IM Anna Rudolf
Bio
Anna Rudolf is a Hungarian international master, woman grandmaster, world-class commentator, streamer, and chess celebrity.
She won the European Junior Rapid Championship and is a three-time Hungarian women's champion. Rudolf is a full-time Twitch streamer, regularly posts content on her YouTube channel, and was a commentator for the 2016 and 2018 World Championship.
Rudolf started playing chess at the age of four. She battled up the ranks and achieved the woman grandmaster title in 2008, when she became the Hungarian women's champion. She also represented Hungary in the 2008 Chess Olympiad.
She reached her peak rating of 2393 in 2010 when she won her second Hungarian Women's Championship. In 2015 Rudolf attained the international master title. In 2017 she stopped spending as much time competing in top-level tournaments and began focusing more on her commentating and chess channels.
In the above photo, Rudolf is playing GM Harika Dronavali (Anna won the game) and her board was next to former world champion GM Vladimir Kramnik and IM Lawerence Trent (who drew their game)—after this round, Anna was a full point ahead of Kramnik!
Rudolf's playing style is universal and balanced—she can grind you down in a technical endgame, put on a positional clinic, or launch a powerful mating attack.
Here is an example of her clean technical play versus the strong GM Christian Bauer, who employs the off-beat Orangutan Opening. Rudolf equalizes easily and saddles her opponent with an isolated d-pawn. Rudolf next defends against the direct attack very well and then transitions to a very pleasant endgame. After 40... Rxa3, she is just winning and brings home the full point with ease:
In this next game example, Rudolf plays the Scotch Opening. Opposite-side castling occurs quickly, and she demonstrates a fairly straightforward and crushing attack against IM Alina Kashlinskaya. Rudolf balances attack and defense superbly before delivering the final blow with 29.h6!
Chess Channels
Rudolf is one of the most popular chess streamers around—her Twitch channel has over 60,000 followers as of November 2020. Her motto for her chess channels is uplifting: "Chess. Gaming. Motivation. Positive Vibes."
Although she primarily streams chess content, her Twitch stream often includes various content, including GeoGuesser, Among Us, and sometimes just entertaining chatting.
Rudolf's YouTube Channel also has over 60,000 subscribers (as of November 2020), and she often has collaborations with other chess celebrities like GM Hikaru Nakamura, IM Levy Rozman, WFM Alexandra Botez, and more.
Her channel has had over 3.5 million views, and she has many great video playlists. Among her most popular videos are her online chess battles with Botez, this short interview with World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen, and her series on AlphaZero:
Chess.com Content
As mentioned, Rudolf is a world-class commentator. She is a regular commentator on Chess.com, having commentated on many major events, including the 2018 and 2019 PRO Chess League Finals, the 2019 Women's Speed Chess Championship, the Fischer Random World Championship, PogChamps, and more.
Aside from her top-level commentary, Rudolf has also created a lot of fantastic video content for Chess.com. Here is a link to her great videos. Among her best Chess.com content are her two video lesson series: "Games That Changed Chess History" as well as her "Mastering the Endgame" series.
