Hi
"Hey Alexia, What's Trending".
in this episode, we're going to be talking
serious strategy, so let me get my glasses on.
Get ready to protect your king
because I'm coming in for that checkmate.
♪ [melodic]
The COVID-19 pandemic has been full of the unexpected.
From cardboard cutouts of fans in stadiums, to "Maskne",
to hand sanitizer becoming the new pack of gum.
♪ ♪
Can I have some. Me too.
And another surprising thing to come out of this pandemic is,
chess is kind of cool now.
Chess has been around forever.
Look at the scratches on this thing.
I even-- the last chessboard--
The real one that I want is the Harry Potter chessboard.
It's like the chess in the movie.
Oh, my gosh. I would be so swag if I had that.
For some reason, this year,
chess clubs have been popping off at middle schools
and high schools.
In fact, chess websites like
and
because so many more people are making new
player accounts, myself included,
and it's not only that people want to play online chess,
they also want to watch it.
On
and that doesn't even include people who follow
individual chess streamers.
There are some big names in chess streaming,
Chess bro,
just to name a few.
Some of these streamers have upwards of 10,000 viewers
watching them at a time. Take that in.
10,000 people watching someone play chess,
a game me and my brother would play on a Sunday
when we were bored out of our minds.
How did this happen?
How did chess become a game that over a million people
want to watch being played online?
After doing some research,
I have a couple of theories.
Number one, in October 2020,
the
came out and I think it had a lot of people
dreaming about being the world's greatest chess player.
A month after the show came out,
over two million people made an account on
Number two, chess can be a really great coping mechanism.
I'm sure we all feel the
looking at each other's faces.
While playing online chess,
you can still interact with loved ones while doing
an activity that's fun and free.
Number three, a lack of live sporting events has caused
a lot of people to start looking into e-sports.
E-sports are becoming so big that Toronto is getting
a $500 million e-sports venue in 2025.
Check out this video right here by my fellow contributor,
Elijah Sandiford for more information.
So, maybe instead of watching basketball,
you could check out a streamer playing some chess.
Oh, my gosh.
The white horse is about to move up the board.
He's going to try and take out the black pawn
on the other side. This is insane.
He makes his move and he's out.
He's out of there. He's gone.
The crowd goes wild.
If virtual chess is something you're getting into,
you might be wondering how you up your game.
My friend Zach beat me a couple of weeks ago in a chess match
and honestly, it's kind of killing me inside a little bit.
♪ ♪
So I want to sit down with Svitlana Demchenko,
a seventeen year old girl from Ottawa who, no big deal,
is the Women's International Master in chess.
How did you get into
the international level of competing in chess?
It's, I think similar in, in, as in other sports
or activities where you just start playing
at a local level, then you start playing at a provincial level,
then you start playing at the national level,
and then after you win the Nationals, you go to compete
at the world championships.
Did you ever expect that you'd be playing chess
on an international level?
No, not really. When I just started,
I was nine and I wasn't, I wasn't even thinking about it.
I honestly just enjoyed the game itself,
but of course, I always wanted to improve
and I was determined to get better
and I'm glad that it turned out this way.
So, what's the difference between
online and regular chess?
The difference for professional players
is quite significant.
The main thing is that, online you can,
you usually only play fast games,
so, it's fast time controls, like, one, three,
five minutes per side, compared to classical chess,
which you play in person.
They're usually way longer games that can go up to
six hours sometimes.
There's also, the big difference in the social aspect of it.
So, it's not the same as going to tournaments
with your friends.
You can't watch other people's games next to you.
So there's a lot less socializing,
but overall, I think us chess players are really lucky
to have online platforms where we can still practice
and have competitions because, I mean,
during the pandemic, I think we were a lot luckier
than swimmers or soccer players or other athletes that
had no means of practicing their sport at all.
Which one do you prefer, online or regular?
I've been really getting more into online lately
because I had no choice,
but I really miss, I really miss the in-person,
in-person playing,
but I think since the pandemic, online chess is going to start
to become more and more popular.
So I'm ready to do both.
I was thinking that we could play an online chess game
while I load up the rest of the questions,
so let's get that up and running right now.
So, there are a lot of features for beginners on online chess,
like drawing arrows to visualize your moves,
and I was wondering if you use this feature
to help you during your game.
I don't usually use arrows in my games,
but I think it's a really helpful tool for those
who are still learning.
Um, and I very often draw arrows when I'm giving lessons
to my students. So they do help a lot with visualization.
So, I've heard that chess is like a coping mechanism,
especially during the pandemic, because of the lack
of social interaction,
and I was wondering if it's helped you at all.
Um, well, I think it's a, it's a great hobby
to get into during the pandemic because you can make
a lot of new friends, and personally,
I'm really thankful to still be able to train
and play during the pandemic.
To me, it's, it's a productive way to spend my free time
while being stuck at home.
Why do you think that
to stream chess and how do you think
it became so popular?
There's like over a million followers for the actual
chess game on
Yeah, it was really surprising,
but I'm also really happy to see that chess
has been getting a lot of attention.
I think, probably the main two reasons why it's been
so successful is, is that, well, first during the pandemic,
the whole world was stuck at home
and for a very long, for a very long time.
So naturally, people turned to new hobbies
to try in their free time,
and chess is one of those things that probably
almost everyone has a chess set lying around at home
and you just never get around to actually playing,
and of course, the recent integration of chess into
the popular media with the show
"The Queen's Gambit", that really sparked
the popularity of chess.
Yeah. Do you have any favourite like, chess TV shows or movies?
"The Queen's Gambit" is one of my favourites.
There's also a movie called "Queen of Katwe",
which is based on a true story of a girl from Uganda
who had many obstacles in life,
but she still managed to become a really good chess player,
and by coincidence, I even got to play against her
and her team at the last chess Olympiad.
Obviously, we're in the middle of a chess game.
Can you explain, like, I don't know,
some of your strategies.
As you can probably tell, I'm just making
random moves right now.
At the beginning of the game,
you should be looking at three things.
So, first is getting control of the center.
Second is developing your pieces,
developing just means getting your pieces into play.
Third is paying attention to your king's safety,
which you're not particularly doing right now,
but other than that, I think that it's been good.
I'm trying to beat my friend Zach. I lost so bad.
We played like five games and I think I won one of them,
out of, like, probably luck, to be honest.
There are many tips I can give.
Maybe, if you're just starting out,
there are a lot of opportunities out there.
I would recommend checking out all the free online
resources available, like,
um,
there are many, and there's a lot of good
and educational content there.
If you're already at an intermediate level,
it's probably a good idea to get a coach or like you said,
play with a friend who is, has a higher level than you
and go over your mistakes.
It's most important not to give up
because everyone loses at the beginning.
So don't treat your losses as your failures,
but rather look for learning opportunities
and then, and you'll definitely get there
and just don't let the troubles at the beginning
discourage you.
So now that I played against Svitlana,
taking down Zach is going to be no issue.
Easy peasy. You're literally going down.
You're dog water, you're trash.
So best of luck in your endeavours
to become the greatest chess player.
I am cheering you on as you go into that...
check... mate.
That was kind of not clean. I can do it again.
[beep]
Cheering you on as you go in for that check... mate.
♪ ♪