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Ever since the pandemic happened and the entire world went into complete lockdown, with the movement of people across the globe fully restricted; sports was one of those sectors which suffered the most.

Almost all the sporting events in the world across came to a forced halt. The only form of sports, fans all around the globe could enjoy during this strict lockdown was E-sports. With the whole world confined to the four walls of their home, the number of people indulging in e-sports and online gaming rose to an all-time high.

The only traditional sport which could survive or rather thrive during such time was the strategy based game, Chess. While other popular sports like football, cricket, badminton, hockey, among others struggled to stay relevant during the lockdown, chess, much like e-sports, rose to a completely new level.

Chess broard at chess.com

A lot of it had to do with the fact that chess was probably the only traditional sport that did not halt its international tournaments due to the pandemic. In fact, the most prestigious tournament in the sport The Chess Olympiad was successfully conducted online. Besides, various other small and large scale tournaments were also conducted online.

This success for chess over the internet has given a massive boost to the already existing question. Is it time for chess to be included under the bracket of e-sports?

Now to understand the rationale behind this question, let us understand how is e-sports defined?

The most commonly accepted definition for e-sports is, E-sports is an organised and competitive form of video-gaming competition held between two or more individuals or teams who are connected over the internet.

Arent the online chess tournaments the same? Is it not an organised competition between two players or teams who are connected over the internet?

The other logic people backing the inclusion of chess under the umbrella term of e-sports give is the new-found technology of live streaming. It is something that has become synonymous with e-sports, of late.

Also read: How Koneru Humpy broke barriers in a male dominated chess world

Most of the e-sports players live to stream their games through any of the streaming platforms like Twitch, YouTube and, etc. The love for live streaming has also taken the world of chess by storm with many of the top Grand Masters like Hikaru Nakamura, Anish Giri, Vidit Gujarati and others being regular streamers whilst raking up quite a good amount of views on their channels.

This rise in popularity of chess due to the game being played online excessively has even led to one of the most popular e-sports organisation in the world, TSM, to sign the American GM Hikaru Nakamura making him the first-ever chess player to be signed by an e-sports team.

This was followed by popular chess streamers on Twitch and Women Fide Master (WFM) Alexandra Botez and her sister Andrea Botez joining the Texas-based e-sports organisation, Team Envy in the latter part of December 2020.

While the question, Is online chess an e-sport? is being asked for quite some time now, the recent developments in the field definitely suggests so.

Over the board game certainly has its charm and top Grand Masters from across the world might still choose a physical tournament over an online one any day, but no one can deny the boost online chess has given this age-old sport.

Chess, over the years, has struggled to be recognised as an Olympic sport and with the push for inclusion of e-sports in the quadrennial event at an all-time high this might just be the right time for chess to be categorised as an e-sport.

Also read: The chess champion who became Indias youngest billionaire entrepreneur

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Is it time for chess to be included under the e-sports bracket? - The Bridge

Chess.com is thrilled to host PogChamps 3 presented by Grip6, which is set to begin on February 14. Expected to be one of the most viewed chess tournaments in history, PogChamps 3 will have a $100,000 prize fund. Among the participants of this landmark event will be internet sensation MrBeast, world-famous rapper Logic, and Rainn Wilson, star actor in NBC's hit show "The Office."

Thefirst PogChampsand PogChamps 2 shattered viewership records, achievingclose to 300 million minutes watched. PogChamps 3 is poised to be the largest yet, and will be placing an emphasis on supporting the chess community.In addition to the increased prize fund, Chess.com is proud to declare that it has also reserved $100,000 for community donations.

Here's all the information you need to follow the 2021 Chess.com PogChamps:

All Chess.com PogChamps matches will be broadcast live with commentary by chess celebrities GM Hikaru Nakamura, WFM Alexandra Botez, IM Levy Rozman, IM Anna Rudolf, and more on Chess.com/TV.Players may choose to stream as well on their own channels on a delay and will not be permitted to use chat for outside assistance. Players who choose not to stream will be required to join a Zoom call for fair play and broadcast purposes.

