Making Chess Interesting In Under A Minute

Sabri Can Onay Yantar, better known to viewers simply as Sabo, is Turkiye's biggest chess content creator. Long before he caught the eye of Chess24 (which eventually brought him to Chess.com) Sabo was turning short-form content into an art form on Instagram and YouTube, first with Emre Hasgulec on what later became Chess24 Turkce, and then on his own channel.

Now, Sabo is the December 2025 Creator of the Month for everything he has done not only for the Turkish chess community but for short form content, with his personal channel consistently producing shorts with over a million views each. He also recently published a book! For this article, Sabo spoke about his decision to leave his career for chess content, his advice to people who want to create great short-form content, his new book, and much more.

How long have you been creating chess content, and what made you decide to start?

I was studying aerospace engineering at a technical university, and chess was my biggest hobby. Even though I was not a professional chess player, I was rated about 1900 Elo so I started thinking of ways to spread my knowledge and passion about chess. I created a channel with my friend from university. 

It was about nine years ago when we started, and we tried a lot of different videos and livestreams, but after I graduated, I found a job working as an aircraft maintenance engineer. Right after that, one of our videos blew up. I had not been planning to be a YouTuber, but that video got me very excited. A year later, I quit my job. By then our channel had 80,000 subscribers, and it was only in Turkish. After one more year of focusing on the channel, it reached 100,000, and we got an offer from Chess24.

So we sold our YouTube channel to them, and we both had an agreement to be Turkish language managers. I also helped with their YouTube channel because I had experience with thumbnails, video ideas, and titles.

Then they were thinking about starting a new channel and asked if I could manage it from zero, grow subscribers, and generate revenue. I started that channel, Chess24.5. I actually came up with the name. It started growing really fast, and we began to make money from it. I also started to build a team in English.

I was still recording videos in Turkish and live streaming every week, or during most tournaments. Then there was also an offer from Magnus's team to manage Magnus Carlsen's channels, and I started managing those as well. So I was making strategic decisions for the Chess24.5 channel and the Magnus channel.

During that time, I moved to Barcelona, but I continued Chess24 Turkish until Chess.com bought Chess24.

While we were still figuring out my role at Chess.com, I knew there was an opportunity to create my own YouTube channel as well. My Instagram was growing; I had around 30,000 followers there and people were already recognizing me on the streets. 

I started my channel two or three years ago and grew it steadily; it's up to 330,000 subscribers now. I try to find time, which is not easy, but sometimes I stream for Chess.com Turkish while also streaming on my own channel, even though I am not a titled player. Sometimes I watch games of Magnus and Hikaru and stream those. Arena Kings was a really nice tournament in the past. I also play against my followers and play on Chess.com. 

At the same time, I don't only stream. I also create content, such as highlights of games, or traveling to play against fans. For example, last week I played against [GMs] Vincent Keymer, Arjun Erigaisi, and Fabiano Caruana. I create content around those experiences as well.

Mainly, I have grown my YouTube and Instagram followers through shorts. I also work on short-form content management at Chess.com. After I joined Chess.com, about one year later, they asked me to manage short-form content, and now I do that while also serving the Turkish community.

So you said you quit the aerospace work at 80,000 YouTube subscribers. That seems a little early for most people. How did you feel about doing that at the time?

That's true, actually. Looking back now, it was super early. I struggled in the first year because I couldn't make money. I had changed my field, and for what?

I can say that I struggled for that year, but it helped a lot later on. For example, when I joined Chess24 and talked about thumbnails, titles, and content ideas, it was thanks to focusing on my own channel and content. I understood content creation and my fans much better.

I can say that I struggled for that year, but it helped a lot.

I really love the saying about how perfect can be the enemy of the good. But also, if you're already good at something, you might not want to risk anything to become excellent. So while my decision looked risky for a while, I'm happy that it turned out so well.

What's your favorite thing about creation, the process, and what makes it fun to be doing all that?

