Streamer Portrait - Levy Rozman (Gotham Chess)
We all know about parents arguing about what to come for their little ones.
Mom: - He should do art!
Dad: - No, he should do gymnastics!
And maybe he should done both but this little guy had no what so ever interest in doing that. He hid from art-class. Gymnastics - lets just say - kids are active even when they sleep. This little rascal fell in love in a game we all know as - Chess.
"I was maybe five or six, it's hard to remember. About that age."
And as every good parent should do, encourage the child to do what ever they have a passion for. His parents realized just that when he beat his dad playing chess - at the age of seven. It's funny with kids, they are not that 'locked up' and Levy's game was attack, attack, attack. He's first quick mate - a trap in seven moves.
Beating his first master in a tourney - February 2008. Ending up with 3,5 out of six. Broke the magical 2000 rating and later that year he was number two in the country, in his age category. Number one at the time was Daniel Naroditsky.
Everyone visit the dark side at some point in their life and some clouded years did arise for Levy. Finishing middle school and with high school waiting around the corner his parents got a divorce. "It was not funny." I'm a divorce child my self so I know that feeling. Having a hard time concentrating on school - his rating in chess dropped. Didn't study and between 2008 - 2010. He even stopped playing twice.
In the middle of the storm a relative told him not to waste his talent and I for one is happy to say that he didn't. His best friend, Alex Ostrovsky, since the age of 6, has been a great support. His dad has Russian roots - he played better than Levy's father. So there was a lot of chess. That's something - keeping friends is not easy as you grow and change. Everything changes - sometimes for the better.
How I feel about streamers who do it with heart and joy? They become a friend. You follow them - you look forward to see them again. With Levy that's just the case.
About a year ago he was talking to Alex about streaming chess. He bought a camera, a microphone - got an email - an account on this site, clicked his way to twitch. Same thing there and here we are. Well, he was in Canada at a party and a friend was streaming. He got back home. Started a stream that lasted for 8 hours - with 15 viewers.
After a while he reached out towards Daniel Rensch, Levy Rozman, that blue eyed bandit. Daniel thought it was a great idea and he got his partnership with this great community. That's just right. Feels good. He's amazing analyzing as he plays, he explains what's going to happen, a bit like looking into the future. The response was very good and when you see him going live on ChessTV - tune in.
His twitch channel is - here! Follow him - subscribe and help him grow - he will help you. Right!
Crew64 - that's how we all got know him. 8x8=64. That's why. He's re-branding to GothamChess and while living in New York - I think that's a good idea. And he thinks the chess community is great - streaming and all - okay, there is some trolling of course, we all know that but it's not that bad.
"It's hard to stream from a laptop, with OBS dropping frames and what not." I can only agree because I can't even set OBS up right. He told me a story about a tourney over the board - Barbados - he played well. Got 5,5 out of 9. Played against the top seed and outplayed his opponent with a nice preparation. Lost round eight with an hour more on the clock. After the game he just crashed into bed thinking:
"I couldn't care less if I win round nine tomorrow. Not being able to reach 7 out of nine."
"It's sometimes hard to cope with defeat but when you stream ... you can show some emotion but don't be a clown. Have fun - laugh it off."
This young man, he's wise. That's the feel I have after a long Skype talk.
"There's more to life than chess", he says. He did four years in collage - statistics. There's girlfriends - which is hard to combine with chess, streaming and so forth. I'm sure love will come - always as a surprise. There was some outside pressure telling him to choose chess and I guess he did. If it comes from pressure? I don't think so. Chess comes from within.
He trusts him self with his game and his knowledge. He even wrote to 46 schools in New York, offering to teach chess. One school answered and he's been working there for three years now. He does coaching too and his attitude towards coaching - "It's very important to get on the same page as the student. To get into their perspective. Adjust. To put the fire in the right place."
He likes basketball - The Knicks. My self - the only thing I know about basketball is the Harlem Globetrotters. I was seven - 1973 - and my dad took me, Malmö, Sweden. It was amazing, funny and WOW! I asked him if he liked hockey because when we had our talk Sweden was playing U.S.A in the world cup. But we all know how that went. 
Going back through the time tunnel - I was curious how it was, being a child playing chess, about bullying and he told me about when he was in 4:th grade. Or was it sixth grade - it doesn't really matter but ... a teacher told him to bring a trophy to school. He did and in the classroom there was this girl who asked:
- You're the boy with the trophy?
- Yes! (excited)
- Chess is for losers.
Children can be so mean. But Levy was a strong boy. He actually never had a personal coach but for a short while he went to The Chess Academy in New Jersey. There was a GM there teaching but for this young man - "It was him or me". A bit like John McEnroe - he went his own way and did it his way. And still does.
Ps. New Yorkers talk a lot. Ds.
Yours 'JackieTheSwede'
