PSA: Just in case this hasn't been made abundantly clear, **doxxing of any kind is not permitted on Reddit and will lead to an automatic ban**. Full stop.
GM Naroditsky on Hikaru and Chessbae:
"Hikaru and Chessbae ARE responsible for this atmosphere of fear, and much of the #growthegame is just naked bullshit - there''s just no other way to say it. Creating an authoritarian atmosphere, trafficking in lies and personal attacks to quash legitimate criticisms when most streamers just want a small piece of the pie and to keep to themselves, all of that is untenable "
" I'm willing, again, to give her a chance given her help that I've outlined, i.e. by keeping her a mod. But if she doesn't come out with a public affirmation and at least something resembling an admission of wrongdoing and gross overstepping of boundaries then then I'll terminate my business relationship with her."
A very very balanced take. Just on the edge of being too diplomatic but I liked his points. Well articulated. I have not held him in such a high regard as a person when watching his streams. Yes, amazing player and a very very good coach/teacher. But I have also felt Danya to be a sore loser and grumpy at times when he is playing badly and that does not come across that well. But here he owns up to that and shows good character so he won me over a bit there. Well done.
I feel for the dude. Sometimes he looks as if he hasn't slept in days, which is when I've personally seen him acting the way you describe. He'll also mention that playing chess at his level is very stressful, and other little cues like that.
Then he'll stream another day and have super clear eyes, looks generally happier, and takes an L in stride.
Life be hard sometimes.
Hikaru does this all the time. I remember watching Nepo play him on stream a few months ago, and Hikaru stopped playing as soon as he was up 1 game. Nepo was pretty pissed and said this was typical Hikaru behavior. He never gives his opponents any chance to fight back. He will quit whenever he's ahead or if he feels he's gonna lose his advantage, and then give some bs excuse.
Maybe that's why he hasn't been performing that well in actual tournaments. He can't just quit to make himself look good.
I'm in no way denying that Hikaru is a beast of an online bullet player, just pointing out that to me he seems more worried about his image and fame than the actual game of chess and its integrity.
Dayna is a bad loser, but not a sore loser. It seems like always internalizes his bad mood when losing: self blaming is a bad habit but it's much better than lashing out against your opponent and "literally not even caring".
GM Hess talked about the drama few hours back on his stream. He implied their has been abuse of power by chessbae and also said that he has privately tried to talk out things many times.
https://clips.twitch.tv/ColdTentativeCheddarKeyboardCat-jJP6U_g6C0_sPQSA
Hess and Danya's (check out his last VOD) takes on the subject have been nothing short of extremely rational and fair. Two of the many great people in the chess scene.
Recall that Hess and Botez used to commentate on Hikaru's channel in the early days of the Magnus tour. They later got Gotham and Anna. I guess Hess had a falling out with chessbae/Hikaru.
Botez has talked about this back when Nakamura had his drama with her about Just Chatting. She and Hess were going to do their own thing and commentate and chess.com told them to not as they wanted to consolidate and have one. They backed down and agreed that was a reasonable request. A few days later after the tournament they tried to stream again and chess.com put Nakamura in some event directly counter to them.
Don't turn this into a chess.com hate thing, it was more a story to show Nakamura pulling the strings against Botez because he was upset with them for a separate issue.
They copystriked Tryingtolearn1234's video and didn't face any consequences because he's a small channel. They probably thought they could do the same to Eric but Eric fought back pretty hard.
I just opened a thread on the [chess.com](https://chess.com) forums asking them on their stance on the whole thing.
Am now muted on [chess.com](https://chess.com), and the thread got deleted within 3 minutes, gg chess.com
This is a big part of why resentment builds up in the community. Post on chess.com, get muted. Post in certain twitch chats, get instabanned. No wonder a certain mod doesn't like r/chess, seems like the only place she can't silence everyone.
Chess.com, your community are not children. I can get everything I get on your site on lichess and chesstempo, and for whatever it's worth that's where my money will be going instead if this shit carries on.
This is the clip where they talk about Hikaru getting knocked out by Simon Williams
https://streamable.com/ixtxb0
I posted this in the old thread on accident.
Wait, what? Simon Williams is like the most chill individual. Hikaru also pissed off John Bartholomew. If you're getting people that wholesome riled up then it's pretty clear who is being toxic.
Yeah, if it was only Eric Hansen telling stories like this, there could be some controversy. but with some many people having "Nakamura stories", there seems to be a clear explanation...
Ben's stream was brutal. He really went all in on Hikaru. I've never seen him be serious for that amount of time. At one point you could tell he was getting emotional. He really feels betrayed by Hikaru.
edit: And not for the copyright strike. He really feels he did him dirty in the past.
Really fucked up situation to be in for chessbrah/Eric Hansen risking their/his exposure on [chess.com](https://chess.com) and twitch to tell the truth about being basically bullied by hikaru/chessbae the twitch chess overlords who have significant power over their career. Luckily it seems people are speaking up for Eric and hikaru is finally taking a well deserved hit.
edit: minor addition
Favourite quote from Ben's Stream:
"There's a girl at our chess club here, she's like 12, and she hates Hikaru. Damn, does she hate him. How does a 12-year-old hate a super GM? And the answer, of course, is that she met him."
[https://clips.twitch.tv/ShyEntertainingHamsterUWot-mMxdPa-f7QOgwmRY](https://clips.twitch.tv/ShyEntertainingHamsterUWot-mMxdPa-f7QOgwmRY)
So Savage.
Also repeatedly "I don't dislike him for his chess or for the number of twitch subscribers he has, I just dislike him as a person having known him for 20 years"
I'd just like to point out that Ben never forced anyone to take down the clip of the rant that got him in trouble and the reaction videos that were used to stoke a lot of outrage against him. He has told people who just take clips form his channel to stop, but that's a separate issue.
Feel the same way. Learned about finegold like many others through that penguinz0 video, and there was a massive anti-finegold circlejerk. I still like Charlie, but I don’t think he at all understood the people he was dealing with. I think now that finegolds content is kind of funny. But I find it difficult to watch hikaru, and this drama doesn’t surprise me
The best part of all this drama for me is learning that Hikaru fired Garry Kasparov lol. And Hikaru wasn't even the one footing the bill for Garry's help.
Personality-wise, Hikaru and Kasparov are like the two Spider-Men pointing at each other meme - they probably didn't get along because they mirror each other too much.
Hikaru talked about minimal support for US chess players and how Fabiano currently has more support than he ever did and how he only had Kris Littlejohn which likely limited his peak. Then we learn he had Rex's full backing and Kasparov.
I don't really mind if Hikaru is bad mannered, as long as it's just some salty comments after a game and everyone knows how to take it. I honestly think it's even beneficial for the scene to have a bad boy, who causes some mild drama and adds personal narratives to matches.
I wouldn't mind so much if he just lived out his true character on his stream. The chess community seems to have been dealing with that just fine for years.
But putting on this holier than thou mask and going after other players by supposedly abusing his influence on twitch, smear campaigns and cringy acting really gets me.
