16 Best Chess YouTube Channels

9 Feb 202417,853 viewsEnglish (US)

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Youtube is a free university if you use it wisely. You can improve your chess skills by watching YouTube Vidoes

There are various chess YouTube channels which are producing a lot of good chess content. Since the lockdown, many players have started playing chess, and many creators have started creating their own channels. In this article, we will see the best chess YouTube channels. We will also see the top female chess YouTube channels.

All these channels are perfect for any level of chess player. Most of the chess channels are providing really great value. Few channels are famous for a fun element. There are many channels that are good on YouTube, but they are relatively small.

To start a chess YouTube channel, you need a lot of patience. The main problem is that there is not enough chess audience on YouTube compared to other niches like entertainment. If your channel is new, YouTube will also not promote it in the first few months.

Besides, from fewer views and very little money from ads, you can make good money. If you provide valuable lessons to viewers, you will get a lot of students from this. Also, you can create courses on udemy or chessable and promote them on your YouTube channel.

Let's see the list

Best Chess Youtube Channels

1- Hikaru Nakamura

Hikaru Nakamura is a world-class chess player and a very famous Twitch streamer. He has over a million subscribers on each platform. Hikaru’s channel is more on the entertainment side, over-educated style. You can watch his channel for fun; most of the time, you will get a few important tips.

Hikaru is a very strong chess grandmaster. He recently won a US chess championship in 2023 and now he is going to play Candidates chess championship in 2024.

In almost every interview, he mentions that he is a retired chess player. This is actually a good strategy. Once you declare yourself as a retired chess player, you can play chess freely without getting any pressure from viewers and followers.

2- GothamChess

Gotham Chess, aka Levy Rozman, is a very famous chess streamer and YouTuber. He is an international chess master and also a founder of chessly. We have already reviewed chessly in a different blog post. Gotham is currently the biggest chess channel on YouTube.

His content is also friendly for below 2000 players. His content is mostly educational content. You can watch his 10-minute opening series as well as tournament game analysis videos.

3- Chessbase India

Chessbase India is founded by IM Sagar Shah to promote chess in India. He posted more than 5000 videos on his channel and reached 1 million subscribers in 2022.

Sagar is very dedicated to his YouTube channel. He started chessbase India when there where no chess culture in India. He is also really passionate about Indian chess.

Chessbase India has a lot of high-quality videos, including Interviews, blitz games, and book reviews. After 2019, they did global expansion, and now you will find almost all the top players’ chess interviews.

This channel is more like a news channel, and I recommend every chess player to subscribe to get some very informative videos.

I remember Sagar's hard work in 2017 and 2018. He has been doing continuous work for the last 6-8 years. In lockdown, he did chess streaming and because of him, chess is now very popular in India.

4- Chess24

Chess24 is a website where you can see video series as well as play with players from all over the world. Chess24 is part of Play Magnus Group. The Chess24 channel is also very interesting. They usually do live streams of all top chess events, and commentators are also GMs. You can watch all of Peter Svidler’s videos on the Chess24 YouTube channel.

Also, they did Jan’s clinic series, where GM Jan answered opening-related questions. This series provided so much value, and I actually used some of his openings in classical tournaments and it worked well.

The Chess24 website is officially shut down in Jan 2024. Their YouTube channel is still on and filled with amazing content.

5- Killer Chess Training

This is the only channel in the list which have very low subscribers. Killer Chess Training is an online chess academy by Jacob Aagard. You have to pay a yearly subscription fee to join this academy, in which you will get various life lessons from GMs.

The YouTube channel consists of amazing chess videos that are directly helpful for advanced-level chess players. Usually, these videos are based on middle-position solving.

6- FIDE chess

FIDE chess is the official chess channel of FIDE which is the World Chess Federation. They do live commentary of official tournaments and post-interviews.

As this is an official chess channel run by the World Chess Federation, you will get valuable content from them. If you follow women’s chess closely this channel is perfect for you.

Although this channel should do more activities. As this is the official World Chess Federation channel, they should post some basic courses on chess for beginners and also invite some GMs and post those lectures.

7- Hanging Pawns

Hanging Pawn is a channel by Stjepan, who is from Croatia. He is also an active chess player with a rating above 2000. His channel is totally educational and highly recommended for beginners and intermediate chess players.

