Andrea Botez: Difference between revisions
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| birth_place = [[Vancouver]], British Columbia, Canada |
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| rating = [https://ratings.fide.com/profile/2614324 2] (March 2024) |
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<!--- Alexandra Botez Twitch and YouTube infoboxes for BotezLive are pulled from the stats listed at Alexandra Botez's article. Same channels for both so can update one spot for both articles.---> |
<!--- Alexandra Botez Twitch and YouTube infoboxes for BotezLive are pulled from the stats listed at Alexandra Botez's article. Same channels for both so can update one spot for both articles.---> |
Revision as of 16:35, 15 March 2024
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Born | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada | April 6, 2002|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Peak rating | 1 (March 2024) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Alexandra Valeria Botez (/ˈboʊtɛz/ BOH-tez; born 24 September 1995)[4] is an American and Canadian chess player, poker player, online streamer and YouTuber. In chess, she holds the FIDE title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM) and has a peak FIDE rating of 2092. She is a five-time Canadian girls' national champion and one-time U.S. girls' national champion. Botez has represented Canada at three Women's Chess Olympiads in 2012, 2014, and 2016. Alexandra and her younger sister Andrea Botez host the BotezLive Twitch and YouTube channels, which each have over 1 million followers and are one of the largest chess channels on each platform. Botez began playing chess in Canada at age six and won her first girls' national championship at age eight. She later moved back to the United States where she was born and won U.S. Girls Nationals at age 15. Botez began streaming chess content online in 2016 while she was a student at Stanford University. Her sister Andrea appeared on occasion and later joined full-time to run the channels together in 2020. Already one of the most prominent Twitch chess channels with over 50,000 followers before 2020, the BotezLive channel grew tenfold in size in a span of about a year as part of the 2020 chess boom associated with the COVID-19 pandemic, the PogChamps internet celebrity chess tournaments, and Queen's Gambit series on Netflix. The Botez sisters regularly collaborate with other top chess streamers, such as akaNemsko. They also have collaborated with top chess players such as longtime World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and regularly collaborate with high-profile streamers outside of the chess community, stemming from their involvement in PogChamps. Botez and her sister were formerly members of Envy Gaming and later OpTic Gaming after the organizations merged. Botez is coached by Jon Ludvig Hammer, a former second to Magnus Carlsen. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Susan Polgar Foundation, which aims to promote chess to children in the United States, especially girls. Following her success as a chess streamer, Botez also began playing poker professionally. She has participated in the World Series of Poker as well as celebrity tournaments with other prominent streamers such as xQc and professional poker players such as Phil Hellmuth. Botez became an ambassador for GGPoker in 2024. Early life and backgroundBotez was born to Romanian immigrant parents.[5] Although she was born in Dallas, Texas, she was raised in Vancouver, British Columbia.[6] She is the older sister of Andrea Botez. Botez's father introduced her to chess and started training her when she was six.[6] She eventually became a member of the Romanian Community Centre chess club, Golden Knights, coached by Chess Master Valer Eugen Demian.[7] Chess careerBotez won her first Canadian girls' national championship in 2004 at age eight.[6] She played for the Canadian national team in 2010 and later won four more Canadian youth national titles.[8] After moving back to the United States, Botez won the U.S. Girls Nationals at age fifteen and twice represented the state of Oregon in the SPF Girls' Invitational established by Susan Polgar and her foundation.[6] She participated in the World Youth Chess Championships four times, finishing as high as 31st place in 2009 in the girls' under-14 section while still unrated.[9] In 2013, Botez earned the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title by finishing in joint first place at the North American girls' U-16 national championship together with the winner Megan Lee.[10] While in high school in Oregon, Botez earned a full-ride chess scholarship to the University of Texas at Dallas by winning the 2011 Kasparov Chess Foundation All-Girls National Championship.[11] She ultimately declined the scholarship to attend Stanford University, prioritizing academics over chess. At Stanford, she studied international relations with a focus on China.[6] During her sophomore year in 2014, Botez became the second female president of the Stanford University Chess Club, after Cindy Tsai in 2005.[11] She graduated in 2017.[6] Botez achieved her peak FIDE rating of 2092 in 2016 at age 20. She has regularly been ranked among the top ten Canadian female chess players.[1] Botez has represented Canada at three Women's Chess Olympiads, playing on Board 4 in 2012, and Board 3 in 2014 and 2016.[12][13][14] Her best performance at the Olympiad came in 2014, and Canada's best result with her on the team was 39th place in 2016. During 2014 and 2016, Botez played on the same team as fellow future prominent chess streamer Qiyu Zhou, also known as Nemo or akaNemsko.[13][14] At the 2024 Reykjavik Open, Botez defeated Jan Karsten, an International Master (IM) with a rating of 2323, which was the best win of her career by rating.[15] Less than two months later in Orosei, Botez won the Sardinia World Chess Festival B-section for players rated under-2000 with a score of 8½/9, one-and-a-half points ahead of the field.[16] Playing style and notable games
Botez's most-played opening is the King's Indian Defense, in which Black allows White to advance their pawns to the center of the board in the first two moves.[1] Botez's chess coach is Jon Ludwig Hammer, a Norwegian Grandmaster (GM) who has been rated above 2700 and served as a second to his compatriot Magnus Carlsen in his first World Championship match. Hammer also often commentates on Botez's games on her Twitch channel.[17][18] The "Botez Gambit", a tongue-in-cheek term, occurs when a player blunders their queen. It originated with viewers of Botez's streams,[19] but Botez has herself used it self-mockingly.[20] Content creationIn 2016, Botez started streaming chess content on Twitch during her junior year at Stanford University.[21] Her channel quickly gained traction, and in 2020, she was joined by her younger sister, Andrea Botez.[22] Together, they host the BotezLive Twitch and YouTube channels, which have garnered more than 2,700,000 followers combined.[1] The sisters frequently collaborate with other chess streamers on the platform, such as GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Qiyu Zhou.[23][24] She is credited, along with her sister Andrea Botez, Hikaru Nakamura, GothamChess, and more, for popularizing chess on Twitch.[25] Botez's streaming popularity has helped her become one of the most recognizable faces on the Chess.com platform.[1] In response to her prominence as a female chess player, the mainstream media often compares Botez to the fictional Beth Harmon, the protagonist of The Queen's Gambit.[6][26][27] Botez has served as a chess commentator. She covered the 2018 and 2019 PRO Chess League Finals, the most popular team chess championship, along with IM Daniel Rensch, IM Anna Rudolf, and GM Robert Hess.[1] In December 2020, the Botez sisters signed with the Texas-based esports organization Envy Gaming. By partnering with the Botez sisters, Envy hopes to expand its ambassador network with diverse gaming content creators.[28] They would later move to Los Angeles, California, where they would join other content creators such as JustaMinx and CodeMiko in the Envy Content House.[29][30] In January 2021, Botez faced controversy from fellow chess creator and grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura, who said that Botez's exclusivity of streaming in the "Just Chatting" section is damaging to the chess community.[31][32] On July 20, 2022, the Botez sisters signed with Creative Artists Agency. The agency will work with them on the development of original content, new IP ventures, and “strategic growth across platforms and talent”.[33] In August 2022, it was announced that the Botez sisters had joined OpTic Gaming after Envy Gaming announced the retirement of their Envy brand.[34] In 2023, the Botez sisters were named to Forbes' 30 Under 30 list in the games category.[35] Later in April 2023, they appeared on Rolling Stone's list of the 20 Most Influential Creators in 2023.[36] On July 13, 2024, she competed in a MrBeast video titled "50 YouTubers Fight for $1,000,000" and managed to place second in the competition.[37] Botez abroadIn November 2021, the Botez sisters announced a show on their Twitch channel called "Botez Abroad", a Twitch original travel show where they travel to cities around the world and stream their in-person chess matches at various venues. The show has generated more than 20 million views and reached peak livestream viewership of 36,000 people.[38][39][40] Poker careerBotez started playing poker professionally in 2021, after having already established herself as a prominent chess streamer, and began playing regularly in 2022.[41] She has participated in the World Series of Poker. She has also played in celebrity tournaments, featuring fellow streamers such as xQc, fellow chess players such as Magnus Carlsen, and professional poker players such as Phil Hellmuth. Botez made $456,900 on a poker live stream on May 1, 2022, presented by the Hustler Live Casino, which featured fellow streamers along with poker pros.[42] In June 2023, Botez started a new YouTube channel called "Alexandra Botez", which focuses on poker content and her poker career.[43] Botez became an ambassador for GGPoker in March 2024.[44] Other venturesIn 2017, Botez co-founded CrowdAmp, a social media company. As of May 2019, that company has ceased operations.[45] In April 2020, Botez was elected to the board of directors of the Susan Polgar Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that advocates for breaking gender barriers in chess.[46] Within the past eighteen years, the Susan Polgar Foundation has assisted in offering more than $6 million in chess scholarships and prizes to students.[46] Views on sexism in chessBotez has talked about her encounters with sexism in her chess career.[21][47][48] Regarding her stream, Botez has stated that until she brought in moderators, she was disturbed by the fact that "60% of it was just people trying to flirt with me and chat, or people just commenting on my appearance the entire time... They didn't care about the game play at all."[49] Competitive chess has always been dominated by men, with male grandmasters outnumbering female grandmasters 50-to-one.[21] Botez says, "It has taken very long to get to the point where we're starting to change the stereotype [to show] that women are not genetically inferior to men at playing chess."[21] Botez watched the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit and claimed the show understates the misogyny of that era through the female protagonist.[47] She said the show glossed over many realities, especially considering the decade it is set in: "If the show had been historically accurate, Beth wouldn't have been able to compete in any world championship events".[47] Botez cited the case of female grandmaster Susan Polgar,[47] who said that in 1986 she was prevented from competing in a zonal tournament, a qualifying event for the World Chess Championship, because of her gender.[50] Nevertheless, Botez was complimentary of protagonist Beth Harmon as a nuanced and inspirational figure for upcoming women in chess.[51] Personal lifeIn 2020, Botez and her sister Andrea lived in New York.[52] In 2022, they moved and now live in Los Angeles, California.[53] Awards and nominations
Listicles
References
External links
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Andrea Botez (born April 6, 2002) is a Canadian chess player, commentator and internet personality.[1]
Background
Botez's Romanian parents moved from Romania to Canada after Alexandra Botez, Andrea's older sister, was born in Dallas. The Botez family relocated to Vancouver, BC, Canada, before moving to Oregon when Alexandra was in high school.[2][3] Andrea has ADHD.[4]
Career
Chess
Botez began playing chess at the age of six. She started playing in the USChess tournaments at the age of seven. In 2010, she won the U8 Girls Canadian Youth Chess Championship.
In 2015, at the age of thirteen she became the Women British Columbia Chess Champion.[5] In the same year, Botez also won the Susan Polgar National Open.[6][7]
In 2016, at the SPFNO 2016: U14 GIRLS, Botez placed fourth in the tournament,[8][9] and 13th in the 2016 Susan Polgar Foundation Girls' Invitational.[10]
Botez attained her highest FIDE classical rating of 1825 in 2024 and her highest USChess rating of 1933 in 2019.[11] As of March 2024, her ranking among active players in the world is 65175, based on her rating.[12]
Chess Boxing
In December 2022, Botez competed against WGM (Woman Grandmaster) Dina Belenkaya in the Mogul Chessboxing Championship; hosted by Ludwig Ahgren.[13] Initially, Belenkaya was deemed the winner, but after a post-fight review, the organizer announced an updated result: "...[Botez] should have been awarded a TKO after the referee initiated the fourth standing count of the fight".[14] The update resulted in both Belenkaya and Botez being winners.[15]
Boxing
In April 2023, Botez lost a boxing match against fellow YouTuber Michelle Khare in Creator Clash 2.[16]
Content creation
Alongside her sister, Botez runs the Twitch channel BotezLive, which, as of May 2022, has 1.1 million followers with more than 18.3 million views.[17] She began assisting her sister in 2020[18] by playing chess and in other variety streams and the YouTube channel BotezLive which, as of May 2022, has over 800k subscribers and 140 million views.[19]
Because of their popularity on various content platforms, the Botez sisters became some of the most known figures on the Chess.com platform, alongside GM Hikaru Nakamura and WGM Qiyu Zhou.