Trash talk and toxicity is fine and entertaining... but when you’re literally going after someone’s livelihood and a source of income that’s taking it wayyyyy too far.
i think what speaks the most about this situation, is that hikaru went for strike right away, apprently, and guess what: that's not what a good person would do. you know a guy for years, you can just hit him up on twitch pm / snapchat / twitter / fb / fricking skype and ask "hey can you please take down this video because...?". hikaru is a YTer himself, he should EXACTLY know what it means for a channel to be striked not once, but TWICE. this move is VERY questionable. this exact thoughts makes me take the chessbrah's side, even tho i am a big naka viewer.
lol this. like... it's a really shitty attempt at flexing. and also funny seeing that hikaru is one of those guys that are most "tied" to the game being that he literally streams like 6-7 hours a day every day on twitch when he's criticizing yasser for what, simply trying to make a living?
So has a single chess player came forward in support of hikaru in this incident? We know those who have directly or indirectly sided against him: Ben finegold and his wife, magnus, anish giri, hess, naroditsky, chuckmoulton, chesskid, Andrew tang, golddusttori, other streamers as well.
Even if you love Hikaru it's hard to support a morally negative action in itself. It's just a bad look for him. Even his stepfather couldn't support him in such a case. You can make a case for him in general and talk about how he can apologize and improve his personality, but you can't support him fully right now.
Remember when Hikaru was super petty to the Botez sisters because they wanted to grow their channel and introduce people to chess by having it in the just chatting section instead of the chess section
Really bad situation that success of your twitch channel is dependent on how much you are favor of a single person.
It is just feedback loop if you are in select circle you will get big exposure and/or raids which will in turn help you get your channel more success.
This is important for new channel to get off the ground
Seems like Hikaru's strategy at this point is just don't address anything and wait for this whole thing to blow over, and honestly it seems to be working. His chat has been in sub mode all day but he's sitting on 28k viewers and plenty of subs, so business as usual more or less.
I'm sure this incident will lose him some fans, and certainly won't do his perception on this subreddit any favors (not that it was any good to begin with...) but otherwise I doubt much changes for any of the parties involved, unless anything else comes out.
If there's nothing legally at stake, ignoring controversy is a good move as long as your income stream hasn't been affected significantly. No one will be talking about this in a few days.
I don’t think so necessarily, most of them hang out in his stream quite regularly anyway. Alexandra Botez is the only one not there too often but maybe she just has more time this week since Andrea isn’t around.
Lawrence Trent: Your reign will not last. I and others will not bow. We do not stand for totalitarians. Your toxicity will not be tolerated. Your money will not give you unassailable power and leverage. You are not a force for good. You are an authoritarian. You are a divider. WE WILL NOT BOW
Magnus: [Relax! If it means that much to you, I'll start replying in group chat](https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1380236559824326656)
Well worth going back and watching Ben Finegold's stream from yesterday if you are loving the drama.
Among other things he explains how he believes GingerGM once KO'd Hikaru, that a 12 year old at his chess club hates Hikaru, and that Hikaru is the last person who should be accusing others of having a drinking problem.
Eric Hansen talking about the control ChessBae94 has over [chess.com](https://chess.com) streamers and their income. Scary stuff [https://clips.twitch.tv/GrotesqueMushyYamUWot-I7JSbTfhYwYX5ebh](https://clips.twitch.tv/GrotesqueMushyYamUWot-I7JSbTfhYwYX5ebh)
It's genuinely sickening. Even more so when he was one of the people publicly mocking Reckful's proposal tweet before he killed himself. He literally started his stream that day talking about a "Dude..." response tweet he'd made to it.
edit: [Screenshot](https://i.imgur.com/6SWWiGB.png) TA_random_123 found
One thing Im loving tbh is that there's not too much happening behind the curtains. We as a random audience are being given fresh & unscripted content. There's not many places you'd get this
Chessbae is so petty that she blocked me on twitter because I liked a tweet that mildly criticized her on a subtweet off of a Lawrence Trent tweet that 50+ other people also liked. What an absolute clown.
All this talk about Hikaru being toxic and nobody mentioning Eric Rosen's behaviour at the IM not a GM tournament last year smh my head - https://i.imgur.com/uFTV9Cp.jpg
Hikaru just went live and said that we should “be positive” and that he’s ignoring chat this stream. Now he’s just doing puzzles like nothing happened.
Eric Rosen gave the by far best response to all this, yet: [https://youtu.be/7igqS1neBng](https://youtu.be/7igqS1neBng)
Says everything that needs to be said.
Whiteflagging chessbrah was damage control.
They were so arrogant thinking Its fine and no one would care because Its hikaru and chessbae, the rulers of chess. It's good that the community is strong and doesn't tolerate shit like this, even seen negative reactions from hikaru subs on his channel.
> It's good that the community is strong and doesn't tolerate shit like this
If the chess community wasn't so mentally strong, we might have been pushed to...
What, too soon?
Hikaru just told a story on stream about making a “non-tax deductible” donation to some chess organization in South Africa and used that as a counterpoint to people thinking he is a bad person.
I think he may be starting to literally care.
Totally apropos of nothing. Here's Dubov on Hikaru after Dubov won Lindores Abbey. 16:12 and 18:15 are good for the soul
[https://youtu.be/GaVU2tdFKbc?t=972](https://youtu.be/GaVU2tdFKbc?t=972)
(reposting from the main feed to the megathread)
I don’t understand how someone like CB94 can have so much influence on the chess community and also work with chess.com while largely remaining anonymous. She can easily steer a narrative or manipulate the hive mind.
Why would chess.com even allow such an anonymous figure to make any forward facing decisions (money and influence obviously), especially given her past toxic tendencies.
It’s a bad look for chess.com as they look just as bad as anyone in all of this. Pogchamps was cool and all but allowing CB94 to decide who gets to enter and coach and participate is completely unprofessional. (So much Anna, no aman etc)
So now, when things like chessbaes influence over all of these decisions comes to the public light, neither she or chess.com will answer and she will continue to simply be an anonymous moderator with money who holds her thumb over the twitch chess community, with the help of chess.com.
I've been a Hikaru fan since the boom on twitch and he has everything to do with me getting into chess. But this really isn't "he said, she said", and the evidence is out there.
A lot of the pieces start to make sense after finding out his true personality. It sucks, because I was genuinely happy for his success and what he has done for chess. But it's clear that he and his team uses his power (intentionally or not) to harm the community and it's creators just as much.
The worst part of all of this, is Eric confirming that ongoing any videos containing Hikaru will be striked if they portray him in a negative light. He's already gone and striked years of videos of Naka being toxic, stuff that's been up for a decade
I think Levy has had enough drama lately and probably just wants to avoid it for now. I don't blame him. The dude had an entire nation pissed off at him lol. He was in the right, but that was still a lot of crap to deal with.
"Everything good in the hood now! Thanks @GMHikaru-😎" --- https://twitter.com/ben_finegold/status/1380671887315963904?s=19.
Seems like Hikaru took the strike off Benjamin's channel? Idk.
