He is a GM now

@@Rick-hx2tk I think you saw his April fool's video. He's still an IM. Can't blame you I also thought it was real.

@@khalidsaifullahfuad he's not a GM?

@@lio1234234 Sadly no, he quit official chess a while ago. Now he only plays online. 😞.

We talking about Levi not becoming GM wake up

Can you show where Hikaru ever said Levy could make it as a GM?

@@arketra4297 he did I can approve it, I just don't think it's that easy to find that part. Somebody will post it anyway.

@@arketra4297 yes I rmbr him saying it too, it was a random part on one of his vids or on twitch.

Wow, I thought I was the only one who remember Hikaru saying that.

Yea I thought I had a fake memory. Maybe it's the Mandela effect😂

If you haven't played the position much before there is a good chance they haven't either. Magnus does this to people all the time, plays something he knows and then takes it off somewhere crazy and just finds and advantage to win anyway, and if he realizes he's screwed only then does he go for draws.

Im here for the journey anyway, i hope he keeps trying

@@Saskaruto16 does Magnus do that? The biggest criticism I hear of Magnus is he plays very conservatively and beats down his opponents in the endgame while Kasparov was the one to get into crazy positions.

@@r0b0hobo From what I have seen against the super GMs he does not do that. But against the new GMs or much lower rated GMs he does play a lot of very uncommon lines. Not total nonsense the way Kasperov or the insane Dubov do though. But he will definitely take it off the beaten path when he thinks he should be winning.

@@Saskaruto16 He does that to avoid giving up his prep for the later super GMs

oh you know better..? and said it in a sentence, one of them, sure sure

@@tak5256 Intelligence and magic have nothing to do with being a chess GM.

I think he should've been more considerate to a friend, have the words somewhere in there "if he keeps reaching for it then i believe one day he will make it but currently he isnt on that level yet" the way it came out was a not said well however true. because at the end of the day hes a friend. thats just my op tho

@@rcmrocks2374 agreed i thought they were cool if I was levy i’d feel kind of offended by this although i’m sure he probably agrees with hikaru

Levy also just isn't that good (relative to GMs and GM strength players). Levy is an IM and plays at IM strength. He's notably much weaker than Aman Hambleton, who himself was admittedly lucky to become a GM and basically had to become a hermit for about 18 months. He likes to get out of theory early by playing the English and some offbeat sidelines, which is smart given his content creation schedule doesn't lend itself to intense preparation. However, you still have to win by having superior understanding of chess and strategic ideas as he also isn't a fierce attacker that sacrifices. He just doesn't display this level of understanding and when he goes up against GMs and guys that earn their GM norms, it really shows. That's why Levy often ends up begging for a draw because he just doesn't understand the position as well as his opponent. He's still better than ~99.9% of chess players as well as being one of the most successful, if not THE most successful, chess content creators.

Bold of you to assume they're actually friends. They haven't collaborated in forever

@@tahmeedchowdhury0007 They appeared on some live stream together I think... I dont think the stream was from either of them, but it was somewhere

it izz wat it izz

At that level chess becomes a job, friends or not

Levy just wants the GM title for his own brand, he's interested in the KZfaq clickbait, it really feels more like a whim rather than his "dream".

one thing he doesnt tell you (as much) is all the times he considers a wrong move and then fighres out why its wrong, bc that isnt as interesting as missing the best move. its not instincts its he just isnt a position rn to find and justify those moves, and thats ok bc he is working on it

@@andrewabbott9667 A fair take.

I am way worse than Levy, only an expert but I find he makes the same errors I do in his thinking. He evaluates a position or tactical sequence as worse but he didn’t actually calculate past the evaluation and see that no, he is actually better.

I don't think that's really the case, it's a structure of how he narrates. He always gives the actual line that was played last, and if the best move after analysis was one that he considered, he mentions it. But in a real game you're just considering several candidate moves and then picking one.

@@MrCheeze I don’t know. He often says he sees this or that and then just goes, no, that sucks but isn’t really calculating because he went negative.

That's really inspiring actually, it's weird but now that you said it, it totally make sense in my mind, thx!

yeah but how can u not respect the highest rank?

I mean it's a helpful way of thinking but there are obviously boundaries to what you can achieve. I won't become president of the United States or world chess champion once I try and convince myself that I don't 'respect' these goal

@@mezamezz what they mean is “don’t cower in fear of your opponent just based off of their rank”.

