Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 2: Today is a little different from my usual routine of
Speaker 2: getting out of bed, showering and putting on makeup and
Speaker 2: getting ready for stream. Today, I'm going to be playing
Speaker 2: some chess over at Downtown LA Chess Club.
Speaker 1: A large part of my day revolves.
Speaker 2: Around making chess content, and one of the key parts
Speaker 2: to making good chess content is finding interesting people to
Speaker 2: play against it. Downtown LA has a lot of interesting
Speaker 2: people to play against, so I'm very excited about this.
Speaker 1: Usually I will live.
Speaker 2: Stream it on my Twitch channel, but I think I'm
Speaker 2: just going to record on my camera.
Speaker 1: All right, let's head out.
Speaker 2: This is finally a show about a chess grandmaster, online gamer,
Speaker 2: and poker player.
Speaker 1: Hi, my name is Neimo.
Speaker 2: I am a woman grandmaster in chess, and today we
Speaker 2: are here to play some.
Speaker 1: Of the members of this chess club.
Speaker 2: We're in downtown LA and this is a little coffee
Speaker 2: shop right on Broadway, and it is my second time here.
Speaker 2: So the first time I got here, it was really
Speaker 2: fun and I thought this would be a This is
Speaker 2: a really nice atmosphere to play chess in La. Hello, Joe,
Speaker 2: how's it going good? So Joe and I have known
Speaker 2: each other for actually not that long, right, Like we've
Speaker 2: known each other but not actually known each other.
Speaker 3: The first time we met probably is somewhere like in
Speaker 3: Vegas probably, like we.
Speaker 2: Never really got to like actually hang out and stuff.
Speaker 2: And then recently we both well, he is the actual
Speaker 2: commissioner for the Collegiate Chess League, so he does a
Speaker 2: big deal for the chess community in college. And I
Speaker 2: was his co host for the Collegiate Chess League, which
Speaker 2: is how we actually got to know each other. And yeah,
Speaker 2: now we hang out sometimes since play chess.
Speaker 3: Did you want to play with the clock or no?
Speaker 1: I'm down to play with the clock here.
Speaker 2: Sometimes people play at these clubs with no time control,
Speaker 2: which I'm personally not a fan of because a big
Speaker 2: advantage of mine.
Speaker 1: Joe is flagging you, so he knows this.
Speaker 3: I've played Nimo before. It's always an honor. She's definitely
Speaker 3: the better player. So if I could get an upset win,
Speaker 3: that'd be great.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I think Joe honestly understells himself. Sometimes
Speaker 2: he's actually really solid on the board.
Speaker 1: So go let Joe you ready.
Speaker 2: So I was born in jing Jo, a town very
Speaker 2: close to Wuhan in central China, and I lived with
Speaker 2: my grandparents and my parents. My parents took me to
Speaker 2: Beijing around like two, and then they actually ended up
Speaker 2: leaving China for Europe for France when I was pretty young.
Speaker 2: I don't exactly remember like when, but around the age
Speaker 2: of three, my parents took me over to France with them,
Speaker 2: So it ended up being like my start of not
Speaker 2: living in China, I guess.
Speaker 1: But yeah, before then, I was like speaking.
Speaker 2: Mandarin, I was learning Mandarin, and then at three my
Speaker 2: parents took me to France. My parents were moving around
Speaker 2: a bunch because they were both academics in the university,
Speaker 2: and in the early two thousands, China was like starting
Speaker 2: to become a bit more open to well open to
Speaker 2: the Russell the world, I guess, and they were also
Speaker 2: sending out students to study abroad and to do research abroad.
