Battle of Generations: Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman vs Pia Cramling

by Johannes Fischer
10/29/2024 – With currently 5.55 million YouTube subscribers, Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman is the most successful chess streamer in the world. He is an IM, his current Elo rating is 2347 and his declared goal is to become a Grandmaster. From 28 October to 3 November, he will now compete against Swedish chess Grandmaster Pia Cramling in an audience-attracting exhibition match in Stockholm. The two will play 4 classical games, 6 rapid games and 12 blitz games. The start went well for Pia Cramling: in the first classical game, she outplayed Rozman with Black to take a 3-0 lead. | Photos: chess.com
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Pia Cramling is one of the most successful and best women players of all time. Born on April 23, 1963, in Stockholm, she became the fifth woman in chess history to earn the Grandmaster title. She held the top spot in the women’s rankings three times, won the European Women’s Championship twice, and won several gold medals at Chess Olympiads.

Pia Cramling | Photo: chess.com

With a current rating of 2429 the 61-year-old Cramling is number 33 on the women's ranking list, and with this rating she is nominally the favourite in the match against Rozman.

Cramling is married to the Spanish grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellón López and is the mother of Anna Cramling, who, like Rozman, is a successful YouTube streamer. It was Anna Cramling who came up with the idea of organising the match in Stockholm. Choosing Levy Rozman as Pia Cramling's opponent has brought the match worldwide attention, with the games being streamed live and commented on Anna Cramling's Twitch channel and Rozman's YouTube channel, Gotham Chess.

Rozman was born on 5 December 1995 in New York and became an International Master in 2018. After school, he studied quantitative modelling and statistics at Baruch College in New York, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 2017. Since 2018, he has been working as a streamer, but he also is a successful chess book author, entrepreneur and tournament organiser.

Levy Rozman | Photo: chess.com

In 2024, after a long break from tournament chess, Rozman publicly announced on his streaming channels that he wanted to try again to become a grandmaster. To do that, he needs to reach an Elo rating of 2500 and three GM norms.

Game 1

In the first game of the match, however, Pia Cramling's class and experience became apparent. Playing with the black pieces, she took advantage of a few inaccuracies from Rozman to start the match with a convincing victory.

However, the disappointing start did not stop Rozman from analysing the game in detail and openly on his Gotham Chess channel.

Replay the game

The match continues on Tuesday 29 October at 15:00. Games 3 and 4 will be played on 30 and 31 October, followed by 6 rapid games (15+10) on 1 November. To conclude, 12 blitz games (3+2) will follow on 2 November.

A win in the classical game is worth 3 points, a win in the rapid game is worth 2 points and a win in the blitz game is worth 1 point.

Links

Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".