@@dieterschneegans1850 Right the quote in no way implies that if you just don't respect a goal, then you will absolutely achieve that goal. It's just a recommended attitude in terms of approaching or attempting to achieve a goal.

I wish more people would be honest like this. This isn't 'I don't think he can do it', this is 'at his level of ability right now it's not likely'. It's unfortunate that becoming a grandmaster requires, of most people, the sole dedication of study and practice. Having a full time business on the side takes a lot of your time, and I just don't think it's compatible with that pursuit. I do think Levy is going to have a hard choice in the future.... if he absolutely wants the GM title (and there's no shame in going either way), he may be faced with putting his channel and other business interests on the backburner. I think he has an amazing niche right now with with his channel, his charitable interests, his devotion to increasing the level of the chess community as a whole, and the support of a partner who is in it with him. If he chose not to pursue the GM title, I think he would absolutely still be in the big win column. I do hope he is happy with whatever decision he makes. I'm pulling for him either way.

@@KeithDCanada If there's gonna be a Fischer Random or Chess960 tournaments and ratings in the future, maybe it will be possible to reach for the GM or even super GM title even for those who have side jobs, since you don't need to spend that much time in preparation.

Right 👉

that’s true. it’s the mindset, not the skill necessarily .

@@p.avatar8079 I do like the way Fischer Random disarms opening theory. It leads to games that are far more creative early on, and less about standard book responses in 'the best lines'. I'd watch that tourney.

I agree that I think he needs some more confidence. I've watched some of his recap videos where he is explaining his thought process on why he played an opening or line and he seems to be over thinking. Like "well I was gonna play this but then I remember this or I heard he plays this and I didnt want this to happen etc" I think he just needs to stop thinking so much and go out and play his best lines. Also, I imagine he has added pressure with all of his Gotham community following so closely.

But UPLOADING everyday stupid funny videos on YT won't help him ...

@@leviuchiha3706 Add revenue.

@@rishigayle4013 Well he needs to choose, ad revenue or title? Not that he’d get it anyway. But it’s impossible to do both

I think Hikaru's take is constructive. He's not just saying Levi isn't good enough, he gives a specific reason that Levi can work on.

While watching a GM KZfaqr explain…

@@r123554 Geesh what a nerd

@@justanotherdogeboi7136 Can you guys relax now holy fuck

@@ryantwitter343 lmao u hung urself with that 1

well put

Yea, Hans Niemann is a good example for that though

Levy needs a sports psychologist. He gets angry at himself way too easily, and it's not good for keeping his head in the game. Once Levy does that, his game will improve again, whether he's still streaming or not. It might not get him to GM level on its own, but I feel it's an essential element.

i wish levy would start talking to gm aman hambleton. training with hikaru may technically be better, but levy needs to learn to how to chill his energy and training with hikaru just deepens his defeatist mentality

@@stevedusome He doesn't train with Hikaru. He has a real coach.

He has a shot if he goes full Aman Hambleton and just lives like a monk for a couple years only studying chess and little else. Aman also barely made it and rode the London wave before people knew how to neutralize it and I think Aman is just more talented than Levy too. Aman hasn't been doing a ton of intensive study afaik and his current FIDE rating is higher than Levy's last few tournament performance ratings.

I know what you're saying, but a lot of times the explanations by GMs are even more on point why something is bad or good. I think a lot of IM consider themselves great chess players or even great teachers, when kind of they're not on the highest level.

What's a B rated player? What rating are you?

@@PHeMoX IMs are phenomenally good chess players and I hate this weird ass disrespect that people online have for IMs, just because they watch GMs who are considerably better and so they see IMs as being way weaker than they really are. Also, most GMs and IMs aren't the best chess teachers because they see the game in a way that is completely different from casual players and so even communicating why something is good is hard. Imo casuals players like myself and probably yourself too are straight up not good enough to even get anything from an IM/GMs explanation.

Well put. I said the sentence “I use Caro-con against kings pawn openings when playing black and Accelerated London when playing white” and then explained the reasoning behind all the moves I make, and the person I was talking to was blown away at how much I knew, and that’s totally thanks to Levy. Honestly I’m happy with the fact that I’m rated 850 and striving to get to 4 digits.

@@PHeMoX IMs are masters, and far far better than the average person. GM's are the exception, theres only a few hundred in the billions of people on earth. Saying IMs are bad because they don't compare to GMs is dumb Besides that GMs tend to be less sociable or worse at properly explaining their thought process in general. Super GMs are even worse (example of magnus playing blitz, he gives good ideas that i can follow, but someone rated in the triple digits may not understand). This may just be because alot of IMs do lessons and so have experience explaining, but thats besides the point

Sure. Thats because he is weak

@@zizhdizzabagus456 That's mean, and who the heck are you to pass judgement onto people you don't even know?

@@arne8158 that's not mean, that's a fact. Actually that's exactly what hikaru saying. He's making fun of Levi and him being weak flagger

@@zizhdizzabagus456 Hikaru is certainly not "making fun" of Levy. Way to get the wrong impression my guy. No need to project your own douchiness on other people.

@@zizhdizzabagus456 - 10 elo

It became to him like muscle memory

Hikaru's pattern recognition is the true GM here

He's playing against a 1000. If he'd concentrate I'm sure he could win 200 games in a row with a queen and two rooks down. This is no different than watching a pro esports player warm up by beating easy bots while talking to someone. It's trivial at some point to beat much much lower skill opponents

@@Seifer_42 Did you see his opponent? Hangs a queen, hangs (sacrifices..) a rook, hangs an inevitable mate. Nah, these games were easy, even for an intermediate chess player that has no title.

He’s the best bullet player in the world

Fr. This was said 2+ years ago and levy has improved and actually worked on these weaknesses

i wish him all the luck on his journey

good luck to your friend!

the only real problem is Levi has got his peak in the past, there's no reason he could achieve the GM goal with more age on his side and less time to work on chess. He's facing 12/13 yo at same elo he has now, the kinda player he should beat and he thrashes agaisnt them, so really unrealistic he can get the 3 norms he need

@@xxchxxzero The thing is, content creation (not even just content creation but daily uploads) take a ton of time, which could be used to study, but he prefers to do YT, if not I think his chances would be way higher

@@xxchxxzero There are dozens of GMs in the 12-14 age bracket... age isn’t so limiting in chess. The young kids he faces are extremely talented players, their age is irrelevant.

@@yoosh9034 I think what he means is that the more you age the more free time diminishes. 12 - 14 year olds have nothing to worry about except what's for dinner so older players are at a disadvantage here. The same reason super GMs are so young

*Levy

It’s still a long run for Levvy. He has to keep performing in this tournament. But still missing the rating and two GM norms

@@zezinho_1he needs to win one game and then draw, the hard part is kinda over

@Grant Kirtz lol

well but the diff is hikaru doesn't believe he has a shot at world champion, Fun observation though

@@aayushadlakha7425 To be honest from what he said it sounded like he had a better shot at becoming a WC than levy becoming a GM, which i think is at least debatable

@@Yash42189 huh if it sounds like that i see

Well,yes.but ...that's not da point....hmm whatever

I mean yes, but one is the highest rated player of all time and the others are barely 2500 older GMs. So I don't see how one compares to the other.

the thing is tho that Levy gets his energy from videos after his games, he loves doing it and he wouldn't want it any other way

@@buttrball2214 well, then where is no way for him to become gm

Making vodeos is the job of levy, he does it to make living, tournaments are for the GM title prestige.

@Gabriel Mirukaj lol wtf, chess is his passion, but more specifically teaching chess. You can clearly tell the guy loves what he does on KZfaq, and it's certainly feasible that sharing his wins and losses with his community energises him.

It is not about time to study. He's been studying chess for.how long now? It is about potential. You either got it or not. If you don't no amount of work will help you.

Why

he is now :)

@@hhenub2485 sure

@@onniruusunen9444 he really is lmao

@@hhenub2485 You got April Fooled

I think that's a guaranteed way to fail, unfortunately. That's a very passive way to play and will make it very easy for his opponents to prepare side lines. That puts the ball in their court from the get go. If your opponent can control exactly which side line you end up playing, they'll have all of the moves fresh in mind.

He also makes fundamental positional mistakes. Plays the Trompowsky but doesn't seem comfortable keeping the tension with the Bishop pin which means he doesn't understand the positional requirements/deficits of an opening that has an (too) early Bishop sortie. These are things a young strong IM would know. That said he is stronger than most of us.