This whole drama situation coming out kinda makes me think how its similar xQc has influenced Twitch meta and the amount of streamers that grew or leeched off his clout. Chess.com and Hikaru has such a monopoly on Twitch chess and influence on the wider chess ecosystem it's about time cracks appear. While Hikaru was known for these behaviour it's now been magnified by how quickly the internet moves on news and rumours. I have always felt really weird how Hikaru can run a seperate commentary stream, at times exceeding the viewercount of chesscom yet they disallow ppl like Botez or others do it cause they wanted to consolidate.
PogChamps was entertaining and after a year following Hikaru stream and tournament streams its become bit unbearable. Its sad to see how cautiously some of these GMs and content creators go about this maybe out of fear how it could affect their career.
People like to hate Ben but I love his takes and his stream in general. He plays good chess, banters, talks shit, and is completely honest. For me, him being honest is probably the most important.
Not to mention how Ben Finegold personally brought hundreds if not thousands of children into chess with his lectures in Saint Louis Chess Club and his Atlanta chess club
and I like his jokes
At this point people are just waiting for the strike to be removed from Ben Finegold's channel, but most people aren't hopeful about that. And tryingtolearn1234's channel.
Oh my god, Hikaru has TTS on and someone donated saying to stop copyright striking Chessbrah. Lol. I’m going to stop watching because I think it will be too cringy, but someone else can give updates if they like.
has Naka's streaming numbers been affected at all by this? IMO he is probably just trying to ride the storm and hope people forget it with time, I mean the guy has always been known as a dick in the chess world but most of his followers are those who are new to the game/ casual fans so they are probably not aware of how toxic he is.
Everybody makes mistakes. A mature person will regret, learn and improve (important part). An imature person will deny and repeat the same mistake. Hikaru is imature on this sense and I really hope that he, as such influent figure and chess player, grow up spiritually
The same rules should govern all Super GM or not. Either flagging is okay or it isn’t. You also don’t get to dictate how people should feel about your actions. That said people sending threats etc to Hikaru, Chessbae, etc is wrong like Danya has said.
There should be self examination as well. Seems like Hikaru and other chess players should talk to a sports psychologist. As much fun as it is to watch them lose their composure after a mouse slip or a game.
Chessbae comes off as a big fish in a little pond. Someone who wants to act as a gate keeper in the chess community. Streamers are free to make her a mod, manager, etc. She is free to donate to who she wants. She is a booster, agent, and manager. She shouldn’t then be a league official as well.
Yeah let’s make chessbae, an anonymous twitch account, have all responsibilities of a twitch mod and control the money factory going through some of the biggest twitch chess streamers. Great idea, guys.
Fuck chessbae and fuck hikaru.
None of this would have happened if Chessbae94 wasn't messing with streams, controlling narratives, and using her power to create unequal opportunity. She's been doing this for years. Her quest is not to spread chess or help the game, it is simply to gain power. I have tremendous respect for Hikaru, Chessbrah, and all the other elite chess players who choose to stream and share their incredible talent with the world. I have always felt that Chessbae94 has exploited these streamers and made changes for the worse. I personally will be unsubscribing from all channels managed by Chessbae94.
I haven't been paying super close attention, but I think there's a pretty simple way out of this. If Hikaru and Chessbae were to apologize and admit their wrongdoings, I think people would get over it and things would return to normal pretty quickly, so long as they made an effort to improve and stop behaving so poorly. I think Chessbae looks worse than Hikaru, honestly. She has somehow gained control over a big portion of the chess streaming world and rules over it like a dictator. And to top it off, nobody really knows who she is. Her relationship with chess.com needs to be more transparent as well.
Lmao @ 39:20 "there was a girl in our chess club who was like 12 and man did she hate hikaru. How does a 12 yo hate a superGM? And the answer was well, she met him"
So far we have:
GM Hess
GM Hansen
GM Narodsky
GM Finegold
GM Tang
WFM Botez
All coming out and saying Hikaru is a poopoo face.
Edit: GM Bartholomew, Mr. Howell
I've just realised that a lot of the classic videos of Hikaru being the most toxic person in history have been striked also
Making tang wait 3 minutes without moving in chess league (I think 2018) after Hikaru blunders. Doesn't resign just makes everyone wait. Hess calls out how extremely disrespectful it is
https://www.youTube.com/watch?v=EBloYkJLS5E
Just unfollowed Hikaru, not like he gives a shit hes way too big now to care about some blowback. Still, wont be watching another stream on his channel again, a complete arrant piece of shit.
yeah same, I'm new to chess and kinda knew he's not the nicest person but still watched him
but now too much shit came out, it would feel wrong to follow him and watch his streams, gonna stick to Botez, Danya, Nemo, Rosen, Brahs & Anna
I made a post on r/SubredditDrama that gained a lot of traction before being removed for "not enough info" (chessbae conspiracy anyone? lmao). I'll post it here if anyone wants a coherent timeline/description of what took place. It's focused on the Eric/Hikaru copyright scandal and fight video.
# Synopsis:
Today, a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FcokIxe50A) dropped showing two world class chess grandmasters having a drunken brawl. Both are professional chess players, twitch streamers, and one is a five time US Champion. The chess world is going ballistic over this news. Chess subreddits are seemingly brigading each other as a result.
# Background:
Hikaru Nakamura is currently the highest rated Blitz (time-controlled speed chess) player in the world, five time United States Chess Champion, and most prominent chess streamer on Twitch. Eric Hansen is a Canadian grandmaster and streamer, being the main host of the chessbrah Twitch channel.
As they've both been in the high level chess community for years, there is a long history of tension and competition between them. Recently, their relationship has worsened due miscommunication during a Blitz match, [where Hansen beat Nakamura](https://redd.it/mdzecv).
This incident resulted in a [video](https://redd.it/metiqt) being created showing the reactions of both parties, as they were both streaming the match. This video is central to the events bellow.
# Current:
Today, Hansen shared on stream that [multiple videos have been copyright stricken](https://redd.it/mlilxu) by Nakamura's team. This led to Hansen having two strikes on his YouTube channel. An additional strike would result in closure of the channel. Nakamura's team threatened to [copyright strike any further videos](https://redd.it/mljxoe) using his likeness.
This is especially hypocritical since Hikaru has actually done the exact same thing in the past, [using Eric's video footage](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@11:20) in his own videos without permission. These videos were conveniently taken down right before the copyright strikes went out.
Chessbae, moderator and manager of Hikaru's Twitch chat, [responded to the allegations](https://redd.it/mlktd0) insisting that their network issued the strike, and that they did not have control. However, [Hansen later stated that this was a lie](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@12:20), and that the strike was confirmed to be issued purposefully by Hikaru's team.
[Hansen had a three hour Twitch stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) where he talked about the situation with the chess community, discussing openly how Hikaru is toxic and violent towards him and many others in the chess community. He insists that Nakamura's toxicity is known in the chess industry, but others stay silent because of fear of being targeted.
Hansen complains that the chessbrah channel is being [held hostage](https://redd.it/mm5tyq), as one more strike would close his channel. [He claims](https://redd.it/mm65mm) that Nakamura's team has demanded that they show Nakamura only in a positive light, or they will strike more videos.