On December 21, 2020, Andrea and Alexandra signed a contract with Envy Gaming as content creators at the launch of the organization's creator network and ambassador program. They would later move to Los Angeles, CA, where they would join other content creators such as JustaMinx and CodeMiko in the Envy Content House.[20][21][22][23]
On her personal TikTok account where she posts highlights from her twitch streams, TikTok trends and short videos from her daily life, Botez has garnered over 310K followers and 5.9M likes.
Travel show
Aside from their regular chess streams and other activities, the two sisters host a show on their Twitch channel called "Botez Abroad"[24] where they travel to cities around the world and stream their in-person chess matches at various venues.
PogChamps
In the second iteration of the online amateur chess tournament Pogchamps, Botez was part of the commentator team.[25] In 2021, Botez took part again in the Pogchamps 3 tournament, doubling as a coach for CodeMiko[26] and as a commentator,[27][28] and, once again, she joined the commentator team for Pogchamps 4.[29]
Charity
In 2020, Botez participated in the Zoomers Play Chess team match to help raise funds for children in need affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.[30][31]
Boxing record
Exhibition
1 fight | 0 wins | 1 loss |
---|---|---|
By knockout | 0 | 0 |
By decision | 0 | 1 |
No. | Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Loss | 0–1 | Michelle Khare | UD | 5 | April 15, 2023 | Amalie Arena, Tampa, Florida, U.S. | Lost by decision |
Chessboxing
1 Fights, 1 Win (0 KOs, 1 TKO, 0 CMs) | ||||||||
Date | Result | Opponent | Event | Location | Method | Round | Time | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2022-12-11 | Draw | Dina Belenkaya | Mogul Chessboxing Championship | Galen Center, Los Angeles, California, U.S. | Win | 7 | ||
Legend: Win Loss Draw/No contest Notes |
Awards and nominations
Year | Ceremony | Category | Result | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2022 | The Streamer Awards | Best Chess Streamer | Won | [32] |
2023 | Nominated | [33] | ||
2024 | Nominated | [34] | ||
Best Shared Channel | Nominated |
References
- ^ Hum, Peter (February 18, 2021). "Bringing Their A-Game". Montreal Gazette. Quebec, Canada. pp. NP8. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ "The Botez sisters became superstars playing chess on Twitch". Amazon Ads. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
- ^ "Alexandra Botez: Stanford's first female Chess Club president". October 30, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
- ^ Andrea Gets Diagnosed, retrieved December 8, 2023
- ^ "British Columbia Chess Federation". www.chess.bc.ca. Archived from the original on April 23, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ "2015 Susan Polgar Foundation's National Open for Girls and Boys: U14 Girls Results". Daily Chess Musings. March 28, 2015. Archived from the original on August 4, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ "The Susan Polgar Foundation's National Open for Girls and Boys Makes Chess History in California – Chessdom". www.chessdom.com. March 7, 2015. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "Susan Polgar Foundation's National Open – Final Standings – Chessdom". www.chessdom.com. February 29, 2016. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "- Complete Standings of 2016 SPFNO in San Mateo". March 2, 2016. Archived from the original on June 20, 2016. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "SPF Girls' Invitational concluded – Chessdom". www.chessdom.com. July 29, 2016. Archived from the original on July 28, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "Andrea Botez | Chess Celebrities". Chess.com. Archived from the original on May 4, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ "Botez, Andrea". ratings.fide.com. Archived from the original on June 17, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ Millar, Schuyler (December 9, 2022). "Ludwig brings Chessboxing to the world of content creation with the Mogul Chessboxing Championship". mysuncoast. Archived from the original on December 14, 2022. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- ^ Levin, Anthony (December 13, 2022). "Andrea Botez Awarded TKO In Mogul Chessboxing Championship, 2 Winners". Chess. Archived from the original on December 13, 2022. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- ^ Mukherjee, Shreyan (December 13, 2022). "Andrea Botez gets her loss overturned against Dina Belenyaka at the Mogul Chessboxing Championship". sportskeeda. Archived from the original on December 14, 2022. Retrieved December 14, 2022.