Every time he does his tournament recaps, everything he does is done because it was drilled into him and he doesn't take the opportunity to improvise lines and outplay. All of his opponents can blitz out moves because they can feel confident in knowing the line well enough to where they don't need to calculate to a Stockfish level depth

@@mwangikimani3970 he never olays the trompowsky in classical.

@@JM-tj5qm That isn't what I'm saying at all. I'm saying it seems like he plays lines that are sub optimal in terms of his familiarity to try and either surprise or take opponents out of their comfort zone when he would probably be better off just playing his best stuff

what? he wouldnt be playing the tournaments if he didnt think he had a shot

@@treeinafield5022 he's doing it for content

@@treeinafield5022 He said himself that he only prepared 1,5h every day when he should have been doing 6 for such an endeavor.

@@mabel3989 shitty to just say something like that about someone, when you don't actually know and are just guessing

@@stephen6272 i can do 2+2. It's impossible to become GM with the effort Levy is making. Every GM would tell you that if they're being honest. Levy is not stupid so it's doing it for other reasons. If you look at the views to the recaps of his games at the tournaments you get your reason. You're free to think otherwise.

All his content is chess related though. How much extra time does he need when he constantly is reviewing chess material? I don't see what removing twitch or KZfaq would really add, except living like a homeless person? If anything he gets more time than the average person with a 9-5 job.

@@itsyourenotyour9101 Preparing chess content for public consumption is not the same thing as working on one's own game. You might want to check out Levy's interview of Anish Girl on his Gotham City podcast. Anish described his preparation that is focused, and obsessive, in a way Levy isn't. I think Levy would do himself a big favor if he narrowed his opening repertoire (for now) to reflect how he likes to play so that he can get positions he is comfortable playing no matter the level of competition. When I watched his recaps from his last few tournaments, it seemed to me he got into trouble whenever he played openings he did not know deeply.

@@itsyourenotyour9101 making a chess video for a beginner is completely different than preparing for a game against a GM

@@itsyourenotyour9101 LMAO no

@@lucasng4712 can we not have restarted people in a civilized conversation? Thanks

He did mention about him becoming a world champion

Hikaru himself has admitted in the past that he changes his style and becomes too passive to his own detriment against players he deems as "better".

One of the goats right there PS: I have a duck video, a chicken video, a video where i am begging for money on Twitter, a walking video, a video where i am playing with my nuts. A short with a blog. A Naruto Arena video, a corn shelling video... Also a patreon

He just can't help it cause his prep isn't enough at all , if you were following his tournaments you can see most of his losses are where he can't match his opponent's prep and if you can't match prep basically you are going to end up in a slightly worse position if not lost and that also happened to him regularly.

@@countdracula7896 Gms put like 10 hours and more in prep a day. Levi can’t match that, he has to put a lot of work into his channel. Even IMs who prep twice as much as Levi struggle, chess is ruthless.

@@illusion2438 Stop lying Levy is one of greatest chess players ever

@@clashicedelixir2187 Demonstrably not true and not even Levy would agree to this but go off.

I think he basically does say that. He points out why and obviously if Levi changes then he will get better.

thats such a stupid series lol. smurfing is lame as hell

Levels 😂

i mean yes duh... 1000 rated isnt much... I could do the same thing being just 1800 untitled player.

Yea I was thinking the same thing, there was definitely a minor deficiency in empathy from Hikaru here. Maybe that's just his personality. Like I'm all for someone fearlessly putting his honest opinions out there, that is commendable. However, Hikaru has a wide audience in the exact same community as Levy, and is a respected, top player - so those comments have weight. They are definitely going to make their way back to Levy, and as far as I know, there was no bad blood between the two (and hopefully that continues if it's true). So I could imagine the unapologetic and blunt delivery without any attempt at emotional support would feel kind of blind-siding and maybe hurt a little. Hopefully Levy, if he really wants to prioritize becoming a GM, can use this as motivation.

@Anthony JS feel the same, I think it’s just his personality , but empathy goes a long way. For example imagine if he put it like this ‘I love levy and I think he’s a great content creator but ‘give reasons’ and end with I hope he proves me wrong.

