The Chess YouTube Revolution

Traditionally, in chess, there is information that is well known and widely accepted. An opening variation analyzed for centuries from World Championships to the instincts of the legends of the past to supercomputers grinding the position down. The top players in the world would play an opening, and the masses would follow. Kramnik, for instance, popularized the Berlin in his match against Kasparov, which then made it a popular opening from master games to casual club games. For centuries, this is how chess players' preferences have been determined. However, in this article, we will be looking at the shocking magnitude of the change in this system, and how big a difference a random video can make.

Methodology

In this blog, I will extensively rely on the Lichess Openings feature, which is extremely helpful in my opinion. In case it is not clear, I say an opening is played .07 % of the time, or say it is at .07, that means that out of 10,000 games, it is played 7 times. I will not always refer to these numbers as percentages, so keep that in mind.
We will look at 3 different ways the chess ecosystem has been influenced:

• Opening Traps
• Rare Openings
• Common Openings
• Meme Openings

Opening Traps

In recent years, from Lichess studies to YouTube shorts, opening traps have become a very popular aspect of chess. While it is painstakingly difficult to win a game by finding a plan, calculating, or grinding down endgames, it is much easier to try to win with quick traps and openings that might be objectively dubious but often trick the opponent. However, where do these tricks and traps come from? We will look at a few examples of content creators popularizing such openings.

The Stafford Gambit

The Stafford Gambit is at this point nearly legendary, after being popularized by famous streamer IM Eric Rosen. At this point, it is played in .152% of games, which is incredibly massive, though less than .405%, which it was at its peak in April 2021. To put this into perspective, the Richter-Rauzer variation of the Sicilian (which has over 23,000 games in the Master's Database, in contrast with the Stafford's 11), one of the most trusted and popular openings at a high level, has only .018%, which is less than one eighth of what the Stafford has. So, when and how did the Stafford rocket into such popularity?

When was that huge uptick in popularity, shooting from .07 to nearly .3? It coincides exactly with August 2020-which by itself would have no meaning, but as a matter of a fact is very important.
On August 1, 2020, Eric Rosen uploaded the following video to his channel:
Beating Everyone with the Same Opening Trap (Stafford Gambit)
It went viral, and as of today has over 6M views. So, by the creation of one simple video, a huge trend in openings was changed and the Stafford to this day is an extremely well-known opening, with players such as Hikaru and Fabi having talked about it and analyzed it.

The Bc5 Englund Gambit with the Knight Sacrifice

The point is if white takes the knight, then after Bxf2+ Black can take the queen on d1.
This is a very sneaky opening trap, also popularized by the grandfather of chess traps, Eric Rosen. This knight sacrifice line had 0 games in the Lichess database, and then this happened:

On November 18th, 2020, Eric Rosen uploaded this video EVERYONE falls for this NEW opening trap
In the next 3 months, on the Lichess database alone, nearly 200 games had this variation with a 60% win rate-pretty impressive! With Eric's video getting over 2M views today, this is understandable.

Rare Openings

Not always are content creators promoting an opening that is dubious but tricky. The Ponziani is a prime example of a rare opening that is tricky but not bad per se. This next example shows when more than one video impacts an opening.

The Ponziani Opening

While the Ponziani is one of the oldest openings in chess, it has not been a very popular opening. However, unlike the previous two openings, the Ponziani is only very slightly worse according to engines and is quite playable even at master level. Outlined below on the chart you can see three sudden jumps in the popularity of the opening. The first was when Eric Rosen (again!) uploaded a video called Punishing Beginner Mistakes | Ponziani Opening - YouTube in early September of 2020. That first jump is across the months of September-December. After that sprout begins to die down, we can see another sharp jump-again by a video done by Eric. This was called A Beginner Lesson in the Ponziani Opening and was uploaded almost exactly a year later. However, we see a tremendous jump and the Ponziani hitting a peak in spring of 2023. Who could have caused a jump of such magnitude? This time it was none other than the Internet's Chess Teacher, Levy Rozman (a.k.a. GothamChess). His video called The BEST Beginner Chess Opening - YouTube has gotten nearly 4M views as of today and has exploded the Ponziani in popularity.

Common Openings

There are many openings that are very popular and well played. The Nimzo, QGD, and Slav against d4, or the Sicilian, French, Caro, or mainline e5 theory against e4. These openings need no further recognition, but I want to demonstrate that even the choice of these openings can be highly influenced by content creators.

The Caro-Kann

Most opening have their popularity charts bouncing around randomly. But out of these popular openings, there has been one that is constantly on the rise for the last few years-the Caro-Kann.
It's rise in popularity can be seen below:

What can we attribute this incredible rise to? While unlike my previous points, it is not very clear and obvious, I would argue it is for a similar reason. The Caro, as it is occasionally called, has been one of the favorite weapons of Levy Rozman. From OTB games to online games to making courses about it, the Caro has been one of the most widely touted opening by Levy. The effect of having nearly 6M subscribers on YouTube can be clearly seen above.

The Meme Opening

While this is not part of the main point I am making in this article, since very few players play a meme opening to be successful with it, but if we talk about the influence of creators on chess openings then it cannot be left out.

The Cow Opening

While in the numbers it is very miniscule, a meme opening is more for entertainment than to play and use. However, some players do play it! Chess creator Anna Cramling put out a video called I Invented a BRAND NEW Chess Opening: The Cow Opening!!! during May of 2023. This was the result:

That HUGE spike you see is from April to May of 2023. But this isn't the only widespread meme opening!

The Bongcloud

There is no meme opening quite like the Bongcloud. Whenever the king is moved forward in a game, commentators cannot help but quip about a "delayed Bongcloud." We all know how top player and famous YouTuber and streamer; Hikaru Nakamura popularized the opening with his speedrun. But when we look at the timeline, this becomes abundantly clearer. In March of 2021, Hikaru posted the climax of his speedrun on YT: him crossing 3000 with the Bongcloud. Hikaru Reaches 3000 Rating With the Bongcloud Opening That very month, the Bongcloud erupted and peaked in the Lichess database:

The peak is none other than March of 2021!
While the magnitude is very small-similar to that of the Cow, this is still notable.

Conclusion

Whether we like it or not, the chess world is changing. An opening that a content creator makes a video about on a random whim will impact the average player much more than a GM playing an opening after weeks of analyzing. However, it is not only the content creators who are influencing the average and beginner players-it is also vice versa. With the influx of more beginners, such content can be more valuable and wanted. However, it can also be less valuable. While I appreciate chess content creators, it will be interesting to watch how this trend continues in the future.

Thanks for reading! Did you know that usually less than 3% of readers like a blog? I would appreciate if you liked this blog!
If you want to find chess content that can help you improve and contains actual value, check out my friends at https://chessmood.com/?r=ebkchess and get 20% off with my link! (Or just sign up with it and use the free content if you don't want to pay :D) Cheers!