Official match times for each game will be posted prior to the subsequent round of play. The dates for each stage of the event are as follows:

Total Prize Fund: $100,000

Each player's winnings are determined by how far they advance into the Chess.com PogChamps.

Group Stage: 16 players, $8,000 prize pool.

Championship Bracket: 8 players, $60,000 prize pool

Consolation Bracket: 8 players, $32,000 prize pool

During PogChamps 3, Chess.com will match up to $100,000 in donations to the participants' preferred non-profit organizations.

Championship Bracket:

Consolation Bracket:

The percentages above reflect total percent of donations awarded to each participant's preferred non-profit organization.

Group Stage

In the case of a tie on points, the first tiebreak is average CAPS score across all three games.

Championship and Consolation Brackets

Chess.com set groups based on a variety of factors including (but not limited to) blitz rating, rapid rating, tactics rating, total games played, and amount of chess streamed.

The field:

Do you want to see how you stack up against some of the PogChamps 3 players? Then click the button below to go to our Play Computer page where you can match your wits with the xQc, Ludwig, Pokimane, Neeko, and CodeMiko bots!

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PogChamps 3: All The Information - Chess.com

The Week

Confidence in the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine seems to be growing. New analysis released this week suggests that not only does the vaccine protect against symptomatic COVID-19 infections, it could also significantly curb transmission, making it a potentially very effective tool for bringing the virus to heel. The vaccine is affordable, easy to produce and store, and has been approved by health regulators in the United Kingdom, India, and Europe, as well as several other countries. But it has not yet been approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, where it's still undergoing late-stage trials. That's led to some harsh criticism. The Mayo Clinic's Vincent Rajkumar called the delay a "huge blunder," while The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf described it as "the most profound impingement on my liberty I've faced." Writer Matthew Yglesias lamented a lack of pressure from lawmakers and the U.S. media for speedy approval. For starters, AstraZeneca hasn't submitted any paperwork to the FDA, so, in short, it can't grant approval for what hasn't been requested, notes Axios' Sam Baker: AstraZeneca has not submitted this product for FDA authorization. The FDA cannot authorize products whose manufacturers arent asking for authorization. Political pressure on the FDA, in addition to being a thing that everyone rightly opposed when Trump did it, cannot change this https://t.co/LnsZPGz4ZG Sam Baker (@sam_baker) February 3, 2021 But there are more complex reasons behind the holdup. In the U.K., Business Insider notes, health regulators "rely more heavily on a company's data to make conclusions," whereas in the U.S., an independent advisory committee takes a look at data sets from both the FDA and drug companies before the FDA can make its final decision. In this case, the FDA was concerned following a series of missteps by AstraZeneca, including the company's failure to alert the agency about a decision to halt trials after a U.K. participant fell ill in September, and a strange discrepancy and incomplete testing of promising but mistakenly-administered half-strength doses. There's speculation submission and approval will come in April, but until the U.S. gets clearer data, the vaccine will remain in regulatory limbo. More stories from theweek.comMarjorie Taylor Greene is getting exactly what she wantsDemocrats may only have one chance to stop America from becoming a one-party stateStephen Bannon, pardoned by Trump, may now be charged over the same scheme in New York

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Local woman shines in world of chess - Yahoo News

Local chess enthusiasts including Kentuckys only chess grandmaster react to the successful chess-oriented Netflix series The Queens Gambit

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When the miniseries The Queens Gambit hit Netflix last year, it served as a bright and welcome distraction during a time when many were feeling bleak and stir-crazy. Based on the 1983 novel of the same name by late Kentucky author Walter Tevis, the show captivated its record-setting 62-million-household audience with its complicated and compelling heroine, its smart and witty writing, and its striking visual design. Centering on the journey of a troubled orphan chess prodigy, both the show and the novel have been lauded for their success in creating an intriguing and relatable storyline around a game that is often seen at least, to those not on the board as relatively slow and tedious.