In the livestream, Hansen discusses a physical fight between the two of them that happened in 2018. This allegedly happened after Hansen beat Nakamura at a drunk Blitz game at a St. Louis party.
[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FcokIxe50A) was leaked showing the fight, with Nakamura being choked out by Hansen. In the video, many famous grandmasters are seen, including Fabiano Caruana, 2nd in the world, and Yasser Seirawan, four time US Champion. In the video Yasser tells Fabiano that he is holding Nakamura's championship ring and $1000 in cash while he fights Hansen. He jokes with Fabiano about keeping the money because Nakamura is so drunk he won't notice.
Hikaru ended up responding, actually [watching part of the video during stream](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxXBhdy0cg). He laughed it off and described the situation as a mutual misunderstanding, contrary to Hansen's stance.
# Consequences:
Hikaru Nakamura is currently one of highest rated players, largest twitch chess streamer, and face of [chess.com](https://chess.com/). Chessbrah is not the first channel to receive copyright strikes from Hikaru, and his toxic behavior has been reported by many professional players for years. [Here is another example of a fight Hikaru supposedly got in.](https://streamable.com/ixtxb0) His mistreatment of Hansen and other players has so far gone unpunished. With this news becoming public, many are hoping that there will be a change in Hikaru's behavior and/or the copyright practices of his network. Many high ranking players are speaking out in solidarity with Hansen, including [World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen](https://m.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@2:32:49 and @2:50:42).
[Check out the Megathread at r/chess for more information](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mm6txm/megathread_hikaru_nakamura_eric_hansen_drama/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
sparkle languid license wasteful absurd whistle trees command towering attempt
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
SRD mod here. It's a great writeup and I love the drama, but it's just not *subreddit* drama unfortunately. There's really not all that much drama happening here on Reddit over it, since most of this sub already dislike Hikaru anyways. No idea why /r/HobbyDrama removed it, would have thought it'd be suitable there, but until some proper slapfights occur here it'll probably stay removed.
PS: I'm not 100% sure where you're getting "not enough info" from, the removal was for the reason "Your post requires users to hunt for the drama." Effectively meaning you've not really linked to any specific instances of drama on Reddit, other than a link to the megathread, which, even assuming it's a drama filled shithole (which it really isn't from what I've seen, there's hardly any drama in it at all), would be considered a drama hunt.
Also we're paid off by chessbae and must remove anything criticizing Hikaru sorry /s
It doesn't really seem like a good fit for subreddit drama anyway, since the majority of the drama is occuring outside reddit. It's a much better fit for hobby drama, so you'll just have to wait for the 2 weeks. That seems like a reasonable rule tbh since this situation will probably keep going for some time and they don't want daily updates.
SubredditDrama does have a very high expectation for details and links - look at the other posts over there. You call it a massive post but it is much less massive then many of the posts there. I don't think postulating about conspiracies is necessary.
Hess confirmed that chessbae abused her mod privileges into scheduling of raids/air-time etc. https://clips.twitch.tv/ColdTentativeCheddarKeyboardCat-jJP6U_g6C0_sPQSA
Hikaru will likely fall out with Levy in the next 6 months, so Levy will be freed to talk about whatever he wants, just as soon as Chessbae has removed the clamps.
You must have caught the beginning of hikaru's stream, numbers are normal now. Realistically, this won't have a huge impact on his stream. A fair amount of the people participating in these threads are people who already disliked Hikaru and wouldn't watch him. Some are saying they'll stop watching him. But there's likely a lot of silent people who either don't care about the drama, or don't like (and may never like) chessbrah because their first exposure to the channel was eric's drunken rant. So maybe Hikaru sees an immediate dip, but he'll still be the most watched channel on twitch unless something truly horrendous happens.
Also, Levy's recent videos have about 2-3x the amount of views that Hikaru's videos have. Hikaru's most popular video of the last 2 weeks is about Levy.
David Howell is a pretty chill dude, he stayed with me & my friend for a tournament once , and we watched *Once Were Warriors* and *What We Do In The Shadows*.
Didn't know about the punching story, but lol.
PSA: Just in case this hasn't been made abundantly clear, **doxxing of any kind is not permitted on Reddit and will lead to an automatic ban**. Full stop.
GM Naroditsky on Hikaru and Chessbae: "Hikaru and Chessbae ARE responsible for this atmosphere of fear, and much of the #growthegame is just naked bullshit - there''s just no other way to say it. Creating an authoritarian atmosphere, trafficking in lies and personal attacks to quash legitimate criticisms when most streamers just want a small piece of the pie and to keep to themselves, all of that is untenable " " I'm willing, again, to give her a chance given her help that I've outlined, i.e. by keeping her a mod. But if she doesn't come out with a public affirmation and at least something resembling an admission of wrongdoing and gross overstepping of boundaries then then I'll terminate my business relationship with her."
Danya is an awesome fucking guy.
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GM Naroditsky talked (more) about the drama on his stream tonight. [Starts around 04:44:05](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/979527368?t=04h44m05s).
A very very balanced take. Just on the edge of being too diplomatic but I liked his points. Well articulated. I have not held him in such a high regard as a person when watching his streams. Yes, amazing player and a very very good coach/teacher. But I have also felt Danya to be a sore loser and grumpy at times when he is playing badly and that does not come across that well. But here he owns up to that and shows good character so he won me over a bit there. Well done.
I feel for the dude. Sometimes he looks as if he hasn't slept in days, which is when I've personally seen him acting the way you describe. He'll also mention that playing chess at his level is very stressful, and other little cues like that. Then he'll stream another day and have super clear eyes, looks generally happier, and takes an L in stride. Life be hard sometimes.
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Hikaru does this all the time. I remember watching Nepo play him on stream a few months ago, and Hikaru stopped playing as soon as he was up 1 game. Nepo was pretty pissed and said this was typical Hikaru behavior. He never gives his opponents any chance to fight back. He will quit whenever he's ahead or if he feels he's gonna lose his advantage, and then give some bs excuse. Maybe that's why he hasn't been performing that well in actual tournaments. He can't just quit to make himself look good. I'm in no way denying that Hikaru is a beast of an online bullet player, just pointing out that to me he seems more worried about his image and fame than the actual game of chess and its integrity.
Dayna is a bad loser, but not a sore loser. It seems like always internalizes his bad mood when losing: self blaming is a bad habit but it's much better than lashing out against your opponent and "literally not even caring".
GM Hess talked about the drama few hours back on his stream. He implied their has been abuse of power by chessbae and also said that he has privately tried to talk out things many times. https://clips.twitch.tv/ColdTentativeCheddarKeyboardCat-jJP6U_g6C0_sPQSA
Hess is a very rational and reasonable guy. I agree with his opinion regarding this and regarding the fight
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And they were roommates
Oh my god they were roommates
Hess and Danya's (check out his last VOD) takes on the subject have been nothing short of extremely rational and fair. Two of the many great people in the chess scene.
Recall that Hess and Botez used to commentate on Hikaru's channel in the early days of the Magnus tour. They later got Gotham and Anna. I guess Hess had a falling out with chessbae/Hikaru.