You can watch his long basic opening videos. You will get a lot of ideas from it. Also, he posts his own game analysis. Analysis types of videos are also useful for understanding his thought process during the game.

8- Agadmator’s chess channel

Hello Everyone! Who doesn’t know Agadmator? He is one of the biggest chess channels on YouTube. The real name of the agadmator is Antonio Radic, who is from Croatia. His videos are also educational with engine analysis. You can watch his daily videos and take them as a daily dose of chess.

Agadmator’s channel is very entertaining, and I would highly recommend everyone below 2000 rated player to watch their videos regularly. Most of his analysis is accurate.

9- Ichess.net (ChessGames)

Ichess is also a company which is owned by Play Magnus group. Ichess is a chess course selling website, and they also create YouTube videos. Their videos are very useful for club-level chess players.

Most of the time, they will explain to you the basics of the topic, and for the full course, they will suggest you buy their chess course.

Play Magnus Group was acquired by Chess(dot)com, and hence ichess also became a subsidiary of Chess(dot)com

After acquisition the new name is ChessGames

10- Remote Chess Academy

Remote Chess Academy is managed by GM Igor Smirnov. On his website, he sells chess courses that are pretty useful for everyone. His middlegame ideas and concepts are very useful.

On his YouTube channel, he posts traps and tricks videos. They are useful for players who are looking to improve their online ratings.

Recommended for players below 2000

11- PowerPlayChess Channel

Power Play Chess is a YouTube channel by Daniel King. Daniel is a very strong chess Grandmaster from the United Kingdom. He usually posts game analysis videos.

Daniel is also an author of the Power Play chess course series on chessbase.

12 – Saint Louis Chess Club

Saint Louis Chess Club is located in the USA. They have posted full chess lectures on chess openings, middlegame, and general chess improvement.

The club also hosts multiple strong chess tournaments, and you will see many interviews and live streams with commentary on those tournaments.

13 – Always Dizzy

Always Dizzy is a very underrated chess channel. This channel is run by Cruz Tyler, a 1700 FIDE-rated chess player from Canada. He is an adult chess improver and posts very good quality content on YouTube.

He posts full-class recordings, which he takes from FMs and IMs. This is something that we don’t find on YouTube. Also, this content is usually not searchable as YouTube doesn’t show in top results.

These live class videos can relate to you if you are rated between 1200-2000 and definitely help you to improve your chess game.

I definitely recommend checking out his channel.

14 – Vidit Gujrathi

Vidit Gujrathi is a chess Grandmaster and a top-rated chess player from India after Vishy Anand. Vidit started his YouTube channel when COVID-19 started. He became very popular in India in 2021.

The main good thing about his channel is his vlog. You don’t see chess tournament vlogs often. Vidit did that! Although most of the vlog content is in Hindi, you can watch it using subtitles.

15 - Chess(dot)com

Apart from FIDE and Lichess, almost everything is under the control of Chessdotcom. This is one of the biggest chess channels in the world.

You can follow this channel to follow live events and interviews.

16 - Silicon Road and Game Changer

These are two different channels. Both of these channels are owned by Matthew Sadler who is a British Grandmaster. Both channels are underrated and you can follow them to learn new things.

Best Female Chess YouTubers

There are not many female YouTube channels. Most of the channels do live streams, and very few posts are dedicated YouTube channels.

Anna Cramling

Anna Cramling is a WFM from Sweden. She became a very popular chess streamer and content creator in 2022. She posts regular videos on YouTube and also streams on Twitch.

She is the daughter of 2 Grandmasters, i.e., GM Pia Cramling and GM Juan Manuel Bellón López.
She was also nominated for the Streamers Awards in 2023.

BotezLive

This channel is also known as Botez Sisters. Alexandra and Andrea are the two girls behind this channel.
They are very successful Twitch streamers and making 5 figure income every month. You can watch their channel for entertainment. Alexandra Botez is WFM.

Anna Rudolf

Anna Rudolf is a Hungarian chess International Master. On her YouTube channel, she posts entertaining videos related to chess. Anna Rudolf also does live streams on Twitch and is also an active chess player.

If you think that I have missed any good channel, do comment or send me an email.

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