An Amazing Improver Story Backed By 'Really Great Community'

WCM Hannah Sayce has an impressive chess improvement story, and a unique one as well. Hannah worked all the way from a 700 Elo rating in 2021 to a 2200 rating in 2023, all while streaming her journey on Twitch. Earlier this year, Hannah earned the woman candidate master (WCM) title, and she has continued to produce great content week after week.

Chess.com is happy to name Hannah as our Creator of the Month for November 2025, a long overdue honor. For the occasion we spoke to her about her chess journey, advice for first-time streamers, and more.

The first question we usually ask is about when you started creating content what made you decide to start. More specifically, in your case, was it more that you wanted to get better because you were streaming, or you streamed to show the process of improvement?

I started streaming in about 2021, and that was pretty early in my chess journey. I remember watching The Queen's Gambit  and seeing some chess content online and I immediately had a lot of passion for chess and I really wanted to be good. I had played chess as a kid, so I wasn’t completely new to it, but definitely wasn’t great. But around then, one of my friends said I should try streaming. At the time, I thought that was only for grandmasters or professionals, but I learned that wasn’t the case, and there were streamers of all levels.

I think I really wanted to improve so that I could be a better streamer, and I’m also very competitive, so I constantly wanted to be better, and I still want to be better at chess now. I’m really happy that I got to take my viewers along with me on that journey too. 

As you got started, what did you like about it that made you keep going?

Straight away, I loved streaming. I've always enjoyed talking to a camera and talking with people. So streaming was great since I got to talk to people and play a game that I loved all day.

Straight away, I loved streaming.

When I first started streaming in 2021, I would stream six or more hours every single day. Now I look back on that and I think, "My gosh, how tiring!" I don't think I could still do that, since I’m busy with university studies and other things, but I did just love it. It was nice to find a community of people that I relate to and that I share a common interest with.

So do you have anyone that you modeled your own streaming after, or anyone you were a fan of or are a fan of?

When I first started watching chess content, I didn't even know that chess streaming was a thing, but I'd seen creators on YouTube. I'd started with watching GothamChess and then I saw one of IM Eric Rosen's videos. The title was something like, "I can't stop beating everyone with this opening," and it was a video on the Stafford Gambit. I watched that video and remember thinking it was so cool and that Eric Rosen was an awesome content creator.

Once I started streaming, I started being aware of a lot of other content creators like the Botez sisters, Anna Cramling, Nemo, Hikaru, of course. All those big creators that II look up to those creators a lot and think they make great content.

I'm also a fan of Eric. Did you ever play the Stafford?

When I started chess, I kind of had this idea that I wanted to play chess in the most "proper" way possible. I just googled “what are the best chess openings?” and it told me about the Sicilian Najdorf and the Ruy Lopez. So I decided to learn those openings, even though I was like 1000 Elo and everybody says not to learn complicated openings if you're below 2000. But I just wanted to learn the “best” openings and play chess how the pros did. So I didn't play a lot of gambits when I started, but now I enjoy some gambits and fun openings a lot more.

So basically you create the base of knowledge of openings and then you're able to expand out from there.

Yeah, exactly. I tried to start in the principled way and now I just play whatever is fun.

Do you have any particular favorite streams or specific things that you've done as a content creator?

About two months into streaming, my friend Jay connected me with Eric Rosen and we did a collab. That was really surreal at the time because he was a big inspiration for me. 

I remember a bunch of my friends got up and watch-partied that collab in a discord call, and they were all so proud of me. I told everyone, I was so excited. That was a very exciting part at the start of my streaming journey.

Then I feel like recently, in the last year or so, I've had so many exciting opportunities. Last year, I did a blindfold simul for the first time ever. That was something I never considered that I would be able to do a few years ago, and it was really fun to test my limits.

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And then I also have been able to do a lot of fun like marathon streams, that sort of thing. just streaming for ridiculous amount of time, which has been super cool as well.

That's great. I'm about 1700 Chess.com Blitz but I can't hold one position in my head blindfold after 10 or 15 moves!

For me, even two games was so difficult. And I think I ended up with two games in winning positions and two games in losing positions. But it was very cool. I never thought it would be possible, but a friend of mine, Aiden, reached out to me asking, "Do you want to try something crazy?" So I trained for the blindfold simul, and it was very challenging, but also rewarding now that I look back on it. 

Another example of pushing the limit of see what you can do. Yeah, that's great. is there anyone that you've haven't had the chance to collab with that you would like to and…Anyone that you can think of

One person that I haven't collabed with but I think it's really cool what she's doing in content creator world is [WGM] Dina Belenkaya. I think she has such a unique energy and she's so interesting. So, yeah, one day I'd like to collab with her.

And then is there anything else about just the process of how you create that you would tell maybe someone who else is considering trying to start?

To just to give it a go. I know they'll hear that from everyone, but really, do it. When I started streaming, I thought there was no chance that anybody would watch me play chess at all. The only thing that you can do is try and see if you like it.

Give it a go... really, do it. 

Whether streaming works out is really a little bit of luck and it's not for everyone. Some people might try it and realize that they hate it and they don't want to do it at all. I've had so many people I know that are incredible, exciting, charismatic people, but when they stream they're like, "No, this is not my thing."

But if you want to, just give it a go. That's all I think.

I'm just thinking back to you saying how, when you were starting, you were doing it for hours and hours at a time. And I wonder if to get off the ground you do have to kind of be doing that.

I started in 2021 during lockdown, when chess and Twitch were really massive. But the amount of people streaming wasn’t that many, you'd have maybe 30 people streaming. So, if you're streaming for eight hours, you pretty much always would get a raid from some other chess creator. And I remember very early when I started streaming, I got a BotezLive raid. That was so cool, and I really loved how the chess streamers would all support each other.

Now, of course, four years later, chess and streaming have changed a lot for me and in general. But it's a great community to be a part of.