For viewers in Lexington, that captivation was elevated by the fact that much of the story takes place in our city. Regular references to the Lexington Herald-Leader and to local waypoints such as New Circle Road, Henry Clay High School and Ben Snyder department store an actual Lexington shop that existed on Main Street for many years added layers of delight and novelty for local audiences.

Its safe to say Gregory Kaidanov, an accomplished professional chess player living in Lexington, felt an even deeper kinship with the show than most. Born in Ukraine in 1959 and raised in the Soviet town of Kaliningrad, Kaidanov moved to Lexington in 1991 to further his career as a competitive chess player. Outside the underpinnings of the oppressive Soviet regime, Kaidanov said, the opportunities that opened up when he moved to Kentucky were immense. At the time he moved here, he was ranked as one of the top 200 players in the world; within his first year living in America, he moved up in rank to 16th player in the world. In 1992, he claims to have had the most successful year any chess player had in America. And in 1993, he joined the U.S. Chess National Team, with the team winning the World Team Chess Championship that year for the first time in history a feat that helped fast-track his U.S. citizenship. Today, Kaidanov, who earns the majority of his income by teaching chess lessons (primarily online), enjoys the status of being Kentuckys only chess grandmaster, the highest ranking a competitive chess player can attain aside from world champion.

It was inspirational and exhilarating, Kaidanov said, looking back at that time in his career.

When he and his wife sat down to watch The Queens Gambit last year, after seeing lots of buzz about the show on Facebook, Kaidanov found many correlations between lead character Beth Harmons life and his own. Like Harmon, he fell into a passion for chess I would even use the word obsession, he said as a child and spent much of his early adulthood traveling domestically and internationally for tournaments. He also related with the storylines central focus on both Russia and Kentucky, and could identify with the series depictions of both the pressures and the satisfactions of competing in the game at such a high level.

Overall, Kaidanov describes watching the show as a very emotional experience that led him to relive many of his childhood memories.

I couldnt watch more than one episode at a time, because of the emotional connection, he said. There have been many movies made about chess, but this was by far the best, at all levels.

Fellow Lexington chess enthusiast Jerry Baker, organizer of weekly meetings and monthly tournaments for Lexingtons Bluegrass Chess Club for more than 30 years, agreed that The Queens Gambit was an incredible show, even for people who do not understand chess.

Being an avid chess player, though, that series goes to the next level, he said. More than once during the show, I got out of my seat to cheer.

While the recent popularity of The Queens Gambit led to a massive uptick in interest in chess across the world, its unfortunate, Baker said, that the shows release coincided with what he called the worst time in history for the game, due to the limitations on in-person play caused by the pandemic. In many ways, online chess playing has been a boon for competitive players over the past several decades, in that it has opened up opportunities to play against high-level players from across the world one of the most effective methods for improving your game. But despite the continuation of online chess games throughout the pandemic, Baker said the overall effect of halting in-person games has been detrimental to the game especially for beginners.

Chess is hard, and the difference between a beginner and a tournament player is massive, he explained. In-person, at our club, we could give every beginner a mini-lesson after every game we could explain the differences between beginner and experienced players.

Being a one-on-one battle, its easy for players to take defeat personally, especially when they are first starting out, he continued. During in-person games and tournaments, mentors can often help temper this defeat by letting new players know even the best players were in their shoes at one time and are only better now for having persisted and continuing to learn new tricks.

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On Top of the Game - http://www.smileypete.com

Hello everyone!

These words, spoken in a bright Croatian accent, herald the start of every video by the YouTube chess guru Agadmator. If youre one of the worlds hardcore chess neophytes who fell hard in the aftermath of The Queens Gambit (looking at myself here), the words are instantly recognizable. For me, today, hearing these words is akin to the mice who heard Pavlovs bell, except that I know Im going to get that sweet chess cheese every single time, because the Mator (as I refer to him in my head) always delivers the goods. As a human being, he represents the first time I have been grateful for YouTubes algorithm, and the chess videos that flood my homepage are a welcome refrain from the Smirking Fascist OWNS Uppity Woman genre that is usually so inescapable.