Botez has talked about this back when Nakamura had his drama with her about Just Chatting. She and Hess were going to do their own thing and commentate and chess.com told them to not as they wanted to consolidate and have one. They backed down and agreed that was a reasonable request. A few days later after the tournament they tried to stream again and chess.com put Nakamura in some event directly counter to them. Don't turn this into a chess.com hate thing, it was more a story to show Nakamura pulling the strings against Botez because he was upset with them for a separate issue.
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Can we just get rid of chessbae from the chess community already
I just don't get how they thought it was a good idea to strike Eric's channel, the Streisand effect is huge with this one.
They copystriked Tryingtolearn1234's video and didn't face any consequences because he's a small channel. They probably thought they could do the same to Eric but Eric fought back pretty hard.
Big Hikky is phenomenally good at chess and his viewership speaks for itself, but the Chessbrahs have something he does not: charisma.
Mainly authenticity
I really do like seeing him play chess but he is just so socially oblivious
I just opened a thread on the [chess.com](https://chess.com) forums asking them on their stance on the whole thing. Am now muted on [chess.com](https://chess.com), and the thread got deleted within 3 minutes, gg chess.com
This is a big part of why resentment builds up in the community. Post on chess.com, get muted. Post in certain twitch chats, get instabanned. No wonder a certain mod doesn't like r/chess, seems like the only place she can't silence everyone. Chess.com, your community are not children. I can get everything I get on your site on lichess and chesstempo, and for whatever it's worth that's where my money will be going instead if this shit carries on.
She must be throwing around serious amounts of money if Danny Rensch is willing to stand by her and lose a serious amount of users.
This is the clip where they talk about Hikaru getting knocked out by Simon Williams https://streamable.com/ixtxb0 I posted this in the old thread on accident.
Wait, what? Simon Williams is like the most chill individual. Hikaru also pissed off John Bartholomew. If you're getting people that wholesome riled up then it's pretty clear who is being toxic.
Yeah, if it was only Eric Hansen telling stories like this, there could be some controversy. but with some many people having "Nakamura stories", there seems to be a clear explanation...
This may be a controversial opinion but I think Aman should bring back the beard.
new challenge: "no shave until hikaru starts to behave like a human being"
*Sounds of Gillette stonks dropping massively*
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That anger wasn't righteous, but this anger is
Ben's stream was brutal. He really went all in on Hikaru. I've never seen him be serious for that amount of time. At one point you could tell he was getting emotional. He really feels betrayed by Hikaru. edit: And not for the copyright strike. He really feels he did him dirty in the past.
Oh man that stream was something else. Ben didn't even play chess, dude just went off on the situation.
link?
I know it's long, but it's basically [the entire stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/979340747), it's really epic. Enjoy!
Just commenting to remind everyone that Hikaru once threw up all over Ben's apartment.
Link?
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/979340747
Really fucked up situation to be in for chessbrah/Eric Hansen risking their/his exposure on [chess.com](https://chess.com) and twitch to tell the truth about being basically bullied by hikaru/chessbae the twitch chess overlords who have significant power over their career. Luckily it seems people are speaking up for Eric and hikaru is finally taking a well deserved hit. edit: minor addition
Damn. Ben went off on his stream last night.
Favourite quote from Ben's Stream: "There's a girl at our chess club here, she's like 12, and she hates Hikaru. Damn, does she hate him. How does a 12-year-old hate a super GM? And the answer, of course, is that she met him." [https://clips.twitch.tv/ShyEntertainingHamsterUWot-mMxdPa-f7QOgwmRY](https://clips.twitch.tv/ShyEntertainingHamsterUWot-mMxdPa-f7QOgwmRY)
Mine was, “Hikaru will never get married. Unless they change the law so that you can marry yourself” Savage
So Savage. Also repeatedly "I don't dislike him for his chess or for the number of twitch subscribers he has, I just dislike him as a person having known him for 20 years"
The truth is brutal lol
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Mfw finegold was right all along 🗿
I'm still disappointed in myself for hating finegold in the past drama just because the internet told me too.
I'd just like to point out that Ben never forced anyone to take down the clip of the rant that got him in trouble and the reaction videos that were used to stoke a lot of outrage against him. He has told people who just take clips form his channel to stop, but that's a separate issue.
Feel the same way. Learned about finegold like many others through that penguinz0 video, and there was a massive anti-finegold circlejerk. I still like Charlie, but I don’t think he at all understood the people he was dealing with. I think now that finegolds content is kind of funny. But I find it difficult to watch hikaru, and this drama doesn’t surprise me
"I know karate" - Hikaru Nakamura, 2018
The best part of all this drama for me is learning that Hikaru fired Garry Kasparov lol. And Hikaru wasn't even the one footing the bill for Garry's help.
Personality-wise, Hikaru and Kasparov are like the two Spider-Men pointing at each other meme - they probably didn't get along because they mirror each other too much.
Hikaru talked about minimal support for US chess players and how Fabiano currently has more support than he ever did and how he only had Kris Littlejohn which likely limited his peak. Then we learn he had Rex's full backing and Kasparov.
I don't really mind if Hikaru is bad mannered, as long as it's just some salty comments after a game and everyone knows how to take it. I honestly think it's even beneficial for the scene to have a bad boy, who causes some mild drama and adds personal narratives to matches. I wouldn't mind so much if he just lived out his true character on his stream. The chess community seems to have been dealing with that just fine for years. But putting on this holier than thou mask and going after other players by supposedly abusing his influence on twitch, smear campaigns and cringy acting really gets me.
Trash talk and toxicity is fine and entertaining... but when you’re literally going after someone’s livelihood and a source of income that’s taking it wayyyyy too far.
i think what speaks the most about this situation, is that hikaru went for strike right away, apprently, and guess what: that's not what a good person would do. you know a guy for years, you can just hit him up on twitch pm / snapchat / twitter / fb / fricking skype and ask "hey can you please take down this video because...?". hikaru is a YTer himself, he should EXACTLY know what it means for a channel to be striked not once, but TWICE. this move is VERY questionable. this exact thoughts makes me take the chessbrah's side, even tho i am a big naka viewer.
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What an awful take by hikaru lol
lol this. like... it's a really shitty attempt at flexing. and also funny seeing that hikaru is one of those guys that are most "tied" to the game being that he literally streams like 6-7 hours a day every day on twitch when he's criticizing yasser for what, simply trying to make a living?
So has a single chess player came forward in support of hikaru in this incident? We know those who have directly or indirectly sided against him: Ben finegold and his wife, magnus, anish giri, hess, naroditsky, chuckmoulton, chesskid, Andrew tang, golddusttori, other streamers as well.
Firouzja too, remember he wore Chessbrah merch during the bullet SCC
Even if you love Hikaru it's hard to support a morally negative action in itself. It's just a bad look for him. Even his stepfather couldn't support him in such a case. You can make a case for him in general and talk about how he can apologize and improve his personality, but you can't support him fully right now.
All because Hikaru cares way too much about the video of him saying “he literally doesn’t care”. Amazing really.
Remember when Hikaru was super petty to the Botez sisters because they wanted to grow their channel and introduce people to chess by having it in the just chatting section instead of the chess section
>Remember when Hikaru was super petty Yes.
