Internet star Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman live in Hamburg

Rozman's appearance in Hamburg was the kick-off and a test run for Rozman's European tour, which begins in May and will make stops in Brussels, London, Vienna, Berlin, Munich and Warsaw. In London there is room for 1,800 guests, while in Hamburg, at the St. Pauli Spirit Klubhaus, on Spielbudenplatz, directly on the Reeperbahn, in the middle of the red-light district, there was only room for 100 people, and tickets at a price of €49.00 each sold out quickly.

The audience, which Rozman described as "the best crowd I have ever had", was a mixed bag: young and old, adults, children, women and men - everyone was there. In the show, moderated by the well-known chess journalist Fiona Steil-Antoni, Rozman did what makes him so successful on the internet: he chatted in a relaxed but energetic, funny, entertaining, self-confident but with a touch of self-irony way about chess and his successes and failures.

The internet star live: Levy "Gotham Chess" Rozman in Hamburg

Rozman invited Georgios Souleidis and Jan Gustafsson as guests. Souleidis, "The Big Greek", is Germany's most successful streamer, and so the two of them talked about the chess city of Hamburg, clickbaiting, their careers as streamers, the positive consequences of the coronavirus pandemic for their YouTube channels and how the internet has changed the chess world.

Internet stars like Rozman and Souleidis didn't exist before. But they and other chess streamers have brought the game to a wider audience and created a much larger community of chess fans and enthusiasts. In the past, if you wanted to play chess, you had to join a club and play in a club. Today, if you want to play chess, you can join a club, but you can also play, train or watch good players analyse their moves on the internet at any time of the day or night. The numbers show how many chess fans are not currently in a club: Souleidis' YouTube channel has 160,000 subscribers, while the German Chess Federation, according to Statista, had "only about 95,000 members" in 2024.

Souleidis and Rozman were due to play a blitz (3+2) match after their conversation. The crowd saw "Gotham Chess" as the favourite, but a technical glitch meant that the game had to be abandoned before it could even begin. However, Rozman and Souleidis proved to be professionals here too, playing over the technical mishap with some light-hearted banter.

Fiona Steil-Antoni then invited Jan Gustafsson to join her on stage. Gustafsson is currently the coach of the German national team, ranked 9 in Germany, a regular commentator at top tournaments and streams on his channel Janistan TV. He has assisted Magnus Carlsen as second in three World Championship matches and is also a co-founder of the internet platform Chess24.

Levy Rozman and Jan Gustafsson

But when it came to inside stories about Team Magnus, Gustafsson was reticent; instead, he was happy to talk at length about basketball. He also put the transformation of the chess world, as stated by Rozman and Souleidis, into perspective, saying that, of course, the internet had changed the chess world, but when he was at tournaments, it still felt the same as before. "It's the same old world. I like it."

Then came "Guess the Elo", one of Rozman's specialities on the internet. Players send him their games and Rozman guesses the Elo rating of the players. The audience was treated to three interesting games, resulting in some surprises.

At the end, there was a question and answer session, after which the fans were able to get autographs and have their photos taken with the internet star. This was an offer that was gratefully accepted, especially by the young audience.

Thus, Rozman's performance in Hamburg was entertaining and a chance to see internet stars such as Rozman, Souleidis and Gustafsson live.

Arne Kähler has captured highlights of the evening in a video.

Links

• Gotham Chess
• The Big Greek
• Janistan TV