- ^ "Creator Clash 2 results: Alex Wassabi takes decision over iDubbbz, John Hennigan knocks out Harley Morenstein". The Sporting News. April 16, 2023.
- ^ "botezlive's Twitch Detailed Monthly Analytics - Social Blade LLC". socialblade.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ Leibowitz, Jessica (February 19, 2021). "This 25-year-old earns 6 figures playing chess on Twitch—here's how". CNBC. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ "BotezLive's YouTube Stats (Summary Profile) - Social Blade Stats". socialblade.com. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ Murray, Trent (December 21, 2020). "Envy Gaming Signs Chess Streamers Alexandra and Andrea Botez, Launch Content Creator Network". The Esports Observer. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ Radcliffe, Noam (January 19, 2022). "Envy Gaming Launches Female-Led Creator House with JustaMinx, Botez Sisters". DBLTAP. Archived from the original on February 11, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ Collins, Sean (January 21, 2021). "Texas' Botez sisters are at the forefront of an unlikely, and booming, partnership: Chess and esports". Dallas News. Archived from the original on June 18, 2022. Retrieved June 17, 2022.
- ^ "100 Thieves' 'Project X' Confirmed To Be A Shooter By Nadeshot". www.ggrecon.com.
- ^ Botez Abroad: Chess Travel Show Trailer. BotezLive. November 6, 2021. Archived from the original on July 26, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ BEST OF POGCHAMPS 2 feat. Botez Sisters, Hikaru, xQc & more. BotezLive. August 29, 2020. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ Chess lesson but my student won't stop moaning... BotezLive. February 12, 2021. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ xQc/Sardoche/BenjyFishy/Daniel Negreanu Pogchamps 3 Action!. Chess.com. February 24, 2021. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022 – via YouTube.
- ^ Botez, Andrea [@itsandreabotez] (August 30, 2021). "COMMENTATING POGCHAMPS WITH THE LOVELY @Anna_Chess https://t.co/oeZOpy2iBR" (Tweet). Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022 – via Twitter.
- ^ Team (CHESScom), Chess com (September 11, 2021). "PogChamps 4: All The Information". Chess.com. Archived from the original on October 27, 2021. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "Zoomers Set For Hand & Brain ChessTV Takeover This Saturday". Chess.com. April 11, 2020. Archived from the original on June 19, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ "Andrea Botez - Botez Sisters Chess Streamer (Chess Profile)". May 22, 2022. Archived from the original on May 22, 2022. Retrieved June 19, 2022.
- ^ Miceli, Max (February 22, 2022). "All nominees for QTCinderella's Streamer Awards". Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved May 11, 2022.
- ^ Snavely, Adam (March 11, 2023). "Streamer Awards 2023: All results and winners for every category". Dot Esports. Retrieved June 18, 2023.
- ^ Michael, Cale; Taifalos, Nicholas (February 18, 2024). "Streamer Awards 2024: All results and winners for every category". Dot Esports. Gamurs. Retrieved February 18, 2024.
External links
Warning: Default sort key "Botez, Andrea" overrides earlier default sort key "Botez, Alexandra".
- 1995 births
- Living people
- 21st-century American sportswomen
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- 21st-century chess players
- American chess players
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- Canadian chess players
- Canadian female chess players
- Canadian people of Romanian descent
- Canadian poker players
- Canadian Twitch (service) streamers
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- Chess Woman FIDE Masters
- Sportspeople from Dallas
- Stanford University alumni
- Streamer Award winners
- YouTubers from Dallas
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- Chess Olympiad competitors
- 2002 births
- People from Vancouver
- People with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Sportspeople from Vancouver
- YouTube boxers
- 21st-century American women
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