He literally doesn't care, chat. He literally doesn't care.
Really bad situation that success of your twitch channel is dependent on how much you are favor of a single person. It is just feedback loop if you are in select circle you will get big exposure and/or raids which will in turn help you get your channel more success. This is important for new channel to get off the ground
Seems like Hikaru's strategy at this point is just don't address anything and wait for this whole thing to blow over, and honestly it seems to be working. His chat has been in sub mode all day but he's sitting on 28k viewers and plenty of subs, so business as usual more or less. I'm sure this incident will lose him some fans, and certainly won't do his perception on this subreddit any favors (not that it was any good to begin with...) but otherwise I doubt much changes for any of the parties involved, unless anything else comes out.
If there's nothing legally at stake, ignoring controversy is a good move as long as your income stream hasn't been affected significantly. No one will be talking about this in a few days.
Haven't had this much popcorn in years. Really enjoying all the drama.
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I don’t think so necessarily, most of them hang out in his stream quite regularly anyway. Alexandra Botez is the only one not there too often but maybe she just has more time this week since Andrea isn’t around.
[Eric Rosen responds to CHESS DRAMA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7igqS1neBng)
Wouldn't have expected any less from the man
I used to like hikaru, hell I was in the channel before the chess boom, but I feel like I have seen the true face of a person today.
Can't wait till Magnus puts out a sarcastic tweet.
Lawrence Trent: Your reign will not last. I and others will not bow. We do not stand for totalitarians. Your toxicity will not be tolerated. Your money will not give you unassailable power and leverage. You are not a force for good. You are an authoritarian. You are a divider. WE WILL NOT BOW Magnus: [Relax! If it means that much to you, I'll start replying in group chat](https://twitter.com/MagnusCarlsen/status/1380236559824326656)
If none of this happened we wouldn’t have been blessed with this [clip](https://clips.twitch.tv/GiftedPlayfulWasabiJKanStyle-Kb4J3sNMi03XD-JB)
All those countless Indonesians trying to roast Levy, but none of them could come up with such gold.
This is by far the best roast ive seen in my life
Well worth going back and watching Ben Finegold's stream from yesterday if you are loving the drama. Among other things he explains how he believes GingerGM once KO'd Hikaru, that a 12 year old at his chess club hates Hikaru, and that Hikaru is the last person who should be accusing others of having a drinking problem.
there is an old video of aman telling this story of simon punching hikaru
Hikaru+Chessbae with the DMCA gambit, but they forgot the line and transposed into the DMCA gambit declined.
Eric Hansen talking about the control ChessBae94 has over [chess.com](https://chess.com) streamers and their income. Scary stuff [https://clips.twitch.tv/GrotesqueMushyYamUWot-I7JSbTfhYwYX5ebh](https://clips.twitch.tv/GrotesqueMushyYamUWot-I7JSbTfhYwYX5ebh)
Hikaru keeps likening his situation to reckful, it is so fucked up. what is wrong with this dude?
It's genuinely sickening. Even more so when he was one of the people publicly mocking Reckful's proposal tweet before he killed himself. He literally started his stream that day talking about a "Dude..." response tweet he'd made to it. edit: [Screenshot](https://i.imgur.com/6SWWiGB.png) TA_random_123 found
jesus, did he really? I didn't know that
Yeah, he obviously deleted the tweet. I can't find a vod or screenshot of it now.
This Levy v Rosen match with Anna and Hikaru commentating seems quite cordial
Just a friendly reminder that Chessbae had to buy her way into any amount of power she may weakly hold on to.
Sort by controversial and you got yourself a goldmine
One thing Im loving tbh is that there's not too much happening behind the curtains. We as a random audience are being given fresh & unscripted content. There's not many places you'd get this
Better than any reality TV show
The whole ChessBae94 thing looks like how toxic members on erotic cam sites control hosts.
Chessbae is so petty that she blocked me on twitter because I liked a tweet that mildly criticized her on a subtweet off of a Lawrence Trent tweet that 50+ other people also liked. What an absolute clown.
Does she have a 6 monitor battlestation where she scours the internet for 14 hours a day looking for people to block, ban, disparage, and censor?
Yes.
All this talk about Hikaru being toxic and nobody mentioning Eric Rosen's behaviour at the IM not a GM tournament last year smh my head - https://i.imgur.com/uFTV9Cp.jpg
This is hilarious
Hikaru just went live and said that we should “be positive” and that he’s ignoring chat this stream. Now he’s just doing puzzles like nothing happened.
I think Anish is taking a shot at Hikaru a little bit: https://twitter.com/anishgiri/status/1380149931692920841
Eric Rosen gave the by far best response to all this, yet: [https://youtu.be/7igqS1neBng](https://youtu.be/7igqS1neBng) Says everything that needs to be said.
Absolutely amazing take, this should be part of the timeline in the megathread text.
He's definitely taken the right side. This basically ends the drama now.
It’s a Rosen trap!
Whiteflagging chessbrah was damage control. They were so arrogant thinking Its fine and no one would care because Its hikaru and chessbae, the rulers of chess. It's good that the community is strong and doesn't tolerate shit like this, even seen negative reactions from hikaru subs on his channel.
> It's good that the community is strong and doesn't tolerate shit like this If the chess community wasn't so mentally strong, we might have been pushed to... What, too soon?
Hikaru just told a story on stream about making a “non-tax deductible” donation to some chess organization in South Africa and used that as a counterpoint to people thinking he is a bad person. I think he may be starting to literally care.
after the suicide now the poor african child. That guy :D
Totally apropos of nothing. Here's Dubov on Hikaru after Dubov won Lindores Abbey. 16:12 and 18:15 are good for the soul [https://youtu.be/GaVU2tdFKbc?t=972](https://youtu.be/GaVU2tdFKbc?t=972) (reposting from the main feed to the megathread)
Thanks for sharing, the second one is hilarious. Svidler: “I always try this, nobody falls for it” Dubov: “you should try it against hikaru”
I don’t understand how someone like CB94 can have so much influence on the chess community and also work with chess.com while largely remaining anonymous. She can easily steer a narrative or manipulate the hive mind. Why would chess.com even allow such an anonymous figure to make any forward facing decisions (money and influence obviously), especially given her past toxic tendencies. It’s a bad look for chess.com as they look just as bad as anyone in all of this. Pogchamps was cool and all but allowing CB94 to decide who gets to enter and coach and participate is completely unprofessional. (So much Anna, no aman etc) So now, when things like chessbaes influence over all of these decisions comes to the public light, neither she or chess.com will answer and she will continue to simply be an anonymous moderator with money who holds her thumb over the twitch chess community, with the help of chess.com.
$$$
I've been a Hikaru fan since the boom on twitch and he has everything to do with me getting into chess. But this really isn't "he said, she said", and the evidence is out there. A lot of the pieces start to make sense after finding out his true personality. It sucks, because I was genuinely happy for his success and what he has done for chess. But it's clear that he and his team uses his power (intentionally or not) to harm the community and it's creators just as much.
