My wife and I have played chess against each other off and on throughout the years. Once or twice I had started to get "serious" about levelling up my game but quickly dropped it due to other priorities.
Then I saw the Botez Sisters on Lex Friedman's podcast and started checking out their content. Holy crap is online chess ever entertaining as hell these days.
Not only are the various streamers on Twitch and YouTube great, but there are so many different variations of the game to come out, like Duck Chess. The bots that Chess.com creates every few months are more entertainment fodder. There is even Chess Boxing!
So I can completely understand why it's gaining traction with teens. Chess is "cool" now for the first time that I can remember.
This is also, of course, following The Queen's Gambit on Netflix and the Carlsen / Nieman cheating scandal. It is so entertaining.
Edit: it's also worth noting that a lot of non-Chess streamers have even started getting into Chess. That undoubtedly has an effect as well.
Then I saw the Botez Sisters on Lex Friedman's podcast and started checking out their content. Holy crap is online chess ever entertaining as hell these days.
Not only are the various streamers on Twitch and YouTube great, but there are so many different variations of the game to come out, like Duck Chess. The bots that Chess.com creates every few months are more entertainment fodder. There is even Chess Boxing!
So I can completely understand why it's gaining traction with teens. Chess is "cool" now for the first time that I can remember.
This is also, of course, following The Queen's Gambit on Netflix and the Carlsen / Nieman cheating scandal. It is so entertaining.
Edit: it's also worth noting that a lot of non-Chess streamers have even started getting into Chess. That undoubtedly has an effect as well.