It's really nice to meet so many people. I'm a social guy, so from the beginning I was thinking that on social media I could meet a lot of people and influence people through chess. I can find a lot of people to play with, and I can also connect the community together.

Maybe that is the most important thing. For example, I had a recent book signing event which was awesome. About 300-400 people were there, and it wasn't just me meeting them. They were also meeting each other. I saw some stories where they got to know each other and were discussing things about the book and about chess.

It wasn't just me meeting them. They were also meeting each other.

Tell us a little more about the book.

I was really happy when a Turkish publisher came up with an idea. I considered writing some chess puzzles with stories about the puzzles, but I was still thinking about it like short-term content. They wanted something else, and we realized that my personal story was interesting. I quit my job, and then chess changed my life. The book's name is also about this: Life Changes with Chess. You can also translate it Chess Changed My Life.

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I wrote some about high school and university, and then I realized that I met a lot of people through chess. I was in tournaments, and maybe some people who read the book also had similar stories. I even met Danny and Erik met in tournaments. Now, I mostly visit tournaments, and I meet the best chess players and have conversations with them. 

It's a very unique thing. For example, chatting with Magnus about chess is such a privilege. I was thinking that people should know about those conversations because they are about chess. So basically, the book includes puzzles within memories, puzzles from specific occasions, and also how Magnus felt about those puzzles.

You said about your book that originally you had some idea of basically taking the short form you do and turning that into the book. What is it about the short form either that you like, that you prefer to long form, or that you think makes you so good at that?

It's a good question. I love long-form content and live streaming as well. Especially as a creator, I can say that I really love live streaming because we connect with people. I realized that live streaming is one of the best ways to increase subscriber numbers. When you say, "Please subscribe," people do it because they feel close to you. They write comments, you can see the chat directly, and you can answer them in real time. Basically, I can say that meeting fans in real life is the first thing, and the second thing is live streaming, because you can connect with them.

What I like about short-form content is that it's super quick. If you design short-form content very well, you can reach a huge audience.

I actually have a story about this. At university, one of my friends got invited to our chess club during a festival. We had tents where we were playing chess and inviting people to join. Some friends of friends said, "No, I don't like chess, it's super boring." At that moment, I thought, if I had two minutes with you, I could make chess interesting. That's what short-form content is for me.

If I had two minutes with you, I could make chess interesting. That's what short-form content is for me.

For example, in Turkey right now, of course I'm a chess creator, but many people know me even if they are not interested in chess. Sometimes people tell me, "I see you on Instagram all the time. You're always on my feed!" That makes me happy. That's why I really love short-form content.

Especially lately, short-form content has become very important for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. I focused on it because the world is quickly moving in that direction—retention rate and everything. People are distracted all the time. So short-form content is very important, and I've mastered that area.

It's interesting that, from the shortest to the longest type of content, they're all accomplishing the same thing. 

What goes into designing a good short form piece? If someone else is trying to get into that space, what advice would you give them?

Thumbnails and titles are important in short form. They come from the same idea of attracting attention. You only have one or two seconds. If you don’t say something really interesting, people can get distracted. They might just check Instagram and stop listening to the story. This is even true just in a conversation with your friends. Always start with a hook.

I also want to say, and this is more about live streaming, but because I come from engineering I love data analytics. I check analytics all the time: which video performed well, how many views it got, and things like that. It’s especially important in live streaming because the system works differently. Live streams appear on the homepage. Some people join, some people leave. Mathematically, if more people join than leave, the stream grows.

So when I’m telling a story, I constantly check the number of concurrent viewers. I train myself to understand how my story is working. If it’s a good story and the numbers are increasing, I know it’s working. Basically, I trained myself to do that. So I’m not only familiar with the chess audience, but also with general audiences.

What other creators do you think are really doing good work? Maybe one or two of your other favorite creators.

It's very hard question because I've become friends with so many of them. I know Levy, I know the Botez sisters, I know Dina. But I can say that, in Turkish, I'll always enjoy making content with Emre.