well, but I unfortunately just don't see him beating Magnus in a World Chess Championship.
Similar to Fextralife, and how they use their gaming WIKI website to feature their livestream and inflate the viewership on Twitch
This should be against the TOS imo
But in general I agree with you, the embeds can be easily abused and distort the popularity of streamers on twitch, giving some an unfair advantage. In an industry where success depends heavily on the number of eyeballs on your content and where twitch itself prioritizes larger streams it is unacceptable in my opinion. Long term it directly undermines the natural growth of developing streams, the process that has given us a rich and dynamic twitch community in the first place. The topic deserves an article if it hasn't been written about already.
I agree though. He can be difficult to watch. He acts like a small child when he loses, even sometimes when he doesn't. It's really not surprising to learn from this article that no one in the high level chess world likes him.
Dr Disrespect is a popular game streamer
As for me, I prefer neither and like more educational content that doesn't focus on games at the very top (e.g. Naroditsky's or chessbrah's speedruns) but that doesn't change that Hikaru is more popular than them or Agadmator.
You will learn a lot more than from Agadmator, who's channel is very good, but shows a lot of engine lines without too much explanation of the deeper ideas.
0. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLl9uuRYQ-6MCBnhtCk_bT...
1. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8N8j2e7RpPnpqbISqi1S...
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy10-NEFGxQ3b4NVrzHw1Q
Also Levi Rozman/Gothamchess has some excellent analysis and commentary of other matches, and is very approachable for beginners: