Rs.4,62,734 raised for Indian chess in a four hour YouTube stream!

451 viewers of ChessBase India YouTube channel come together to raise Rs.4,62,734

It was a morning just like any other. I woke up and switched on my laptop, set up my OBS, and sent the zoom links to all the three comedians (Samay Raina, Biswa Kalyan Rath and Vaibhav Sethia). It was the 57th episode of the Improving Chess series. 11-year-old super-talent Ilamparthi AR was going to be the guest. The idea was to show the chess world what a wonderful prodigious talent this young lad from Chennai is, and at the same time he could teach a trick or two to the comedians to get better at chess.

Improving Chess is a series I had begun along with Samay Raina, one of India's finest stand up comedians. We had started this initiative on 19th of May 2020 when Samay, who is thoroughly interested in chess, decided that he wants to make sure that he keeps improving at the game. The time decided was 8 a.m. in the morning and when we announced it a lot of people complained that they couldn't wake up so early in the morning. My thinking was pretty simple - if you want to get better at chess, the first thing you need to do is to fix your sleep. You cannot be sleeping at just about any time in the day and waking up at any time and expect to become a better player. Samay, who streamed a lot of chess on his channel, had built up a lot of fan following for himself and chess. The morning sessions of Improving chess were for those who wanted to go an extra mile and get better at the game!

Another big name in Indian stand-up comedy Biswa Kalyan Rath joined in from the fourth session and one of the coolest comedians Vaibhav Sethia joined in from eighth session onwards. An important thing I wanted to achieve with this series was consistency. It would not work out well if we streamed for a week and then took a break of three days and streamed again. Chess improvement is a tedious and long drawn out process and it is critical to work on your game each day. As you can see in the last 67 days we have had 57 streams! Samay, Biswa and Vaibhav would play games each day against the viewers and I would analyze them in great depth on the stream. Doing this over and over again helped to improve their chess understanding. In the process, the understanding of thousands of people who followed these episodes was also improving.

The streams continued each day and a lot of different topics were covered. Some of them were: Checks, Captures and Threats (Three golden rules), understanding tactical themes like pin, fork, double attack, x-ray etc., Endgames - Lucena, Philidor, opposition and much more. We also had guest lecturers joining in, the most prominent of them being GM Cemil Can Ali Marandi from Turkey, who now resides in the USA, India's finest chess trainer GM R.B. Ramesh, GM Magesh Chandran, IM Eric Rosen, IM Saravanan, cameo appearances by Vidit Gujrathi, B. Adhiban and many others.

Fast forward to 25th of July 2020 and the show began as promised at 8 a.m. in the morning. Ilamparthi joined in and so did Samay. Ilamparthi gave a glimpse of his brilliance as he solved tactics at the speed of lightning. At some point when we were analyzing the game between Ilamparthi and Samay, Anshuman Das, who is the biggest contributor through superchats on different chess channels (Samay's channel, Vidit's channel, Ganguly's channel etc.), decided to contribute Rs.10,000. A superchat is a way in which a viewer can contribute to a YouTube creator and his message would be highlighted in the chat for a few minutes. Now Rs.10,000 is a big amount and I felt that the best use of it would be to give it to Ilamparthi in the form of ChessBase softwares and chess books, so that he can use it to improve his game. This gesture was appreciated by other viewers watching the stream and very soon we had a huge number of people who began contributing via superchats! It was so overwhelming to see the support and I decided that all the money that we received on the stream today will be used to support talented and promising youngsters of Indian chess in need of the funds. And that is how it all began!

I assumed that a few more people would contribute and that would be the end of it. But I couldn't be more wrong! Seeing that the money was going to be used for a good cause, a lot of people came forward and contributed via superchat! But what does a lot mean? 50 superchats? 100? 200? Not really! A total of 556 superchats were received and combining the money received in Google Pay and PayPal a massive amount of Rs.4,62,734 was raised in 4 hours!