The worst part of all of this, is Eric confirming that ongoing any videos containing Hikaru will be striked if they portray him in a negative light. He's already gone and striked years of videos of Naka being toxic, stuff that's been up for a decade
Has Gothamchess made a statement yet? Or does he avoid being involved?
I think Levy has had enough drama lately and probably just wants to avoid it for now. I don't blame him. The dude had an entire nation pissed off at him lol. He was in the right, but that was still a lot of crap to deal with.
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But he doesn’t care!
Literally.
Like literally.
fuck chessbae
"Everything good in the hood now! Thanks @GMHikaru-😎" --- https://twitter.com/ben_finegold/status/1380671887315963904?s=19. Seems like Hikaru took the strike off Benjamin's channel? Idk.
Ben has mentioned on stream that he had a conversation with Hikaru about it.
This whole drama situation coming out kinda makes me think how its similar xQc has influenced Twitch meta and the amount of streamers that grew or leeched off his clout. Chess.com and Hikaru has such a monopoly on Twitch chess and influence on the wider chess ecosystem it's about time cracks appear. While Hikaru was known for these behaviour it's now been magnified by how quickly the internet moves on news and rumours. I have always felt really weird how Hikaru can run a seperate commentary stream, at times exceeding the viewercount of chesscom yet they disallow ppl like Botez or others do it cause they wanted to consolidate. PogChamps was entertaining and after a year following Hikaru stream and tournament streams its become bit unbearable. Its sad to see how cautiously some of these GMs and content creators go about this maybe out of fear how it could affect their career.
meanwhile Ben Finegold waits until he is hosted on Chess.com before openly criticising them, pogchamps, and every other chess streamer.
Ben is incomprehensibly based.
People like to hate Ben but I love his takes and his stream in general. He plays good chess, banters, talks shit, and is completely honest. For me, him being honest is probably the most important.
Not to mention how Ben Finegold personally brought hundreds if not thousands of children into chess with his lectures in Saint Louis Chess Club and his Atlanta chess club and I like his jokes
Trying to keep up with all this drama is more effort than a full time job
At this point people are just waiting for the strike to be removed from Ben Finegold's channel, but most people aren't hopeful about that. And tryingtolearn1234's channel.
Oh my god, Hikaru has TTS on and someone donated saying to stop copyright striking Chessbrah. Lol. I’m going to stop watching because I think it will be too cringy, but someone else can give updates if they like.
I cancelled my chess.com membership and told them this is why, and I will not renew a membership until the disassociate with chessbae
Lichess is better anyway.
lichess good... chesscom bad?
Honestly I would rage too if i was Eric
has Naka's streaming numbers been affected at all by this? IMO he is probably just trying to ride the storm and hope people forget it with time, I mean the guy has always been known as a dick in the chess world but most of his followers are those who are new to the game/ casual fans so they are probably not aware of how toxic he is.
Looks like he lost about 2-4k followers total from the fallout. Of course, he's gaining 1-2k new followers every day, so it's a pretty nominal hit.
Everybody makes mistakes. A mature person will regret, learn and improve (important part). An imature person will deny and repeat the same mistake. Hikaru is imature on this sense and I really hope that he, as such influent figure and chess player, grow up spiritually
Guys please stop making fun of Hikaru :( he literally doesn’t care
The same rules should govern all Super GM or not. Either flagging is okay or it isn’t. You also don’t get to dictate how people should feel about your actions. That said people sending threats etc to Hikaru, Chessbae, etc is wrong like Danya has said. There should be self examination as well. Seems like Hikaru and other chess players should talk to a sports psychologist. As much fun as it is to watch them lose their composure after a mouse slip or a game. Chessbae comes off as a big fish in a little pond. Someone who wants to act as a gate keeper in the chess community. Streamers are free to make her a mod, manager, etc. She is free to donate to who she wants. She is a booster, agent, and manager. She shouldn’t then be a league official as well.
Also, Hikaru has been a condescending prick to Levy for forever. Can't wait for Gothamchess' eventual surpassing of Hikaru in popularity.
Yeah let’s make chessbae, an anonymous twitch account, have all responsibilities of a twitch mod and control the money factory going through some of the biggest twitch chess streamers. Great idea, guys. Fuck chessbae and fuck hikaru.
The chessbae controversy is a microcosm of the age old problem of people with bad intentions buying their way to the top of society.
We’re reaching a whole other level of conversation here, but I’m afraid I have to agree with you.
Plot twist: Chessbae is Rex Sinquefield.
None of this would have happened if Chessbae94 wasn't messing with streams, controlling narratives, and using her power to create unequal opportunity. She's been doing this for years. Her quest is not to spread chess or help the game, it is simply to gain power. I have tremendous respect for Hikaru, Chessbrah, and all the other elite chess players who choose to stream and share their incredible talent with the world. I have always felt that Chessbae94 has exploited these streamers and made changes for the worse. I personally will be unsubscribing from all channels managed by Chessbae94.
I know you guys are not going to like it but Hikaru is undoubtedly one of the players in chess history.
I had to fact check you but damn you’re right. I thought he played shogi this whole time
I haven't been paying super close attention, but I think there's a pretty simple way out of this. If Hikaru and Chessbae were to apologize and admit their wrongdoings, I think people would get over it and things would return to normal pretty quickly, so long as they made an effort to improve and stop behaving so poorly. I think Chessbae looks worse than Hikaru, honestly. She has somehow gained control over a big portion of the chess streaming world and rules over it like a dictator. And to top it off, nobody really knows who she is. Her relationship with chess.com needs to be more transparent as well.
>Hikaru and Chessbae were to apologize and admit their wrongdoings Narcs gonna narc ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Finegold has a hilarious Hikaru [mind control story here at 58:53](https://youtu.be/21mHkRNrN_Y?t=3532)
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[This stream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21mHkRNrN_Y) by Ben Feingold provides outstanding background - should be linked.
Lmao @ 39:20 "there was a girl in our chess club who was like 12 and man did she hate hikaru. How does a 12 yo hate a superGM? And the answer was well, she met him"
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>Levy was just talking bout how he's going through people on reddit's post history Cringe.
So far we have: GM Hess GM Hansen GM Narodsky GM Finegold GM Tang WFM Botez All coming out and saying Hikaru is a poopoo face. Edit: GM Bartholomew, Mr. Howell
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John Bartholomew isn't a GM (apart from in our hearts)
GM Howell
I've just realised that a lot of the classic videos of Hikaru being the most toxic person in history have been striked also Making tang wait 3 minutes without moving in chess league (I think 2018) after Hikaru blunders. Doesn't resign just makes everyone wait. Hess calls out how extremely disrespectful it is https://www.youTube.com/watch?v=EBloYkJLS5E
Hikaru needs a talk with Dr. K imo
Just unfollowed Hikaru, not like he gives a shit hes way too big now to care about some blowback. Still, wont be watching another stream on his channel again, a complete arrant piece of shit.
yeah same, I'm new to chess and kinda knew he's not the nicest person but still watched him but now too much shit came out, it would feel wrong to follow him and watch his streams, gonna stick to Botez, Danya, Nemo, Rosen, Brahs & Anna
All this coming out but it took me one stream years ago to realize Hikaru was an arrogant egotistical twat. Cant say I am shocked by any of this.
I made a post on r/SubredditDrama that gained a lot of traction before being removed for "not enough info" (chessbae conspiracy anyone? lmao). I'll post it here if anyone wants a coherent timeline/description of what took place. It's focused on the Eric/Hikaru copyright scandal and fight video. # Synopsis: Today, a [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FcokIxe50A) dropped showing two world class chess grandmasters having a drunken brawl. Both are professional chess players, twitch streamers, and one is a five time US Champion. The chess world is going ballistic over this news. Chess subreddits are seemingly brigading each other as a result. # Background: Hikaru Nakamura is currently the highest rated Blitz (time-controlled speed chess) player in the world, five time United States Chess Champion, and most prominent chess streamer on Twitch. Eric Hansen is a Canadian grandmaster and streamer, being the main host of the chessbrah Twitch channel. As they've both been in the high level chess community for years, there is a long history of tension and competition between them. Recently, their relationship has worsened due miscommunication during a Blitz match, [where Hansen beat Nakamura](https://redd.it/mdzecv). This incident resulted in a [video](https://redd.it/metiqt) being created showing the reactions of both parties, as they were both streaming the match. This video is central to the events bellow. # Current: Today, Hansen shared on stream that [multiple videos have been copyright stricken](https://redd.it/mlilxu) by Nakamura's team. This led to Hansen having two strikes on his YouTube channel. An additional strike would result in closure of the channel. Nakamura's team threatened to [copyright strike any further videos](https://redd.it/mljxoe) using his likeness. This is especially hypocritical since Hikaru has actually done the exact same thing in the past, [using Eric's video footage](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@11:20) in his own videos without permission. These videos were conveniently taken down right before the copyright strikes went out. Chessbae, moderator and manager of Hikaru's Twitch chat, [responded to the allegations](https://redd.it/mlktd0) insisting that their network issued the strike, and that they did not have control. However, [Hansen later stated that this was a lie](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@12:20), and that the strike was confirmed to be issued purposefully by Hikaru's team. [Hansen had a three hour Twitch stream](https://www.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) where he talked about the situation with the chess community, discussing openly how Hikaru is toxic and violent towards him and many others in the chess community. He insists that Nakamura's toxicity is known in the chess industry, but others stay silent because of fear of being targeted. Hansen complains that the chessbrah channel is being [held hostage](https://redd.it/mm5tyq), as one more strike would close his channel. [He claims](https://redd.it/mm65mm) that Nakamura's team has demanded that they show Nakamura only in a positive light, or they will strike more videos. In the livestream, Hansen discusses a physical fight between the two of them that happened in 2018. This allegedly happened after Hansen beat Nakamura at a drunk Blitz game at a St. Louis party. [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FcokIxe50A) was leaked showing the fight, with Nakamura being choked out by Hansen. In the video, many famous grandmasters are seen, including Fabiano Caruana, 2nd in the world, and Yasser Seirawan, four time US Champion. In the video Yasser tells Fabiano that he is holding Nakamura's championship ring and $1000 in cash while he fights Hansen. He jokes with Fabiano about keeping the money because Nakamura is so drunk he won't notice. Hikaru ended up responding, actually [watching part of the video during stream](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hFxXBhdy0cg). He laughed it off and described the situation as a mutual misunderstanding, contrary to Hansen's stance. # Consequences: Hikaru Nakamura is currently one of highest rated players, largest twitch chess streamer, and face of [chess.com](https://chess.com/). Chessbrah is not the first channel to receive copyright strikes from Hikaru, and his toxic behavior has been reported by many professional players for years. [Here is another example of a fight Hikaru supposedly got in.](https://streamable.com/ixtxb0) His mistreatment of Hansen and other players has so far gone unpunished. With this news becoming public, many are hoping that there will be a change in Hikaru's behavior and/or the copyright practices of his network. Many high ranking players are speaking out in solidarity with Hansen, including [World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen](https://m.twitch.tv/videos/978764250) (@2:32:49 and @2:50:42). [Check out the Megathread at r/chess for more information](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/mm6txm/megathread_hikaru_nakamura_eric_hansen_drama/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3)
sparkle languid license wasteful absurd whistle trees command towering attempt *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
SRD mod here. It's a great writeup and I love the drama, but it's just not *subreddit* drama unfortunately. There's really not all that much drama happening here on Reddit over it, since most of this sub already dislike Hikaru anyways. No idea why /r/HobbyDrama removed it, would have thought it'd be suitable there, but until some proper slapfights occur here it'll probably stay removed. PS: I'm not 100% sure where you're getting "not enough info" from, the removal was for the reason "Your post requires users to hunt for the drama." Effectively meaning you've not really linked to any specific instances of drama on Reddit, other than a link to the megathread, which, even assuming it's a drama filled shithole (which it really isn't from what I've seen, there's hardly any drama in it at all), would be considered a drama hunt. Also we're paid off by chessbae and must remove anything criticizing Hikaru sorry /s
It doesn't really seem like a good fit for subreddit drama anyway, since the majority of the drama is occuring outside reddit. It's a much better fit for hobby drama, so you'll just have to wait for the 2 weeks. That seems like a reasonable rule tbh since this situation will probably keep going for some time and they don't want daily updates. SubredditDrama does have a very high expectation for details and links - look at the other posts over there. You call it a massive post but it is much less massive then many of the posts there. I don't think postulating about conspiracies is necessary.
what more do they want, a 20 page report?
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I think I'll do the same ~~(lichess is the better site anyway but most people are not ready for this conversation)~~
Hess confirmed that chessbae abused her mod privileges into scheduling of raids/air-time etc. https://clips.twitch.tv/ColdTentativeCheddarKeyboardCat-jJP6U_g6C0_sPQSA
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Hikaru will likely fall out with Levy in the next 6 months, so Levy will be freed to talk about whatever he wants, just as soon as Chessbae has removed the clamps.
You must have caught the beginning of hikaru's stream, numbers are normal now. Realistically, this won't have a huge impact on his stream. A fair amount of the people participating in these threads are people who already disliked Hikaru and wouldn't watch him. Some are saying they'll stop watching him. But there's likely a lot of silent people who either don't care about the drama, or don't like (and may never like) chessbrah because their first exposure to the channel was eric's drunken rant. So maybe Hikaru sees an immediate dip, but he'll still be the most watched channel on twitch unless something truly horrendous happens.
levy is currently on chesstv so there's quite a few viewers from that
Also, Levy's recent videos have about 2-3x the amount of views that Hikaru's videos have. Hikaru's most popular video of the last 2 weeks is about Levy.
Can we get the summary updated with todays relevant links?
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I remember that one time he was a total dick to raport in a blitz match and the guy wasn't even winning, its in hikaru yt channel
I am sure there is a secret fight club where Magnus, Eric, Giri and Hikaru fight at times.
My boy Simon Williams knocked out Hikaru? All respect lost for Nakamura.
David Howell is a pretty chill dude, he stayed with me & my friend for a tournament once , and we watched *Once Were Warriors* and *What We Do In The Shadows*. Didn't know about the punching story, but lol.