Pogchamps -- Bad for Chess?

Join our Discord ➡️

🎥 Edit and 🎨 Thumbnail by: Airton Alonso
👌Channel Management - Team Hikaru

#gmhikaru #chess #pogchamps

[GMBenjaminBok]

I have no idea what he is saying when he is playing these heated blitz matches against Benjamin Bok

[SuperTommox]

Before pogchamp i barely knew Magnus. I had no idea of what is a world champion. I didn't really care.

Now I know Magnus, Ian, Fabiano, Nakamura and so many others. I know what chess titles mean. I follow their games. I understand how smart they really are. Watching Hikaru drawing arrows showed me what being good at chess really means.

Pogchamp got me into chess.

[mattca]

Hikaru and pogchamps made me start watching and playing chess again. 3 years ago I couldn’t tell you a single current chess player aside from Magnus Carlsen and now I’m fully invested and have players I cheer for. This article really has no idea what they are talking about.

[Kirito_wr]

"fun is bad because its addictive" this guy definitly smoked the bongcloud and took too much copium

[rufus]

I played chess before when I was like elementary and now I barely touched my chess board since then. When I opened YT, there was a recommendation for me, which is xQc getting coached by Hikaru. I didn't know Hikaru back then so I watched few of his videos. I find myself getting interested again in chess and when I played it, I'm like a beginner again.

[abhinavsa]

Boomer GMs are afraid of the younger gen getting to greaten at young age.
We need more encouraging people like Hikaru.
Love your content.

[physicist]

18 months ago, I knew nothing about chess except how the pieces moved and their value. My friend started studying the game after getting turned onto it by agadmator and I got hooked soon after. I shortly after discovered Hikaru and other streamers, and pogchamps is something that helped keep my interest in the game.
I’m now 1700 USCF after a year of tournament play. This stuff is what will bring in more people. Not another GM round robin (they can learn to appreciate that once they appreciate the amateur level stuff.) This article is absurd.

[levyslamp]

*On the many online chess portals available, they are playing classical chess alongside brand new, blasphemously untraditional formats like “King of the Hill” and “Crazyhouse”.* Damn the authors are scared of Crazyhouse and KOTH
KEKW

[benjaminerickson]

It’s dope how passionate Hikaru is about chess and making it accessible. Just really cool

[moritzfinke]

Maybe the author is so advanced in his click bait, that he knows Hikarus format and wrote just for this video/stream

[royallord]

Without xqc and critikal, this pogchamps wasnt the same

[manawearblack]

I'd never played a single game of chess before seeing the throbbing checkmate clip from Charlie, I didn't know about castling, I thought knights moved in right angles and had only rudimentary knowledge of how the pieces move, no idea of tactics whatsoever. Played my first game just a few days after Christmas and since then I've watched hours of videos, a bunch of tournaments, lots of recaps from Gotham and agadmator, and recently hit my peak of 1380. Without pogchamps I would likely never have played a game of chess. But now I have the problem of this new mentality where I think why are all these guys rated 600 when they've been coached by GMs they should put more time and effort into it, anyone can hit 800 with a tinge of effort, especially when coached by a IM/GM

[VidFace]

The question I have with regard to viewership of Pogchamps 3 vs the candidates tournament is how many views did the previous tournament get? Because I’m betting as more people watch PogChamps then more people will watch other tournaments as well.

PogChamps isn’t pulling viewers away from other tournaments, I’d wager it’s generating more interest in watching said tournaments.

[boevoikrikun]

It's unbelievable for me how the smartest minds in chess community that play very close to an engine be so one sided in reality.
They don't think that the vast majority of people want to have fun and they don't consider chess as something fun.
Over the years chess could be described as "two nerds moving stuff over the board and somehow this is actually a sport".
The whole point of an event like pogchamps is to show how streamers have fun playing a game of chess, encouraging people to try it out themselves.
Not like these new people will instantly replace the old guard, but some people that take the game they play more seriously will want to put in the hard work on improvement. They will sub to teaching streamers, buy courses, practice with the coaches, and from the several thousands of people some might go well with it, go for a title and compete internationally.
I just wonder, do they really think making the game more popular is bad for game?

Another thing to consider is so called "soul of the game". The top level chess is getting overridden by the engines. Name me any top level player that doesn't use one for their preparation. Frankly speaking... Pogchamps level of play is the actual soul of the game. It's all the aspects of the game that make players human.

Moreover, engines actually rarely win in their games, top level GMs tend to do it as well.
Is it interesting to watch long games of classic chess considering that it'll most likely be a draw from the starting position? I don't think so.

[TheMekaUltra]

Before pogchamps I barely knew anything about chess, I occasionally played with my long time best friend who is the son of a GM and always lost of course. Since pogchamps I really got into playing it every single day and have been improving ever since (currently 1250 rapid&bullet and recently 2200 puzzle rating :D), now I have talks with his (GM) father about ongoing tournaments and easily beat his son in chess (hehe). It's been really fun improving and teaching my other friends some basic tricks and strategies and even they have caught interest into chess because of it. Anyone that says pogchamps is bad for chess is a salty gatekeeping elitist boomer

[anonymouszebra]

The fact that high level players COME FROM amateur/casual players completely invalidates any of this gatekeeping anti-PogChamps silliness.

(maybe this does not apply for the top players in the world who become serious from a young age, but for most people who are well above average may start out just looking for a laugh, and then fall in love with the game)

[crooksteezy]

Pogchamps 2 is what brought me into the world of chess. Since then I’ve watched thousands of hours of chess content including recently recaps of every single meltwater event, the World Cup, and I’m extremely excited to see the world championship. Whoever wrote this article is living in a delusional world where you can either have low level chess or high level chess and never both. But I think you need both to keep chess fun and interesting. Watching Ludwig call someone a shitter for blundering a knight in the middle game and then switching over to see a crazy battle where neither side has any advantage between Magnus and Nepo makes the game more entertaining.

[marklondon]

Watching the Pogchamps 4 final last night motivated me to improve my end game skill.

[ChrisNihilus]

I started playing Chess after seeing MoistCritikal playing. Now I made my Pub into a Chess Cafè, created a club and I'm about to launch my first tournament.
Honestly, if his moves in chess are as random and the points he's trying to make in the article, I wouldn't be surprised if he's just pissed off because one of his games got a Baka Mitai video.

[mankey]

“What is this guy smoking” Hikaru out for blood!!!!