The only thing stoping me from becoming world champion is that I'm not playing at world champion strength. I just have to do that then it's Ez

@@brucewayne2184 There are two distinct components to getting norms (or just playing well in chess tourneys, in general): 1 - improving one's chess knowledge and chess ability through study, practice, and training (i.e. prior to the tournament) 2 - employing the right strategies during the tournament (including choice of opening, selection of in-game lines, adapting to opponents, going for a draw/win, etc.) Levy falsely believes he's strong enough to be a GM, but is just making poor meta decisions. I contend that the real problem is that he simply isn't as strong as he thinks he is, and should instead focus on improving his baseline strength.

@@macnolds4145 I think the last two tournaments should have been an eye-opener for him. Going into that invitational Norm tournament, he was saying that he was underrated; the last two tournaments have demonstrated that in reality, he was actually extremely overrated at that point, and probably still is (his playing strength at his last two tournaments has been NM-ish). Great content creator, but nowhere close to as good of a player as he thought he was a few months ago, and a weaker player than most of the other chess KZfaqrs at this point (but probably a better content creator).

@@JM-tj5qm Yeah, chess heroes like Ashley and Finegold made it a personal mission to get that GM title (and had no desire to make a career out of playing competitive chess at the GM level). They never really played consistently at "GM strength", and within a year of getting their GM titles leveled back down to "strong IM". Still, every case is a bit unique... Ashley started taking chess seriously a bit late in life, and didn't even make his high school chess team. Yet, somehow, he became an NM two years after graduating, and then a GM about 13 years after that. Ashley was a vicious attacking player, but dedicated his life to promoting chess and currently plays at about 2200 strength under timed, competitive conditions. Finegold focused on teaching and took a long-term plan. I think he currently plays at about the same strength level as Levy. Finegold has more chess wisdom than Levy, but Levy is much more up to date with the latest trends. Honestly, Levy currently plays like a teacher and not like a competitor. He will correctly calculate all the key lines in a position, but then pick a passive one.

@@cynicanal111 Which non-GM chess content creators are stronger than Levy? I mean, he did beat Rosen (but it was super close).

He meant the title

Don't spell his name that way, lol. I mean Idc but once I wrote something nice in his twitch stream, he just got mad about nothing else but the way I wrote his name "levi". LOL it was kinda funny to see him angry just because of that but low key I felt like thats the reason why he's never becoming a GM , haha. He just didn't see what I wrote after his name. I had written nice thing about him but there you go, I lost respect for him.

@@freeWizard he was probably just joking

@@CaoNiMaBi no really, you should have seen the dudes reaction. He was mad and his mods were all over me for just saying that, lol. Probably they would have banned me if I had replied. I don't know if that's just how they roll, like trolling others no matter what, even if they say genuine things but meh I'm done watching his content

@@freeWizard i have a feeling that Levi has a b*tchy personality, but he hides it pretty well in public

@@IVANOsijek007 ik right ! but him getting mad when people just spell his name wrong is not hiding anything 😂

ewwwwww omori pfp

NO WOMAN!

@@CrackmiserGaming 👍

@@HeyRoosty i hate omori

@@HeyRoosty therefore i extend my hatred towards you.

He believes in Levy now. Levy has improved a lot from the last 2 years it seems like

Its not just nerves. He's outclassed and he knows it. Thats why he's nervous in the first place. He needs to train harder, as hard as a GM should, and build his confidence by improving his game.

@@jootpepet Training doesn't help if every game is an emotional rollercoaster, where you can't think straight. You have to take the emotions out of it, if you wan't to reach anywhere close to your already existing potential.

500 rated player pointing out his weakness.

@@emanuelrosenthal4271 I agree with you, emotions should be checked in a game of chess. But im not as naive as to say that its all about emotion. Thats stupid. Even Levy will tell you that. All GM's success came from hard work and dedication, and with that comes confidence and focus. If you're better than your peers, then your skill shall take over your fear.

@@jootpepet I simply believe my order is better. Get your emotions together, play as you wan't to play and get to maybe 2420-2450. Then work from there with the actual chess. If you start working on things like openings without a stable ground, that simply leads to mental stress and little to no to even worse results.

how about hikaru becoming world champ? xd

@@raeyodoesstuff2573 he has.

show me a sorce? i dont rememebr that

What? He is not a GM

Clown 🤡

Yeah, its just a massive grind

whats your rating btw?