Speaker 2: So at that time, my parents were one of the
Speaker 2: first that actually left China to go work in universities
Speaker 2: in Europe. And that's why my dad ended up at
Speaker 2: Sofia Antipolice in Antivue in southern France. I believe that
Speaker 2: research center is actually still there, and we've gone back
Speaker 2: to antiv a few times, not specifically to that place,
Speaker 2: but he was working there, so he brought me, he
Speaker 2: brought my mom over, and my parents ended up staying
Speaker 2: in France for a year, and that's kind of where
Speaker 2: I actually started learning French. So my mom was going
Speaker 2: for her I think at that time she had a
Speaker 2: master's in I can't remember what. I only know what
Speaker 2: her PhD is, but I think my mom has a
Speaker 2: master's in like political science or something similar. Anyway, she
Speaker 2: was really really good at English. Like at a time
Speaker 2: when large parts of China didn't really speak English, went
Speaker 2: really familiar with like Western culture and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: my mom was really good at English. Was doing broadcasts
Speaker 2: on TV in English and stuff like that, so her
Speaker 2: level of English was much higher relative to like, you know,
Speaker 2: your average Chinese. And she insisted that I learned English
Speaker 2: from a really young age because of that, and because
Speaker 2: we were you know, moving away from China and we
Speaker 2: didn't know when we were going to go back to China.
Speaker 2: So I learned ended up learning Mandarin from obviously my parents,
Speaker 2: that's what I still speak with them, but my mom
Speaker 2: also in such that that I learned English, and then
Speaker 2: in like kindergarten and stuff, I would learn French, so
Speaker 2: I ended up speaking like all three languages, like pretty young.
Speaker 2: And that's actually where I started playing chess, was in
Speaker 2: Antibe when I was around three, In like ten months,
Speaker 2: we were walking by to the beach like it's just beautiful,
Speaker 2: like southern France is beautiful, and I loved it. But
Speaker 2: we would go down to the beach every day and
Speaker 2: there was a chess club opposite this little bakery, so
Speaker 2: we would. I one day I was like, oh, I
Speaker 2: want some cookies, and then I went over to the
Speaker 2: chess club saw the pieces and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: I love the shape of the horsey, like I want
Speaker 2: to play with this. So some gentlemen at the club
Speaker 2: taught me the rules of the game. I believe his
Speaker 2: name was Jill. We still like roughly keep like he
Speaker 2: still keeps in contact with my parents every now and
Speaker 2: then and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: It's very wholesome.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's like, you know, the chess road isn't
Speaker 2: very big and the club was pretty small. I was
Speaker 2: in southern France and I was like pretty quickly beating
Speaker 2: like ten year old kids and stuff like that, like yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm really scared that I'm actually gonna lose my first game.
Speaker 2: Joe is so focused right now, Joe is trying so
Speaker 2: hard a chance.
Speaker 3: To play you last time you were here, so trying
Speaker 3: to make the most of it.
Speaker 2: You know, it's really fun and chess when you like
Speaker 2: have multiple people that you see regularly, and like you
Speaker 2: can have these matches that can go on forever. Like
Speaker 2: you know, how you can have like you can sit down,
Speaker 2: set a time for a day and then like play
Speaker 2: against them that day, like five games or something. Or
Speaker 2: you can have like I wouldn't call it a rival
Speaker 2: rivalry between me and Joe, but like you can basically
Speaker 2: just have an ongoing sequence, like you're keeping track, Like
Speaker 2: I think right now, I've probably won two games against
Speaker 2: Joe and maybe we've drawn one.
Speaker 1: Would you say that's accurate?
Speaker 3: I actually haven't been keeping as much track.
Speaker 2: Okay, sorry, I always keep track of my wins and
Speaker 2: losses against my friends.
Speaker 3: Remembers. You're definitely losing at twitch Con and then I
Speaker 3: threw so that I.
Speaker 2: Definitely remember, and I can't remember if we drew that
Speaker 2: game or if I won that game. Oh okay, so
Speaker 2: then I probably don't have any losses currently against Joe.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about that?
Speaker 2: So Another really fun part about playing in a little
Speaker 2: coffee shop is being able to trash talk. You don't
Speaker 2: rarely get to do that in a tournament. Well, first
Speaker 2: of all, you're not allowed to talk in a tournament.
Speaker 2: You're also not allowed to have a video, Like you're
Speaker 2: not really allowed to have a phone or anything in
Speaker 2: a tournament at all. Which is why I've always found
Speaker 2: playing and streaming at a little chess club a lot
Speaker 2: more like, I don't know, engaging for me personally, not
Speaker 2: that when I play a chess tournament, it's not like
Speaker 2: my brain isn't on, But here I'm able to like
Speaker 2: distract him. He's currently thinking about what moved. Yeah, Joe
Speaker 2: is thinking about what to do. And sometimes it's great
Speaker 2: because you can use multiple strategies. You can think like, oh,
Speaker 2: I could distract my opponent right now, and I actually
Speaker 2: need to do that. He's got a minute fifty one
Speaker 2: on the clock and I have two minutes forty five.
