GothamChess calls out YouTube viewers for “disgusting” comments about female opponents

Popular chess YouTube creator GothamChess is fed up with viewers leaving misogynistic comments on his streams about female players.

Levy ‘GothamChess’ Rozman is one of the top chess YouTubers and he’s on a quest to finally reach the rank of Grandmaster by competing in a variety of tournaments.

The YouTuber has been streaming his matches, with his latest competition being the Spilimbergo Open in Italy.

During round 4 of the tournament, Rozman took on Polish pro Liwia Jarocka and secured a draw with the black pieces. During his stream of the match, his viewers made comments about his opponent that sparked backlash.

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Many of the remarks were misogynistic and upset Rozman so much that he slammed those users at the beginning of his latest video analyzing the match.

“Before I tell you about the game, I want to address something I’m extremely disappointed in,” he said. “The live stream comments in today’s game against my opponent, as well as my opponent in the second round, who was also a woman, the comments were disgusting.”

GothamChess continued, labeling the remarks a “fundamental lack of respect” to his opponent, him, and the game of chess itself.

“All live stream chats are bad. They’re trolly, they’re terrible. I understand that some of you writing comments on the videos and the livestream are young. You’re teenagers and you write idiotic stuff on the internet all the time. What’s your repercussion? You don’t even think about it. I get it. And if some of you are adults, God help you. Seriously, your time is running out.”

The YouTuber further argued that misogynistic behavior hurts chess because it makes women not want to play when they’re subjected to abuse and sexual remarks.

Rozman urged viewers to imagine if their sister, mother, or grandmother were treated the same way the players on his stream were and how they’d react.

On Reddit, GothamChess addressed the issue a bit more and explained it’s “almost impossible to fully moderate.”

“Any chess livestream with a woman on screen gets like this. Doing my best to shut it all down,” he said.