'GothamChess' Tops Amazon Lists More Than Two Months Before Release Of First Book
IM Levy Rozman's first chess book is months away from being released, but it has already sold more than 12,000 copies and made it to #1 on Amazon's best-seller lists.
The online chess streamer, popularly known as GothamChess, is the world's biggest chess YouTuber with more than four million subscribers. His book, How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond, is not set to release until October 24, but more than two months before its release, it has already sold over 12,000 copies.
"It is pretty incredible! I had no idea what to expect when I launched the pre-orders. I am really happy where it currently stands and excited to see where the book goes from here," Rozman told Chess.com.
The new book is currently second on Amazon's Best Seller Rank in the chess category (behind Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess), sixth among Board Games books, and 12th in "Puzzle & Game Reference" books. It has previously topped the first two categories. In a YouTube video, he said 4,000 signed copies had also been sold out.
My new chess book has sold over 10,000 copies already, just in preorders.
— GothamChess (@GothamChess) August 5, 2023
That is absolutely insane.
Thank you all so much. pic.twitter.com/Csw3tjQIPn
As the title indicates, the book is said to target beginners wanting to know everything about the game, including "all the important moves and strategies to start off strong and keep you thinking several steps ahead."
GothamChess says that the book is a result of him being asked repeatedly by students, both before and after the pandemic, in his chess programs and online, whether he had any book recommendations.
"And I never really did. There are, of course, the two or three big names, Bobby Fischer Teaches Chess, Silman, etc, but no consensus. And many books are hard to study—they use notation, they read like an encyclopedia, you need a physical board to study them."
He says he wanted to change that, especially for the large number of players who discovered the game thanks to the chess boost that he has experienced and been a part of.
"The book can be picked up by a person who has never even heard of chess, and can take them comfortably beyond 1000," says Rozman. "It also reads like a fiction book. The tone is refreshingly simple. There's humor. There are fun facts. There are QR codes at the end of each chapter which lead to bonus lessons and exercises to review everything in the chapters."
He added:
"I'm really proud of what I managed to create. I hope it becomes the book you tell your friends to buy to get into chess."
Tarjei Svensen is a Norwegian chess journalist who worked for some of the country's biggest media outlets and appeared on several national TV broadcasts. Between 2015 and 2019, he ran his chess website mattogpatt.no, covering chess news in Norwegian and partly in English.
In 2020, he was hired by Chess24 to cover chess news, eventually moving to Chess.com as a full-time chess journalist in 2023. He is also known for his extensive coverage of chess news on his X/Twitter account.
