Remembering Luis Alfredo Perez (HarlemKnite)

With heavy hearts, we share that one of our wonderful community members and chess streamers, HarlemKnite, has passed away suddenly and unexpectedly after being hit by a drunk driver while walking his dog.

We want to honor the memory and celebrate the life of Luis Alfredo Perez, known to the Chess.com community as HarlemKnite. Even though many of us only knew him online, his positivity and kindness left a big impression on everyone.

Luis was well-liked and respected for his chess streaming, for his incredible positivity and kindness, and for the passion and commitment that he had for so many things: the game of chess, his family, his faith, and his amazing fitness journey in which he lost over 140 pounds.

Below is one of Luis's best games, with notes by NM Jeremy Kane, in which he defeated a player rated almost 600 Elo points higher. It's a result that he was rightfully very happy with.

Luis represented the best of what we could hope for the Chess.com community to be: kind, caring, enthusiastic, genuine, clever, and fun.

The sudden nature of his loss makes it especially difficult to deal with the grief and to process what has happened. To help his family during this unexpected and awful time, a GoFundMe has been set up:

Donate to support HarlemKnite's family

Chess.com has contributed $1,000 to go towards Luis's funeral and memorial costs, and the travel costs required for his loved ones to be together.

There are no words to convey what his family is feeling right now, while also being faced with the practical and logistical challenges of saying goodbye to Luis. Let’s do our best to support them as much as we can during this moment.

With love,

The Chess.com team.