Chess streamer GMHikaru responds to Botez sisters drama

Chess streamer Hikaru “GMHikaru” Nakamura has responded to Alexandria and Andrea Botez, two sisters who called out GMHikaru for unfollowing them on Twitter.

“There were some misunderstandings regarding certain events that have happened in the past, and we have all spoken and things have been sorted out.” GMHikaru said. 

A few hours later, the Botez sisters commented back.

“I actually apologized to Hikaru yesterday,” Alexandria Botez said. “We did have a call yesterday and we worked thorugh a lot of the issues … we actually made up. Everything is really good between us now.”

The sisters say that the trio is even tighter than they were before and GMHikaru even gave them some YouTube advice. Alexandria lamented that she felt bad for having made negative comments publicly. She also cited communication issues and butting heads after working together for a long while as the cause of the drama. 

Botez sisters say GMHikaru held a grudge

GMHikaru created quite a stir in the chess streaming community when he spoke out about Andrea and Alexandra Botez. On January 12, the Botez sisters were made aware that GMHikaru had unfollowed them on Twitter, which brought forth accusations that GMHikaru was upset that the sisters were broadcasting their chess streams in the “Just Chatting” category on Twitch instead of the less viewed “Chess” category.

The “Just Chatting” category consistently nets some of the highest viewer totals on Twitch, occasionally behind a hotly trending game, but still almost always in the top row when sorted by viewership. The “Chess” category ranks far lower, but is still fairly high on the list considering the age of the game. 

All of this comes just a month shy of GMHikaru’s PogChamps3 event, a chess tournament featuring such big names as Jimmy “Mr Beast” Donaldson, Imane “Pokimane” Anys, Félix “xQc” Lengyel, and even The Office actor Rainn Wilson. That tournament premiers on February 14, and both of the Botez sisters will be involved as coaches and commentators.