Playing Against GothamChess? My Games Against Chess Streamers - Part 3 - Levy Rozman
Today I share the next part of my 'games against streamers' series and due to popular demand I simply had to show some of my games against the most followed chess Youtuber in the world, Levy Rozman aka GothamChess. I first encountered Levy in the early days of the Chess.com streamer program where we dueled in 2018 during the inaugural season of the Arena Kings Championships.
Levy is an International Master born and bred in New York, a place famous for housing many of the world's best chess players in the last century. Levy is best known for his incredible rise on both Youtube and Twitch over the past few years, culminating in his becoming one of the most popular chess personalities in the world.
With content targeted at the beginner to intermediate level, Levy's videos are instructive and entertaining and as Levy puts it himself, they cater to the masses.
The Score
Since 2018, I have played Levy in a total of eight blitz games with the current score sitting at 3-5 Levy's way. We have played a number of bullet chess games as well however for the purpose of showing quality games in this series I have omitted these games.
Before A Star Was Born
Long before GothamChess was a household channel in the chess world, Levy and I faced twice in blitz games that were wildly different from one another. The first was a positional struggle where, despite defending courageously, Levy was able to outplay a 2,200 me.
Our second game was a very short 13-move win I conjured, probably thanks to the game being played in the Arena Kings tournament which encourages the stronger player to rush their games in order to jump up the leaderboard.
A Brutal Tactician
Two years later we would play a series of games once more. This time though Levy was backed by an army of Twitch supporters who could watch the action unfold. Levy launched his h-pawn up the board and proceeded to maim my kingside. With a stranded king in the middle and a material deficit, I tried several tricks which were to no avail.
Levy Laments The Levitsky
Despite having a negative record against the chess titan, I am proud of one or two of the victories I have had. In particular, the following game seemed to shake Levy up a bit where I employed the bizarre Levitsky Attack (almost a play on words).
Where To Find GothamChess?
I personally love watching Gotham on Youtube, particularly his recaps of high-level tournaments. GothamChess posts on a daily basis and is always looking to balance education with entertainment. He can also be found over on Twitch almost daily.
Who's Next?
After more than 10 years on Chess.com I have certainly played a lot of the top personalities on the site. So far I have covered my games against Eric Rosen and Hikaru Nakamura as well as Levy.
Perhaps next I should cover some of my best 'Botez Gambits against the sisters themselves or the witty GM Benjamin Finegold. Chess.com commentators GMs Daniel Naroditsky and Robert Hess are players I have also played against in the past but at the end of the day, it is up to you!
Let me know in the comments which other content creators you'd like me to cover in the near future.
