Levy Rozman (born December 5, 1995), known online as GothamChess, is an American chess International Master[3] and commentator. He produces content on the online platforms Twitch and YouTube.
Levy Rozman | ||||||||||
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![]() Rozman in 2019 | ||||||||||
Country | United States | |||||||||
Born | (1995-12-05) December 5, 1995 (age 26) Brooklyn, New York, U.S. | |||||||||
Title | International Master | |||||||||
Years active | 2001–2022[1] | |||||||||
FIDE rating | 2322 (August 2022) | |||||||||
Peak rating | 2421 (August 2018) | |||||||||
YouTube information | ||||||||||
Channel | ||||||||||
Years active | 2018–present | |||||||||
Genre | Online chess | |||||||||
Subscribers | 1.75 million[2] | |||||||||
Total views | 518 million[2] | |||||||||
Associated acts | Hikaru Nakamura, Anna Rudolf, Eric Rosen, Antonio Radić, BotezLive | |||||||||
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Last updated: November 20, 2022 | ||||||||||
Twitch information | |
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Channel | |
Years active | 2018–present |
Followers | 534 thousand |
Total views | 40.2 million |
Follower and view counts updated as of January 27, 2022. |
Rozman was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 5, 1995, and lived in both New York and New Jersey growing up.[4][5] He began playing chess at the age of 6 as an extracurricular activity and entered his first tournament at the age of 7.[6][7] Rozman attained the titles of National Master in 2011 through the US Chess Federation, FIDE Master in 2016, and International Master in 2018.[8][3] Rozman started as a scholastic chess coach in 2014.[9]
Rozman attended Baruch College where he completed a Bachelor's degree in statistics and quantitative modeling in 2017. Before focusing on chess as a full-time career, he worked as a client service associate for UBS Wealth Management.[10]
Rozman is a Twitch streamer and YouTuber. As of November 20, 2022, he has the most-subscribed chess channel on YouTube, with 1.75 million subscribers; however, ChessBase India and Antonio Radić (aka agadmator) have the highest total view counts for a chess-themed channel, with 642 million views and 671 million views, respectively.[11][12][13][14] Rozman works closely with Chess.com and has been part of their streaming partnership since 2017.[15] Rozman is a regular commentator for the platform, analyzing tournaments like PogChamps and the 2020 Candidates Tournament.[4]
Like many online chess personalities, Rozman experienced a viewership surge during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly following the release of The Queen's Gambit.[7][16] As of November 2022, Rozman's YouTube channel has a total view count of more than half a billion views, including 98 videos with a million views or more.[17] Examples include an instructional opening overview where he discusses how to play the Queen's Gambit and a video where he plays against the Beth Harmon bot on Chess.com.[7] He has done in-depth explanations of games played in the series.[18] Rozman's YouTube channel reached 1 million subscribers on June 1, 2021.[19]
Rozman entered international news in March 2021 when he was defeated by an Indonesian chess player nicknamed Dewa_Kipas or "Fan God".[20][21] Rozman suspected that his opponent was cheating, and he reported his opponent's account to the Chess.com Fair Play Team. Dewa_Kipas' account was later closed for cheating (and Dewa_Kipas later was unable to play at a high level in a series of live matches),[22] which drew backlash from Indonesian netizens and resulted in Rozman being harassed on social media. Rozman later went private on his social media accounts and took a short hiatus from streaming.[20][21]
On July 11, 2022, Rozman announced his retirement from "competitive chess events" due to physical and mental stress.[23][24]
On October 14, 2021, Rozman announced the Levy Rozman Scholarship Fund, through which he is donating $100,000 to elementary-, middle-, and high-school chess programs. The fund is administered by ChessKid, a subsidiary of Chess.com, and schools can be awarded between $5,000 and $15,000 to pay for the costs of training, tournament fees, and travel expenses.[25]
Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
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2022 | The Streamer Awards | Best Chess Streamer | Nominated | [26] |