Skip to main content

Twitch takes on Chess Grandmaster: 6,000 gamers beat chess champion on third try

twitch vs chess chesstwitch
Image used with permission by copyright holder
“Twitch vs” interactive gaming streams like Twitch vs Pokémon and Twitch vs Dark Souls have been incredibly popular over the past couple of years, so when Twitch viewers got the opportunity to take on a chess grandmaster, some 6,000 people jumped at the chance. While they struggled in the early outings, the gaming hive-mind was eventually able to beat him in a single game — though to be fair, he was wearing a blindfold at the time.

Known as the Twitch vs Pure Chess Grandmaster challenge, the stream loaded up Ripstone’s Pure Chess and connected it up with stream viewers and international grandmaster and British chess champion Simon Williams. While Williams would make his plays based on his own thoughts and strategies, stream viewers voted on the next move.

Recommended Videos

The first game involved two hours of intense back and forth action, with Williams coming out on top. He again triumphed in the second game, despite being blindfolded and using his memory of the pieces alone to combat the efforts of the thousands of communal opponents.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Related: Live-stream tonight’s dinner on Twitch; Social Eating is now a ‘thing’

However, it was in the third game, at which point we’re told Williams was suffering from some measure of “mental fatigue,” where the Twitch chat turned things around and was able to take home a single victory, finally defeating the chess grandmaster.

Watch live video from on www.twitch.tv

By defeating Williams, each of the thousands of viewers earned themselves Steam keys for various Ripstone games, like Pure Chess, Pure Pool and Pure Hold ‘Em. The full replay is available on Twitch above, where you can also see the moves as they were called by the community. It’s rather a long stream, but for chess fans and those who like to see gamers triumph against the odds, it’s not a bad watch.

Do we have any powerful chess players among the DT audience? Do you think you’d have been able to turn the tide in those earlier games?

Jon Martindale
Jon Martindale is a freelance evergreen writer and occasional section coordinator, covering how to guides, best-of lists, and…
NYT Mini Crossword today: puzzle answers for Wednesday, December 18
The Mini open in the NYT Games app on iOS.

Love crossword puzzles but don't have all day to sit and solve a full-sized puzzle in your daily newspaper? That's what The Mini is for!

A bite-sized version of the New York Times' well-known crossword puzzle, The Mini is a quick and easy way to test your crossword skills daily in a lot less time (the average puzzle takes most players just over a minute to solve). While The Mini is smaller and simpler than a normal crossword, it isn't always easy. Tripping up on one clue can be the difference between a personal best completion time and an embarrassing solve attempt.

Read more
NYT Crossword: answers for Wednesday, December 18
New York Times Crossword logo.

The New York Times has plenty of word games on its roster today — with Wordle, Connections, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, there's something for everyone — but the newspaper's standard crossword puzzle still reigns supreme. The daily crossword is full of interesting trivia, helps improve mental flexibility and, of course, gives you some bragging rights if you manage to finish it every day.

While the NYT puzzle might feel like an impossible task some days, solving a crossword is a skill and it takes practice — don't get discouraged if you can't get every single word in a puzzle.

Read more
This new Alien game will tide you over until Alien: Isolation 2
Key art for Alien: Rogue Incursion

It’s hard to believe it has been over a decade since the release of Alien: Isolation. No Alien game since then has matched the intensity of its survival horror focus. Slowly creeping around a space station, only to be ambushed by a Xenomorph and engage in a cat-and-mouse chase in hopes of survival, is an exhilarating experience that no other Alien game has quite been able to achieve. Unfortunately, Sega and Creative Assembly did not immediately start work on a follow-up; it was only this year that we learned a sequel is in the works.

That Alien: Isolation sequel is still years away at this point, but thankfully, a different Alien game is here for players looking for another Xenomorph-filled first-person shooter. It’s a new VR game from Survios called Alien: Rogue Incursion, and it's your best bet for that Alien horror short of replaying the original Alien: Isolation as we wait for its sequel.

Read more