Secrets of a YouTube chess king

Levy Rozman has racked up more than a billion views on his Gotham Chess channel, introducing the game he loves to new audiences

- Ralph Jones

"I can lead the people," says Levy Rozman. That may sound like a bold claim but Rozman, 27, with 4.29m YouTube sub-scribers, is clearly someone people are happy to follow. Known online as GothamChess, he is the planet's most popular chess YouTuber.

An engaged community of fans hangs on his every word. And he has the credentials to back up his thoughts: he is an international master. His channel has more than a billion views, the first chess channel to reach this figure.

Rozman is riding a huge chess wave; one he can take some credit in having created. There were three lightning bolts, he says. The first was The Queen's Gambit, the Netflix drama about a fictional chess prodigy, Beth Harmon; there was the rising popularity of the game on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels; and there was last year's Hans Niemann scandal, in which world No 1 Magnus Carlsen accused his opponent of cheating.