Speaker 1: But my position looks terrible right around.
Speaker 2: For my mom would like just take me to the
Speaker 2: beach every day, and she would come with me, and
Speaker 2: she didn't really know how to play chess at all,
Speaker 2: Like I played little Chinese chess with my dad. But
Speaker 2: my mom would just take me to the club and
Speaker 2: I would sit there and learn, and like I would
Speaker 2: learn all the rules and then I would start, you know,
Speaker 2: playing against other kids and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And then at home, my dad.
Speaker 2: Learned how to play chess because you know, he was like, oh,
Speaker 2: my daughter's getting into the game, so we should play
Speaker 2: against each other. And I remember I used to get
Speaker 2: really really mad at him when like he would beat me.
Speaker 2: So I think like my competitive streak came out really young,
Speaker 2: but as kind of like a result of me beating
Speaker 2: a lot of the kids, like much older kids on
Speaker 2: my club. The people at the club insisted that I
Speaker 2: start playing in regional tournaments.
Speaker 1: And in France, they have this.
Speaker 2: Age group called petit poisson, so you are, like, I
Speaker 2: think it's for under eight. I can't even remember exactly
Speaker 2: what age group, but it's like the youngest age group still.
Speaker 1: Obviously I was like four, everybody's like twice my.
Speaker 2: Age, you know, But I was playing in those and
Speaker 2: I like, I think the very first tournament I played in,
Speaker 2: I came second or third in the regional tournament, and
Speaker 2: that actually led me to play in the national championship.
Speaker 1: For France.
Speaker 2: So I played national championship for France when I was
Speaker 2: like four years old or something. Flagging in chess means
Speaker 2: that your opponent runs out of time, whether they are
Speaker 2: too slow, like like Joe in this case.
Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm just trash talking him for just for fun.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, but if he runs out of time, if
Speaker 2: his clock goes down to zero, he's going to just
Speaker 2: lose the game.
Speaker 1: So that's what he's trying to avoid.
Speaker 2: What I'm trying to do is play faster than him,
Speaker 2: so therefore it makes him use more time. So this
Speaker 2: is a big strategy for me, at least personally playing chess.
Speaker 2: It's much less of a strategy for Joe. As you
Speaker 2: can tell he is. He's a tats lower. He's currently
Speaker 2: got thirty seconds and I've got sixty three.
Speaker 1: Sixty three seconds. Oh, you're coming from my pond. No,
Speaker 1: I don't trust you at all. Okay, I'm going to
Speaker 1: move my night back here.
Speaker 2: To age seven because I absolutely don't want to risk
Speaker 2: losing this pawn, and then I'll take with the rook
Speaker 2: on east seven.
Speaker 1: All right, I'll move my king here.
Speaker 4: Because I I don't want to deal with this long diagonal.
Speaker 2: I don't think there was any specific reason. There wasn't
Speaker 2: like any No, my parents weren't really gaming or they
Speaker 2: didn't really play chess. Like obviously, my parents are very
Speaker 2: smart and very you know, they study very hard and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, so maybe I got some of those
Speaker 2: traits from them. And they were both academics, so maybe
Speaker 2: that like really helped with the learning process. I would say,
Speaker 2: like I think from a very young age they were
Speaker 2: like pretty aware of how to become good at something,
Speaker 2: even if it wasn't their thing, just because you know,
Speaker 2: becoming professors and stuff like that, it's pretty difficult. So
Speaker 2: the story continues actually because we moved to Finland when
Speaker 2: I was five, like maybe like right around four four
Speaker 2: or five. But they were well, I think my dad
Speaker 2: got a new pause as a researcher in Finland, and
Speaker 2: then my mom started doing a PhD in English in
Speaker 2: this university in Finland. It's called the University of Olu.
Speaker 2: It's pretty far up north. So we moved there sometime
Speaker 2: either late two thousand and four or early two thousand
Speaker 2: and five. And I really only remember this because I
Speaker 2: started playing chess in Finland, and the very first year
Speaker 2: I started playing chess in Finland, I won the national
Speaker 2: championships for like under ten boys because they were like
Speaker 2: no female players in Finland at that time, and they
Speaker 2: only had open sections. Because in Scandinavia, like the gender
Speaker 2: equality issue is much less of an issue and like
Speaker 2: they don't really think.
Speaker 1: Twice about it.
Speaker 2: It's not like in I would say, in North America,
Speaker 2: it's like much more commonly acknowledged that you have like
Speaker 2: the women's section and then you have the open section.
Speaker 2: So in chess, women are always allowed to play in
Speaker 2: the open section, but there's also a women's section to
Speaker 2: encourage females from playing chess because historically we've just had
Speaker 2: a ton of issues, Like you.
Speaker 1: Know, it's just it's there to encourage women to play.
Speaker 1: I'm going to.
Speaker 2: Joe's looking for checkmate, which is very rude. If he
Speaker 2: checkmates me, I lose the game.
Speaker 4: It is part of the game, but it's still very rude.
Speaker 1: I thought we were friends, Joe.
Speaker 3: I thought you were trying to do the same thing
Speaker 3: to me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true, I mean I am, but like I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm a lot further from that than you are.
Speaker 2: Oh man, okay, this is my warm up game. If
Speaker 2: I lose it's always a warm up game.
Speaker 1: That's how it goes in chess. Yeah. So at the
Speaker 1: same time.
Speaker 2: I was the only female player, but I was also
Speaker 2: so young. I don't think I even like recognized, Like
Speaker 2: I didn't care what my gender was at five years old.
Speaker 2: So they didn't have an under eight section, So I
Speaker 2: was playing against kids that were like nine or ten
Speaker 2: years old. And when you're like five years old playing
Speaker 2: against people that are like nine or ten, it makes
Speaker 2: a big difference.
Speaker 1: All Right, he's picking up the pace. He got tired
Speaker 1: of the trash talking.
Speaker 2: He's also probably tired of all the times I flagged him,
Speaker 2: so it goes both ways.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to really make sure that Oh.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know what, that's a good move. Yeah, he
Speaker 2: just took one of my pawns. And I don't like
Speaker 2: that very much because now I am down upon Yeah,
Speaker 2: being down material and chess is the worst. Oh man,
Speaker 2: all right, Joe, I am coming to flag you. And
Speaker 2: that's oh oh oh, I missed this. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I super missed this. My game is looking pretty over. Unfortunately,
Speaker 2: I am in a big pickle. But Joe only has
Speaker 2: five seconds left on the clock and he's making some
Speaker 2: pretty suspicious some pretty suspicious moves. I lost some time,
Speaker 2: so as you can tell, I was not winning that game, right.
Speaker 2: But because this is like a club game, because this
Speaker 2: is like a friendly game, I'm able to play for
Speaker 2: the flag. And I would play for the flag in
Speaker 2: a tournament anyhow, I would do it anyways. But it
Speaker 2: works better in this kind of setting because usually for
Speaker 2: chess tournaments, time controls are significantly longer. So usually chess
Speaker 2: tournaments have like ninety minutes plus thirty seconds after your move,
Speaker 2: and it's like, yeah, I play pretty fast in chess
Speaker 2: this time, Joe, you should try to not flag. I
Speaker 2: think your chess is really good. I think the only
Speaker 2: issue you might have is time for sure. Right around
Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, twenty twenty, I think is when COVID really hit.
Speaker 2: Everything's at school moved online, so I just have so
Speaker 2: much time. And one of my friends had already been
Speaker 2: live streaming for a little bit on twitch before then.
Speaker 2: She's a Stanford graduates and is one of the pioneers
Speaker 2: of like chess on twitch, so live streaming chess and
Speaker 2: that was never really something I'd even thought about at
Speaker 2: that time because I was like done with chess. For
Speaker 2: the most part. I played a couple of tournaments here
Speaker 2: and there. We actually won like a Canadian University championships.