His real name is Antonio Radic, hes got his own Wikipedia page, and his channel is closing in on a million subscribers and 400 million views. Even before the Queens Gambit boom, he was a celebrity in the chess world who was regularly mobbed by his admirers at events, and as the son of a FIDE Master, hes a strong player in his own right. Its not his play that distinguishes him, though; its the videos. The format is incredibly simple: he reviews one game per video. It can be current or historical, and the brown wood-colored board enjoys pride of place on the screen, with pictures of each player (or of a faceless hooded man, when no pictures are available) denoting the sides. Radics box is smaller, and he commentates from his living room, with a brown couch and often his dog in the background. The average video seems to run around 15 minutes, and hes a marvel at releasing analysis of important games minutes after they conclude.

None of this, of course, quite gets at why hes so good, and thats a little harder to explain. Theres a glut of chess analysis on the internet, which is a treasure trove for new zealots like me, but Radic has mastered the art of explaining why each tactic is played, why certain lines werent pursued, and how the momentum of a good move can tilt an entire game. When it comes to the play of grandmasters, this is essentially explaining the inexplicable, since their play exists on another plane for beginners like me. Many is the analyst who will say something like, obviously the pawn capturing the queen here would be a disaster, when in fact its not obvious to many. Radic will spend minutes in a given video tracing hypothetical lines to show exactly why certain maneuvers were avoided. Whats really remarkable is that it all makes sense, and he does it fast. The concept of a 20-minute chess video seems oppressive, but here, theres never a dull moment. His videos carry you along on a pleasing current, and if youre not careful its easy to sacrifice two hours of your life on his channel. After all, who can resist knowing how Edmund Von Schlachterskeend humiliated Gunt Knurst with the Barristers Gambit in 1904? (Those details are made up, I think, but you get the point.)

Along with his rapid, pinpoint analysis, Radic has an appreciation both for the game and its history, and an allusive, almost literary sense of description. Each video comes with a quote (a recent example, from Siegbert Tarrasch: Some part of every chess game is played blindfolded. The sight of the chessman frequently upsets ones calculations), and a title along the lines of Dubov Takes Carlsen into a DEEP DARK FOREST or Staring Death in the Face or The Only Man Kasparov Ever Feared. Armed with an incredible bank of knowledge and a personal style with just the right mix of seriousness and humor (he can be hilariously dry, as in his description of making a tactical blunder against an international master: my plan was to resign), the videos take on a dramatic narrative of their own, and transform a complicated game into an irresistible story, set to the pleasing wooden plonking sounds that punctuate each move.

That, I think, is what makes Radic so special. Hes a writer, really, or at least a translatorhe takes the stories that are inherent to each game and draws them out in ways that might have been inscrutable to someone like me. He not only sees the hidden theater in how these pieces conspire to defeat each other, but hes a master at teasing it out into a compelling story. In doing so, he not only elucidates whats happening in each match, but deepens his viewers appreciation for the genius of the top masters and the beauty of chess itself. Whether you consider the game art or war or competition, Radic makes the allegories bloom.

To step back from the romantic heights for a moment, its worth saying that his videos are also just really fun. If The Queens Gambit was the reason I made an account at chess.com and started learning about the game in greater depth than mastering which square the queen starts on, Agadmator is the reason I continued. Hes also a big part of the reason Im taking lessons on the London System and the Caro-Kann on chess.com, the reason Im following the Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands, and the reason the game has assumed what my wife would argue is too prominent a place in my life. But if a side effect of Radics work is to foster an burgeoning addiction, he can be forgiven; insofar as the job of any content creator is to entertain and inform, hes a massive success on both fronts, and he does it all with an artistry that might escape your attention at first glance. In that sense, his channel is a perfect reflection of chess itself, in all its poetic multitudes.

Shane Ryan is a writer and editor. You can find more of his writing and podcasting at Apocalypse Sports, and follow him on Twitter here .

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In Praise of Agadmator, the Best Chess Youtuber in the World - Paste Magazine