November 14, 2021, The Liberacy:- Chess World has seen the world changed, since its birth in India, in the 6th century, to its spread in Persia amid the Arab conquest, and adoption in the Muslim world, and further moving to Europe with the Moorish conquest of Spain.
Chess is looked up as a serious two-colored struggle for strategy and win, and obvious blunders, but with the modern world at its early crawling phase has Chess lost its serious vibe?
Can chess be fun too?
Can GM Alexei Shirov now laugh or crack a joke after his bishop sacrifice?
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What is Changing?
Chess World saw an unpredicted boom in its growth with technology on one hand and young grandmasters on the other. Young minds find technology in no time.
Not only Grandmasters but also the common chess minds, let’s say comedians, interested in chess.
Samay Raina is one such name to change the chess world in India with all its Glory.
Always keen on the chessboard Samay Raina started live streaming chess on his YouTube channel that goes by the name “Samay Raina” after the pandemic invoked the nationwide lockdown in India.
Samay Raina is a Kashmiri by origin and lived in Hyderabad in his early days and moved to Pune for higher studies. Raina’s family, a victim of the 1989-1990 exodus of Kashmiri pandits, move closer to life after the horrific incidents and this gives Samay Raina leverage to his career as a standup comic.
Joint winner of Comicstaan, Raina often uses his Kashmiri remark for a big laugh and he succeeds.
Samay Raina, along with Abhishek Upmanyu, Vaibhav Sethia, and Biswa Kalyan Rath started this so-called “modernization of chess” in India as they live-streamed on Samay Raina’s YouTube channel.
As Raina moved to get higher watching, he started getting the attention of pioneers of the chess world from international masters to grandmasters and chess journalists, everyone looked at Raina for a “fun chess game” and Samay Raina did not upset anyone, as jokes came with moves and did not blunder, unlike his moves.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujarati, chess journalist and co-founder of Chessbase India IM Sagar Shah and WGM Tania Sachdev were the first among the many to join the modern Indian chess world days.
Pen and Ink, may in decades call this a “Chess Revolution” but for now it stays close to the younger audience as a source of entertainment and learning.
The upsurge in signup of various chess platforms shows what Samay Raina did for chess in India. He has a wide range of audience from young to old, from schoolboys to working adults. Now it becomes quite obvious to say that the future of chess in India is getting brighter.
Further, as Samay Raina’s channel crossed landmarks in subscriptions, he was pleasured in hosting world champions and grandmasters like World Champion Viswanathan Anand, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and World Champion Garry Kasparov, along with reputed Grandmasters like GM Vidit Gujarati, GM Anish Giri, GM Adhiban Baskaran and GM Hikaru Nakamura, etc.
Pandemic happens to be the root cause of the revolution Samay Raina even helped by raising money through his live streams for several causes including covid. On several occasions, he was joined by stars of Bollywood including Aamir Khan and Arijit Singh.
“Streamers support Streamers and Comedians support Comedians” was proved by his known from his friend lists like Tanmay Bhat, Nishant Tanwar, Karan Singh, Abhishek Upmanyu, Biswa Kalyan Rath, Vaibhav Sethia, Suhani Shah, Gamerfleet, Carryminati and Bhuvan Bam.
Jokes made the watching go higher as chess pieces moved to Blunder and several windows opened on the screen to have grandmasters watching with a smile as the comedians and streamers learned and provoked everyone to engage.
Samay Raina also organised several online Chess competitions, pooling in sponsors with events line Comedians on Board (COB) (several seasons) and Chess Super League (CSL), that had Grandmasters participating. A big prize pool and fun works like the cherry on the cake.
Rappers like Raftaar and Krsna, were often seen blundering live on Raina’s YouTube channel. and he was also joined by former chess champion and current Indian cricket team player Yuzvendra Chahal, to surprise everyone with his top-notch chess skills.
Fights, number leaks, address leaks with the part of a long joke that highlighted the channel, with the forced-to-have humour, without options.
The pandemic era move made by Samay Raina, through his YouTube channel will surely have a longterm positive effect on the chess world and India. It might not produce grandmasters immediately, but the game is now known to the individuals and now and future generations will engage in the game.
Yes, Chess world has changed from boards to screens and from focus to focus with fun.
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