Alyssazhu's Chess Stream Interrupted By Racist Rant

Warning: The following clips contain an aggressive display of racial harassment, including multiple expletives and a slur.

Chess streamer Alyssazhu was streaming live on Twitch from a park when her camera was knocked over before a racist rant against one of her opponents. 

Alyssazhu is a 22-year-old Canadian chess streamer with more than 20,000 followers. During a Twitch stream from Nathan Phillips Square in central Toronto last week, she experienced a shocking incident that was caught on the broadcast and the clip has now gone viral and currently has more than 90,000 views.

"I’ve never encountered anything like this in my previous couple of times streaming there," she tells Chess.com about the shocking incident.

Alyssa says she decided to take down the VOD of the stream due to the language that was used, but one clip is still available.

(Editors note: Chess.com would like to clarify that the individual that can be heard interacting in this video was not speaking with anyone that can be seen on this clip.)

Zhu says that her tripod and phone were knocked down by a spectator. "He just walked in front of my camera and knocked it down."

After the camera was put back in place, he directed a racist rant at another spectator, she says. Esports and gaming site Dexerto reported that the person was another spectator, but Zhu tells Chess.com that it was the same guy who knocked down her phone.

Off-camera, he can be heard saying, “I’m sitting here minding my business, you don’t f***ing think about me you f***ing goof. You f***ing stand there and f***ing vegetate you f***ing n*****.”

She explained: "The spectator was trying to take pictures and his phone was pointing in the general direction of the perpetrator, and it seems like the perpetrator thought he was being filmed, which he was not. I think this caused the racist rant.

"According to a member of my community who was there, he also had a bottle of liquor."

Alyssa and her opponent remained remarkably calm during the incident, as she didn't want to escalate the situation.

"I think it was obvious that this guy was drunk or high, and there was no point in engaging. There were quite a few people there so I didn’t feel any danger or threat, and eventually he walked away," she says.

"The guy was clearly mentally unwell and might not have even known that these incidents were being recorded. I hope he gets the help he needs."

IRL ("in real life") chess streaming is a rapidly increasing trend over the last two years, thanks to the chess boost the last two years. But with the streaming taking place outside the normal setting, it also increases the chance of unexpected incidents.

In 2021 WGM Dina Belenkaya was shut down by Russian police when she was streaming a chess game from the Red Square in Moscow.

FM Nemo was also forced to interrupt her stream at a college campus in California where police asked her to stop filming.

POV: when your chess is so bad the police come pic.twitter.com/LZMcaATtXJ

— Nemo (@akaNemsko) October 1, 2022