EP 233- IM Levy Rozman Returns

IM Levy Rozman a/k/a “GothamChess” is a chess commentator, Twitch streamer, and, of course, creator of one of the most popular Chess YouTube channels in the World. His channel has seen explosive growth since his prior visit to Perpetual Chess, one year ago. It recently surpassed 1 million subscribers and is still growing quickly! In our conversation, Levy reflects on the success of his channel, and shares lots of advice for other aspiring content creators. We also discuss his recent return to competitive chess. Levy recently competed in the National Open in Las Vegas. He had pretty good results over the board, but perhaps more surprisingly, the videos analyzing his tournament games proved to be amongst his most popular ever! Why does he think that is? Will his comeback and pursuit of the Grandmaster title continue? Will he ever stop speaking out on political issues? We tackle all of these questions and many more in this fun, wide-ranging conversation. Please read on for more details, timestamps, and relevant links.  0:00- We begin by doing a post-mortem on Levy’s recent return to over-the-board “OTB” chess. How does Levy reflect on his performance in the recently completed National Open in Las Vegas?  11:00- Levy answers a Patreon mailbag question, relating to whether making videos during a tournament is distracting, and why he thinks his game recap videos were so popular (often with more than 400,000 views per episode)! The first of Levy’s game recapps from Vegas is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNenU-sQZI His recap of his game with IM Christopher Yoo is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPBLVuVk1zw Also mentioned: GM Alex Grischuk, Czech Open, GM Wojciech Moranda, FM Kyron Griffith  25:30- With so much content coming out, what steps has Levy taken to avoid burnout?  29:30- What aspects of his chess game does Levy think he needs to work on?  34:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com.  Check out their latest offerings here:  New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels-