Levy Rozman (born December 5, 1995), known online as GothamChess, is an American
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
International Master and commentator. He produces content on the online platforms
Twitch
Twitch may refer to:
Biology
* Muscle contraction
** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation
** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction
** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle co ...
and
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...
.
Early life
Rozman was born in
Brooklyn, New York
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, on December 5, 1995, and lived in both
New York and
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
growing up.
He began playing chess at the age of 6 as an extracurricular activity and entered his first tournament at the age of 7.
Rozman attained the titles of
National Master in 2011 through the
US Chess Federation
The United States Chess Federation (also known as US Chess or USCF) is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in FIDE, the World Chess Federation. US Chess administers the official national rating s ...
,
FIDE Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
in 2016, and
International Master in 2018.
Rozman started as a scholastic chess coach in 2014.
Rozman attended
Baruch College
Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the college operates unde ...
where he completed a Bachelor's degree in statistics and
quantitative modeling in 2017. Before focusing on chess as a full-time career, he worked as a client service associate for
UBS Wealth Management
UBS Group AG is a multinational Investment banking, investment bank and financial services company founded and based in Switzerland. Co-headquartered in the cities of Zürich and Basel, it maintains a presence in all major financial centres ...
.
Personal life
Rozman revealed that although he is a Jew, he does not consider himself to be particularly religious and does not observe
Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur (; he, יוֹם כִּפּוּר, , , ) is the holiest day in Judaism and Samaritanism. It occurs annually on the 10th of Tishrei, the first month of the Hebrew calendar. Primarily centered on atonement and repentance, the day' ...
, the holiest day in
Judaism
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in t ...
. He also has a brother who is 11 years younger than him.
Online career
Rozman is a Twitch streamer and YouTuber. As of December 23, 2022, he has the most-subscribed chess channel on YouTube, with 2 million subscribers; however,
ChessBase India and
Antonio Radić
Antonio Radić (born 16 June 1987), better known as agadmator, is a Croatian YouTuber and chess player. He has one of the most popular chess channels on YouTube, and he previously had the most subscribers of any YouTube chess channel from 2018 u ...
(aka agadmator) have the highest total view counts for a chess-themed channel, with 642 million views and 671 million views, respectively. Rozman works closely with
Chess.com and has been part of their streaming partnership since 2017. Rozman is a regular
commentator for the platform, analyzing tournaments like
PogChamps and the
2020 Candidates Tournament.
Like many
online chess
Online chess is chess that is played over the Internet, allowing players to play against each other in real time. This is done through the use of Internet chess servers, which often include a system to pair up individual players based on their rat ...
personalities, Rozman experienced a viewership surge during the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...
, particularly following the release of ''
The Queen's Gambit''.
As of November 2022, Rozman's YouTube channel has a total view count of more than half a billion views, including 98 videos with a million views or more. Examples include an instructional opening overview where he discusses how to play the
Queen's Gambit
The Queen's Gambit is the chess opening that starts with the moves:
:1. d4 d5
:2. c4
It is one of the oldest openings and is still commonly played today. It is traditionally described as a ''gambit'' because White appears to sacrifice the ...
and a video where he plays against the
Beth Harmon
Elizabeth Harmon is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Walter Tevis novel '' The Queen's Gambit'' and the Netflix drama miniseries of the same name, in which she is portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy. Taylor-Joy's performance as ...
bot on Chess.com.
He has done in-depth explanations of games played in the series. Rozman's YouTube channel reached 1 million subscribers on June 1, 2021.
Rozman entered international news in March 2021 when he was defeated by an Indonesian chess player nicknamed Dewa_Kipas or "Fan God".
Rozman suspected that his opponent was cheating, and he reported his opponent's account to the Chess.com Fair Play Team. Dewa_Kipas' account was later closed for cheating (and Dewa_Kipas later was unable to play at a high level in a series of live matches), which drew backlash from Indonesian
netizens
The term netizen is a portmanteau of the English words ''internet'' and '' citizen'', as in a "citizen of the net" or "net citizen". It describes a person actively involved in online communities or the Internet in general. and resulted in Rozman being harassed on social media. Rozman later went private on his social media accounts and took a short hiatus from streaming.
On July 11, 2022, Rozman announced his retirement from "competitive chess events" due to physical and mental stress.
Philanthropy
On October 14, 2021, Rozman announced the Levy Rozman Scholarship Fund, through which he is donating $100,000 to elementary-, middle-, and high-school chess programs. The fund is administered by ChessKid, a subsidiary of Chess.com, and schools can be awarded between $5,000 and $15,000 to pay for the costs of training, tournament fees, and travel expenses.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
Official website*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rozman, Levy
American chess players
Living people
1995 births
Twitch (service) streamers
Male YouTubers
Gaming YouTubers
People from Brooklyn
Chess International Masters