Introducing - Stroopwafels

Greetings and salutations to you all in the first of what I hope will be many blog posts that will focus mainly on the community of an amazing chess player who is also a streamer on Twitch and probably one of the most popular Dutch chess players outside of grandmasters. Buckle up and join us on the journey, or better yet, join our fantastic community. Let me assure you, it's worth every second!

But who are we actually talking about? Well, no more delays. Please welcome Anna-Maja Kazarian. (@annamaja).

Background and chess success

Anna-Maja is a well-known chess personality in the Netherlands and even internationally since she began her streaming career. Although her parents are originally from Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, she was born and raised in Heerenveen.

She has a peak FIDE rating of 2320, which she achieved in 2016 and she has represented the Netherlands at the Chess Olympiad and the European Team Chess Championship. She also won Under 16 European Chess Championship back in 2015, with a score of 7,5/9.

Apart from her chess success, in late 2020, she joined the Stichting ChessQueens (ChessQueens Foundation), an organization run by many of the leading women's chess players in the Netherlands (including GM Peng Zhaoqin and WGM Anne Haast) with the goals of supporting the top women's players in the country and more broadly to encourage the participation of Dutch women and girls in chess.

Apart from this, she is also signed with Alliance, professional e-sports organization, as a part of their chess division, becoming the first professional chess player in the history of the organization. She also runs a YouTube channel, posting highlights from her streams, game analyses and much more content. Drop by to check yourself!

The community

Anna-Maja's community, based on Discord, is known under the nickname "Stroopwafels". A stroopwafel is a traditional Dutch sweet, a thin, round waffle cookie made from two layers held together by a caramel filling. It's definitely a must-try if you ever visit the Netherlands!

(It's also one of Anna-Maja's sinful temptations apart from Haribo bears and khachapuri, traditional Georgian street food which is apparently incredibly hard to find in the Netherlands.)

Chess-related things

The community features chess players and fans regardless of their chess knowledge and skills, from full-time professional players to complete beginners. If you love chess, you will be right at home - we discuss chess, post our games, create customs puzzles from our games for others to solve and run group Puzzle Rushes! The most loyal and long-term followers and subscribers often represent the Stroopwafels in Sub Battles against teams of other chess streamers, and play each other in Viewer Arenas and custom-made tournaments organized within the community.

Everyone is welcomed

But even if you are not completely indulged in chess, don't hesitate to join. You can discuss basically anything, as long as its within the decorum and laws of course. We are definitely not only chess orientated. We discuss other sports, music, movies and shows, pets, we post photos we take, we even indulge ourselves in civilized politics talks. There's something for everyone to enjoy. And trust me, I speak from long-time experiece.

I have been a long-time member of the community for nearly three years, since April 2020, and thanks to it, I have made many friends, including Anna-Maja herself. Due to my profession and hobbies, I am known in the community as the Sports Reporter, and sort of a table tennis fanatic - but above all, I am a chess lover, fan and player.

Come and join us

But this is not about me, not at all. This is about all of us. We have many great members who are incredible fun to interact with - including an Australian guy who regularly postpones his sleeping schedule to watch streams, another one who likes to pose as a Sceptile, a cycling enthusiast and many more. And also a great chess player and coach Vlad-Bogdan Ghita (visit his page for custom profiled training sessions, he's awesome! Above 2000 FIDE rated at the moment!), many great moderators (even if they throw some bad jokes in the mill here and then), the best Emote Warlord on Discord and a large base of awesome members. I would love to list every single one here because all of them are great but sadly I can't.

If you want to meet us in person and become a part of our community, head over to Anna-Maja's profile and checked the Discord invitation posted there. We're looking forward to meeting you and learning more about you!