@@ladybooog 500😆

@@ezbob6664 to be fair, that's when chess is the most fun, the chaos realm of low elo

is that ape urs 💀

April fools levy aint a gm

April fools glazer

@ezhno7137 Bro, it's been a year

Your username really fits your comment

@@mabel3989 sta zitto

Every second that passes diminishes levy's chance to become a GM. You guys dont grasp how hard it is

It’s true not a lie

@@joejtkelly it's a lie and Levy knows it perfectly, it's impossible for him to be GM at his age while studying a couple of hours a day and be a KZfaq creator. It would be next to impossible even if he would quit KZfaq and only study all day for a year. He is doing it only because his recap tournaments get a lot of views

Glimpse fan moment

Levy isn't a GM?

He said he doesn't think Levy will not that Levy can't or has no chance. He literally started the video saying there is a possibility he can become world champion but realistically he doesn't think he will ever be a world champion. Using that same example on his take about Levy becoming a GM I feel like you did not watch the video and just commented because of the title

He obviously meant the classical time world championship

@@JuanBautista-fd7yv with Magnus not participating anymore he does have a legitimate shot now if he wins a candidates tournament. he came really close to getting the second place spot that Ding Liren is in

Interesting. So an IM has a better understanding of his games than a Super GM. Not sure that adds up.

@@allanshpeley4284 That's not what I meant. When Levy analyzes his own games he's not guessing at his own intents, he's remembering them; and in many of his analyses he specifically mentions having avoided drawish lines he could have gone into. I suppose I'm forgetting that Hikaru is specifically talking about Levy's games vs GMs but he's not doing too hot against the IM's either, tbh. Again, I say that based solely on his own road to GM videos. I'm not referencing his records or anything to draw that conclusion so I could have a narrow window.

@@allanshpeley4284 an IM doesn't, but Stockfish does.

That’s not true at all. Hikaru almost never plays for draws against Magnus (unless it’s some of that double bongcloud action). It’s probably why his record is so poor against him

@@clashplaya8638 magnus doesn't go for a draw with naka not the other way around.

@@criss-crossapplesauce274 yeah ofc magnus doesn't go for a draw

Good take. It probably makes more sense career-wise for him to stay an IM and focus on chess education and entertainment.

He stated in his last tournament that he had spent plenty of time preparing for the tournament, but then stated that he spent a maximum of 90 minutes a day studying chess in the lead up because of other commitments. No way 90 minutes a day is enough compared to the time other IMs seeking GM norms are putting in.

@@HikariGo I was surprised to hear Levy say that he was only spending 90 minutes a day preparing for his tournaments. I get that he doesn’t have much time after running a full time business, but I gotta believe other IMs are putting in way more effort to get their GM title. If so, he’s going to have trouble competing with them.

@@synchronium24 Oh yeah totally, it's been mentioned that as a professional Chess player you need to be in the top 100 players to make $50-100k per year from Chess. As an IM Levy in 2021 will have made easily over $1mil on KZfaq adsense alone. The Majority of GM's would happily give up their title for that level of income.

Wtf is wrong with you

honestly I wish levy would just recap his games once the tourney is over and he's back home. No wonder he already seems burnt out after a few tournaments when he's imposing that on himself.

Funny excuse

he was talking about music in that episode when he brought up System of a down. I took that as a joke. We all want be our best but there are limitations. Accepting it and moving forward is the way. Eric knows this that he can not become a GM and clearly accepts it. Even though he is probably a better player than levy.

@@kingpin1199 I think he made that statement before he decided he would try to become a GM. Perhaps his priorities changed.

levy

@@kingpin1199 I know right having a life is so CRINGE

He’s on a smurf account playing 900s lol

Agreee.at this point, levy would need to spend tons of time trying to get a GM. He hasn't really competed in months and although chess is fresh on his mind and he does puzzles, training it isn't his sole focus. He gonna be 30 in a few years and it's totally possible but he's bigger and makes much more than a majority of GMs. He has the respect from many for teaching beginner to intermediate chess, he's beaten GMs, and he really seems like he far prefers making chess content. Although I'm sure he would love a GM title, I think he changed his goals in the last few years (and I believe he worked in analytics before youtube) Could levy be a GM if he worked on his game and anxiety/decision making...most likely