Luke McShane

Twitch pageant

issue 04 July 2020

Chess has much in common with video games — not least, the eager disdain of uninformed critics. An 1859 article in Scientific American noted the achievements of Paul Morphy ‘vanquishing the most distinguished chess players of Europe’ but concluded sniffily that ‘skill in this game is neither a useful nor graceful accomplishment’. You can’t please everyone. Gamers are used to suffering the same old brickbats — their pursuits are addictive, isolating, sedentary, a channel for violent impulses, or just a waste of time. This is mostly silly: games can offer a rich and fulfilling competitive environment. It is enough to consider that even after DeepMind’s AlphaZero attained superhuman levels of skill in go and chess, the popular eSport ‘StarCraft’ still offered a testbed for further AI research. (Last year their AlphaStar attained grandmaster status, ranked above 99.8 per cent of human players.)

Video-game streaming has exploded during lockdown. For a live online audience, players record themselves playing games like Fortnite or League of Legends, with some mix of intensity, commentary and banter. The website Twitch.tv is one of the most popular platforms for streamers, and the audience is big. On average, 2.5 million viewers consume tens of thousands of channels at any given moment. In May they racked up 1.8 billion viewing hours, according to TwitchTracker.com. It is no surprise that the most popular streamers can make an excellent living from subscriptions, donations and sponsorship deals.

On Twitch, chess has found a niche alongside the gamers. At the forefront is Hikaru Nakamura, one of the world’s best, whose exceptional skill in online blitz and bullet chess has won him many fans. As well as streaming many of the top online chess tournaments, he has boosted his profile by engaging with popular streamers of other games, like Felix Lengyel, or ‘xQc’, a former professional Overwatch player.

GIF Image

Disagree with half of it, enjoy reading all of it

TRY 3 MONTHS FOR $5
Our magazine articles are for subscribers only. Start your 3-month trial today for just $5 and subscribe to more than one view

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in