Speaker 2: While I was in Universe, like I was just doing
Speaker 2: chess like on a very chill level, like not on
Speaker 2: the world club stage, just like Canadian school.
Speaker 1: It was fun.
Speaker 2: And then she started like getting me into this live
Speaker 2: streaming thing with chess.
Speaker 1: So we played a match on stream and I beat.
Speaker 2: Her ten zero, and people were like really impressed by that,
Speaker 2: and she was like, well, you should come back, we
Speaker 2: should do you should stream.
Speaker 1: On my channel, live stream on my channel.
Speaker 2: And she paid me like basically hourly, and it was
Speaker 2: better than the part time job at that time, which
Speaker 2: was going all the way to like northern Toronto to
Speaker 2: like teach little kids chess. I was getting paid like
Speaker 2: maybe sixty dollars an hour, like sixty Canadian an hour,
Speaker 2: So yeah, I was really good. It was basically the
Speaker 2: equivalent of taking a TA job like at university.
Speaker 1: So I was like really happy with that.
Speaker 4: And then with streaming, it was like very convenient because
Speaker 4: I could.
Speaker 1: Do it from home.
Speaker 2: And obviously all the clubs shut down and stuff because
Speaker 2: of COVID, so nothing in person at that time, I
Speaker 2: wasn't really on the best terms with my parents still
Speaker 2: because of chess, and I just got home and streamed
Speaker 2: at their place for like maybe two months. Like my
Speaker 2: mom still had this mindset that I should be winning
Speaker 2: in chess all the time. And it was really weird,
Speaker 2: like I'm doing this because people want to see it,
Speaker 2: not because like people really care that much from winning
Speaker 2: or not, like sure, it's better. And I got really upset,
Speaker 2: and I moved out of the house with my best
Speaker 2: friend and we just got a place in downtown Toronto,
Speaker 2: and I would say that's where things really kicked off.
Speaker 1: Mikey.
Speaker 2: Nice to meet you, Mikey.
Speaker 1: I'm Nemo. Nemo.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes, like the captain.
Speaker 1: Yeah, your pieces are set up.
Speaker 2: I have to set up mine on death correct, and
Speaker 2: I will be talking to Yeah, totally fine.
Speaker 1: Okay, sorry, not easy to distract. Not easy to distract. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's amazing, it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, good luck, Mikey.
Speaker 1: Do you come to the club off of Mikey I
Speaker 1: do a.
Speaker 2: Regular So currently Mikey is playing the Spanish This is
Speaker 2: my favorite opening. I play as both black and white,
Speaker 2: so I hope you're ready Castle.
Speaker 4: This is very standard so far, and how long have
Speaker 4: you been playing.
Speaker 1: Chess for fifty years?
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, well we definitely found someone who's been
Speaker 2: playing chess for longer.
Speaker 1: Than I have. Does mean I'm so strong?
Speaker 4: Okay, so we're going into the chigorin line.
Speaker 1: A gentleman knows this theory, you're correct, but now what now?
Speaker 1: What is the big question?
Speaker 2: So fury in chess is this thing where like you
Speaker 2: just kind of have to know the openings, and theory
Speaker 2: is just the term we use for openings that have
Speaker 2: been previously discovered, for openings that everybody is like well
Speaker 2: aware of. Okay, yeah, I'm going to just take your
Speaker 2: pond back over here.
Speaker 4: So your bishop is has wasted a move.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you don't really ever want to lose tempo in
Speaker 2: chess because you just sort of like it's basically losing
Speaker 2: a move. You lose time, and you don't have that
Speaker 2: much time in life, and you don't have that much
Speaker 2: time in chess.
Speaker 3: You don't get that much time.
Speaker 2: It's true, I'm actually gonna move my knight back. So
Speaker 2: with tempo, he didn't technically lose a move, but he
Speaker 2: made a move and then brought the piece back to
Speaker 2: where it initially started, so it's kind of like losing
Speaker 2: a move. It's what he wanted to do, so I
Speaker 2: wouldn't call it exactly losing a move, but it's close.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 2: I signed with an esports organization called Countlogic Gaming. Unfortunately
Speaker 2: they are disbanded now, but back then they were one
Speaker 2: of the biggest esport organizations for Legal Legends. So I
Speaker 2: was really happy signing with them because I was a
Speaker 2: huge Legal Legends fan and they had me on as
Speaker 2: like a chess creator, but also like I could play,
Speaker 2: like play other things on stream, so that's what I
Speaker 2: was mostly just live streaming, and it went really really well.