A note of appreciation:

Through YouTube streaming chess players have built a very closely knit community. The efforts of chess players like Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri, B. Adhiban (just launched his own channel), Teimour Radjabov, Surya Ganguly and ChessBase India have made a big impact. But it is amalgamation of chess with the comedians that has brought in the new people to follow the sport. Led by Samay Raina's love for the game and his constant innovative ideas has built up a new viewership for the sport who hitherto weren't aware of how cool chess was! Bringing massive YouTube stars like Tanmay Bhat, Flying Beast (Gaurav Taneja), Bhuvan Bam, and many others on his channel and making them play chess has definitely brought so many new followers to the sport. But Samay himself would not have been able to go on this journey if it were not for his friends - Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vaibhav Sethia, Anirban Dasgupta, Akash Mehta, Abhishek Upmanyu and many others! And how can we forget Agadmator, the man who instilled the love of chess in these comedians! As a chess promoter since over five years now, I am proud of this wonderful chess community that we have built up in this lockdown!

Total funds raised

*Please note: The funds were raised on 25th of July 2020 and the total amount was 4,62,734. On the next day when we had the stream, there were many people who said they too hadn't contributed. So we have included the superchats on 26th July as well in the list. The final amount is now 5,23,345. If you have contributed and your name is missing, please write to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com

A big thanks to Dnyansagar Gadgil and Supriya Bhat from the ChessBase India team for putting this data together in a short time.

Some heart warming messages:

I started playing chess watching Samay's stream, and got introduced to Sagar Shah. Indians don't realise who Vidit is, and YouTube becoming such a great bridge to this genius. You are our honor young man! Keep going 🙂 - Amrit Sarkar

apart from reintroducing me to chess, these streams have got me through past 4 months. Thank you Samay , vidit, sagar, biswa and vaibhav 🙂 - Yg97

Thanks for making chess great again!!! I have been playing chess from my childhood finally feels to be great to be playing chess. #sagarop #viditop #samayop #biswaop - Aditya Udupa

thanks to you all guys .my best timepass in lockdown is writing poem and playing chess. my childhood love .trying to gain that streak ag.reaching1100 - Vivek Mayank

I was going through a serious clinical depression during the lockdown. All your guy's streams have actually helped me overcome it. Thanks! love y'all. - Rahul Jain

3rd Superchat Today: Proud to say that recently I have updated my resume and linked in profile with chess as a hobby. Thanks for existing you guys.❤️ - Shashank Shukla

Sagar and gang, you inspire me to work towards my all time dream of setting up a sports school in Assam. Hoping to see many more GMs from Assam and India! - Mrityunjay Jalan

LOVE FROM BITS HYDERABAD. My friends have started playing chess because of you all! You all made chess a movement! - Anamol Bajpai

These are extremely stressful past few months for all the doctors and other healthcare staff around the world. That includes my family. Have been watching your streams everyday every single one ! It really helped us get through these difficult times. - Dr. Sminil Mahajan

I forgot chess which my father first taught me. Now coz of you guys, it's my life. Thanks all and Love you Samay bro. Biswa my Fav. Sagar-Vidit Gr8Job - Nishan Panchal

This stream turned out so emotional.Special thanks to Samay for what u have done for ppl like me who were hunting for positivity for mental wellness during lockdown.Love u Samay ❤️ - Monalisa Chowdhury

You guys are awesome ♥️ Streams have helped me survive this lockdown. I never knew I could be hooked to chess streams soo much. Samay thank you for introducing us to this beautiful game and community. - Anisha Nair

Sagar, in your video on why you did not become a GM, one point was sponsorship, this stream proves- Ilamparthi has been recognized by Ansuman and NRI community - Mohan GG

Amazing to see what you can do just by using a laptop and a good internet connection and change lives of so many people! You taught us in-spite all odds. Came every morning at odds hour, jis time pe watching bilkul milti hi nahi. Janta pyaar toh karegi hi! Nice Shirt! - Kishore Hazarika

I am getting emotional don't know why just pure connection I think with this community my first superchat but watching from day 1 🤗 - Aayush Khandelwal

Mr. Sagar Shah - Dont have a single doubt that its a miracle! Have been following you since starting days and this day had to come. years of hardwork. Kudos to Samays dedication thruout. Btw, Kal ka game baki hai Samay bhai - Kunal Pednekar

How will the funds be utilized?

ChessBase India will recognize the best talents in the country who are in need of funds and will use them for their benefit. Please be rest assured that the funds will be utilized in the best possible way for the development of the sport. All of the updates will be shared with you on the ChessBase India website and also on our YouTube community page and social media.

Please note: YouTube takes away 30% of the amount contributed via Superchat. We have written to YouTube to not charge us this fee as it is all going to be used for a good cause. We will keep you updated regarding the same.

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