Who is Andrea Botez, chess champion turned star streamer?
Andrea Botez has quickly become a popular Twitch streamer along with her sister Alexandria Botez, thanks to the pair’s incredible chess skills. But the two chess players have also become successful outside of the chess world, whether it be for their Just Chatting streams or their controversies.
Andrea Botez recently announced that she will be performing weekly chess challenges in a partnership with Coinbase, the same cryptocurrency company that sponsors Super Smash Bros player Hungrybox’s weekly Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournaments.
While people expressed excitement over the idea of weekly challenges, others were skeptical about Andrea getting involved with Coinbase, a company that’s been accused of suspicious business practices in the past. Coinbase was also criticized most recently for laying off a large number of employees while continuing to spend heavily on marketing efforts. But this is far from Andrea Botez’ biggest controversies.
Who is Andrea Botez?
Andrea Botez is a competitive chess player who has been competing since she was a child growing up in Canada. She started learning chess with her sister Alexandria when Andrea was just six years old. By the age of seven, Andrea was playing in USChess tournaments.
Andrea Botez proved her skills early on. She won the U8 Girls Canadian Youth Chess Championship in 2010 and then became the Women British Columbia Chess champion in 2015. That same year, Andrea won the Girls U14 category of the Susan Polgar National Open.
The popular streamer has only become better with age. Her Chess.com blitz rating was 2065 in May 2020 and her Chess.com bullet rating peaked at 2164 in November 2020. She is currently just 19 years old, meaning there’s still more improvement likely in store for her.
Andrea and Alexandria share a Twitch channel that has over 1.1 million followers. Their YouTube channel has 822K subscribers.
Andrea Botez accused of defending slavery
Andrea Botez has made a lot of comments on Twitch that have backfired on her. The two sisters took part in a Q&A in December 2021 while streaming in Dubai. During the stream, Andrea said she didn’t like when “first-world countries” judged “developing countries” for doing the same things they do, in this case “modern slavery.”
Some accused the Botez sisters of being “privileged” in not criticizing Dubai’s modern slavery issue while others felt that the practice wasn’t “right” just because other countries had previously partaken in it. The Botez sisters decided to delete the clip in question and not speak about the situation any further after receiving significant backlash online.
Andrea Botez in controversy with GM Hikaru
Hikaru “GMHikaru” Nakamura is one of the most popular chess streamers in the world. He’s also one of the best chess players in the world today. He was one of the first to applaud Felix “xQc” Lengyel and other more casual chess players for bringing awareness to the classic game by streaming it on Twitch.
But fans noticed in January 2021 that the Botez sisters had unfollowed HIkaru on Twitter. Apparently, this was done in retaliation over Hikaru doing the same earlier in the month due to Nakamura being upset that the sisters were broadcasting chess under the “Just Chatting” category instead of the “Chess” category.
When fans started to notice the silent tension between Hikaru and the Botez sisters, the Grand Master decided to address the issue. He said that there had been some “misunderstandings” in the past. Alexandria added that she and her sister Andrea had apologized to Hikaru and were closer to him than ever before.
Andrea Botez accused of self-diagnosing herself with ADHD
In 2022, the trend of “self-diagnosing” a mental illness exploded on TikTok, with countless teens claiming to have DID, Tourette’s, and other such illnesses on the video app. This made it concerning for some when Andrea said that she may have ADHD despite her not being properly diagnosed.
While fans have noticed that Andrea is a bit excitable and easily distracted, she never was officially diagnosed with the disorder. Andrea finally addressed the controversy on Twitch, stating that she “doesn’t have ADHD” and instead was “just an idiot.” Some then responded that it was harmful to compare potential ADHD symptoms to someone being “an idiot.”
Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.
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