Speaker 2: And that's sort of like what led me to move
Speaker 2: to LA because they were based here originally, and then
Speaker 2: I had a lot of friends that I moved here
Speaker 2: because of doing content, like whether it was YouTube or
Speaker 2: twitch or you know, just like regular influencer stuff. I
Speaker 2: should say, they all came here, so I decided to
Speaker 2: move to LA. So a lot of the time when
Speaker 2: I'm playing chess, I have the position already in my head,
Speaker 2: and if he makes a move, he could tell me
Speaker 2: what move he made and I would still be able
Speaker 2: to make my next move just because like I don't
Speaker 2: need to look at the board to be able to
Speaker 2: do Yeah.
Speaker 1: It just comes from having played so much chess. That's
Speaker 1: where the skill being able.
Speaker 4: To play blindfolded chess actually comes from.
Speaker 1: Once you've played so much chess.
Speaker 2: Like right now, if I close my eyes and he
Speaker 2: said I know, he said played B three, but if
Speaker 2: he just told me the next move, I would still
Speaker 2: be able.
Speaker 1: To be like, oh, I can go rook a to
Speaker 1: D eight.
Speaker 2: Every single square and chess has coordinates. People think that
Speaker 2: playing blindfolded chess is really really difficult, and sure it is,
Speaker 2: but once you have enough knowledge of the board and
Speaker 2: I'm familiar with how pieces move, it's actually easier than
Speaker 2: people think. A lot of the time I would be
Speaker 2: live streaming, and when you live stream, people tune in,
Speaker 2: and I was averaging like probably around one thousand viewers
Speaker 2: like right off the get go, and that was like
Speaker 2: a really big deal on Twitch. Like one of those
Speaker 2: viewers on Twitch is like pretty pretty massive already. So
Speaker 2: the Esports organization literally signed me on a salary, so
Speaker 2: like I basically am signed to them as a creator.
Speaker 2: If they want to use me for publicity or if
Speaker 2: they want to use me like.
Speaker 1: To do ads or anything like that.
Speaker 2: So I could do whatever I wanted on stream and
Speaker 2: then a sponsored would pay me to play games for them.
Speaker 2: I would get paid to, for example, have like logos
Speaker 2: and stuff on stream. I would get paid for public
Speaker 2: appearances or like to do ads. I did a couple
Speaker 2: of like commercial ads during the pandemic. So I think
Speaker 2: at the start, I was making about one hundred and
Speaker 2: fifty thousand a year, and I was like huge, as
Speaker 2: like just a content creator that like had basically never
Speaker 2: done content creation before, like never light stream before.
Speaker 1: It was really really cool. I got to do a
Speaker 1: whole bunch of different media. I got to do like
Speaker 1: my own shoots.
Speaker 2: Mikey's playing really well here. It's very solid, right, very solid.
Speaker 3: I don't play very solid against you. It will be
Speaker 3: my last move.
Speaker 2: Making a mistake in higher level chess is usually very
Speaker 2: fatal exactly, not just for Mikey. But if I make
Speaker 2: a really bad move right now in this position where
Speaker 2: Mikey's trying to check Mame, I see what you're trying
Speaker 2: to do over there on the king side.
Speaker 1: With the knife. So here I have to be very careful.
Speaker 2: I'm not going to let you do what you want
Speaker 2: to do, which I think was Queen two age five. Yes,
Speaker 2: you're correct, I see you're getting rid of my knight
Speaker 2: on the outpost.
Speaker 1: I have to not let you win the pond, though.
Speaker 4: I can't get rid of the Yeah, I can't get
Speaker 4: rid of the nine, I think.
Speaker 1: But I don't know what Mike's rating is. But I think.
