The Riddler and Batman Play Chess: Rey Enigma vs Gotham

Over the past year and a half chess has gained a lot of popularity on different online platforms. The breakout performance for the chess has been the Netflix series "Queen's Gambit". The series introduced chess to a broader audience and won over many people's hearts. 

One of the youtubers who managed to grow as well from the series is IM Levy Rozman, also known as Gotham Chess on youtube. He grew his youtube channel up to 1 million subscribers in just a year, which is very cool. Making videos about the series, covering the games with deep explaining and analysis, he made sure to remain on top of the chess community.

Another recent chess superstar has emerged on youtube. He's know as Rey Enigma, super strong masked chess player. He wears a chess suit all over his body, hiding his identity, and takes on various cool chess challenges. He was recently on the show Spain Got Talent, where he got a chance to play against one of the chess giants, former world champion, GM Anatoly Karpov. These two had a great clash, ending a game with a draw, after Karpov ran out of time.

These two, Levy Rozman and Rey Enigma had a massive youtube clash, arguably the biggest youtube chess match since Ludwig vs XQC.

The collaboration between the two youtubers occured when Rey Enigma decided to visit New York, the city where Levy lives. The moment brought spanish and english speaking fans closer together, since everyone was watching the blitz duel between the two of them with great passion for the game. Winner gets a 1000 dollars, which are going to be donated. First to 3 wins is the winner, and the games started just like that.

First game, Rey with the white pieces opened up with d4. He also brought out his queen very early, as the game continued. Levy played some dutch defense, with a mix of stonewall moves. After some trades, kings were castled on opposite sides, and the position was very live and full of danger. Lines for rooks in front of Levy's king were open, but he had a danger attack as well on Rey's queenside. Black rooks got too active, and that's all Levy needed. His attack was underestimated, and he won by resignation, one move before checkmate.

Second game starts, and it Levy with the white pieces and he opens up with d4 as well. It's a queen's gambit, but not standard variation. Rey responded with modern bishop opening, with pawns on g6 and d6. There was a lot of tension in the center, with both kings being castled on kingside. Center got pretty much closed, and Rey took the initiative from that point. He decided to sacrifice the exchange, for the attack chances. Black's knights and queen were ready to jump on white's king. Levy got another queen, but having no way to save the king he gave the material advantage back.  Levy still mainted a full rook advantage after defending the king, resulting in having a victoriuos position. However, they are playing blitz, and Levy lost on time. Sad way to go down in the second game.

The third game starts, and it's Rey Enigma with the white pieces, opening yet again with the move d4. Levy goes for not so popular Nf6, trying to mix up the openings, as nobody wants to see the same games get played again and again. White castled queenside, while Levy, with the black pieces, decided to in offense and leave king in the middle for now. Black had an extra pawn, but a little exposed with the king still in the middle. White won the pawn back, and the queens left the board. Levy ultimately castled kingside, entering the endgame. New queen for black was taken away, returning to material equality. After some time scramble, the rook endagme was winning for black, but once again Levy lost on time. Rey leads 2-1 after the third game.

The fourth game starts, and Levy opens up with e4. He takes control of the center very early in the game, while Rey goes again for the modern bishop opening with the black pieces. Levy allows bishop for knight imbalance in hopes for more open play. The opposite side castling was on the board, which means it's going to be really good match. Levy gives up knight and bishop for a rook, and after the queens get traded, he is left with the rook and two pawns against bishop pair for Rey. Unfortunately, game went from draw to a completely lost position, after Levy's rook got pinned and taken away by Rey's light square bishop. Rey Enigma wins the match 3-1.

As a chess fans, we can all just thank Gotham Chess for posting this video on youtube, if you didn't saw it you should check it out. Hopefully these big youtubers will do more of these chess matches in future and continue to be on top of their games.