Speaker 2: Mikey's really good because he sees pieces that I have
Speaker 2: that are really good and he's like, I don't want
Speaker 2: this piece here, and he's getting rid of them, and
Speaker 2: that's a sign of a really strong chess player. I
Speaker 2: started playing poke fairly recently. If you can win in poker,
Speaker 2: it's very beneficial. It makes a lot more money than
Speaker 2: winning in chess. So I would definitely say I've grown
Speaker 2: over the last couple of years from that, like just
Speaker 2: doing a whole wide variety of like different stuff, like
Speaker 2: not just from live streaming. So poker is really awesome
Speaker 2: because it's very similar to chess in a way. The
Speaker 2: game is hard, but I also think that it's easier
Speaker 2: to play than chess because of the luck aspect to it.
Speaker 2: So you can have less experience in poker and do well,
Speaker 2: and that's kind of what I experienced for my first
Speaker 2: few months of playing poker, Like before this sponsored event,
Speaker 2: I obviously like dabbled a little bit, played a couple
Speaker 2: of like sponsored stuff on stream. I was like making
Speaker 2: a few thousand dollars here and there through sponsorships, and
Speaker 2: I thought that, like, because I basically had quit competitive
Speaker 2: chess at that time, I was like, oh, this is
Speaker 2: really cool. Like I'm never going to become a professional
Speaker 2: League of Life players, so I might as well as
Speaker 2: try becoming, you know, better.
Speaker 1: At this game.
Speaker 2: Thirty five seconds, when your clock runs under one minute,
Speaker 2: that's usually when the game gets really dicey. So I
Speaker 2: still have one minute, I have double double your time. Okay,
Speaker 2: I'll bring my bishop out and then play this, just
Speaker 2: trading off Queen's I have a pair of bishops. Then
Speaker 2: I'll play this. Oh and Mikey has flagged unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Long on time.
Speaker 1: But of course you're facing.
Speaker 2: Yourself and you can thank you very much Mikey for playing.
Speaker 1: That was fun, good game, good game.
Speaker 3: Sure to you.
Speaker 2: So right now I'm probably looking at, you know, continuing
Speaker 2: my streaming career. I'm going to keep live streaming for
Speaker 2: a little bit I'm looking to grow, not just necessarily
Speaker 2: in this chess and gaming space, but also in lifestyle.
Speaker 2: I've been working on like fashion projects and stuff for
Speaker 2: a little bit now, but this year, on the competitive
Speaker 2: side of things, I'm going to be playing a lot
Speaker 2: more poker. So that's what I'm most looking forward to
Speaker 2: is you know, I've done a lot of competitive chests
Speaker 2: in my life. I've played a little bit of competitive poker.
Speaker 2: But I also really want to see, like, oh, if
Speaker 2: I really put some time into a game that I
Speaker 2: really enjoy, how far can I take it? And I'm
Speaker 2: really excited for that because there was definitely times when
Speaker 2: I really like playing chess and it felt good and
Speaker 2: it felt good to be winning. So I kind of
Speaker 2: want to, like, you know, see where I can maybe
Speaker 2: go with that with poker.
Speaker 4: Okay, thank you, exchange. So this is no, no, don't
Speaker 4: lose your queen. Okay, So Joe almost blunder is queen.
Speaker 2: Oh I almost wondered my wing too, Oh my god.
Speaker 1: This is okay wait wait wait wait wait, but I
Speaker 1: have this move.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So blunder and chess is when you make a
Speaker 2: really big mistake, like if you lose your quinn in
Speaker 2: one move that's a huge mistake.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that can be a huge mistake. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Joe is going.
Speaker 2: To lose in this game because I'm gonna get check
Speaker 2: me soon.
Speaker 1: All right, good game, Joe, Thank you for playing. Today
Speaker 1: has been a lot of fun.
Speaker 2: I got to go out and got to play chess
Speaker 2: against some of the lovely members of the LA Chess Club.
Speaker 2: After workdays or after streaming and stuff, I usually try
Speaker 2: to cook myself some food, settle down. I've been recently
Speaker 2: binge watching Alone, which is my favorite show at the moment,
Speaker 2: and just kind of like relax and try to wind
Speaker 2: down for the night because I'm pretty tired typically at
Speaker 2: the end of such long days. So I'm wrapping up
Speaker 2: for bed. To you. Out to God, Rom