Levy RozmanEvery podcast appearance, updated as new ones drop

Levy Rozman aka GothamChess, the creator behind the most subscribed-to chess channel on YouTube, discusses his New York Times bestseller "How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond." Filled with practical and easy-to-follow tips for improving your game, the book includes over 500 instructional gameplay illustrations to help you better visualize the board. Levy Rozman, more popularly known as GothamChess, is an online chess streamer who earned the title of International Master in 2018. A former scholastic chess coach, he is passionate about chess accessibility, and has donated tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship funds for chess programs in education. He currently boasts the biggest chess channel on YouTube, where he focuses on creating fun and educational content. His channel has nearly 5M subscribers and 85M total monthly views. This phenomenal growth aided in Levy's transition from making straightforward tactics videos in his apartment to running live commentary at chess and chess-boxing events. Visit http://youtube.com/TalksAtGoogle/ to watch the video."

This week IM Levy Rozman (Gotham Chess) makes his annual return to Perpetual Chess to discuss what is new with him. I was particularly excited to chat with Levy as he recently announced his renewed pursuit of the GM title. Levy has been sharing lesson snippets and discussing his tournament plans on his channel, but I wanted many more details. What did he learn from his first norm-chasing experience? What will he do differently this time? Does he think he will be able to stick with it? Although most of us will never make GM, Levy’s quest to make it to the next level is relatable for me and for many other chess players. Aside from his OTB comeback, we discussed the swift rating-rise of popular gamer, Tyler 1, and the successes and lessons learned from Levy’s book. Levy shared a few stories from meeting celebrities in recent months. It's always fun catching up with Levy, and I am especially excited to follow his renewed pursuit of the GM title! Timestamps of topics discussed can be found below. Thanks to our sponsor, Chessable.com! If you sign up for Chessable Pro in order to unlock discounts and additional features, be sure to use the following link: https://www.chessable.com/pro/?utm_source=affiliate&utm_medium=benjohnson&utm_campaign=pro 0:00- What will be different about levy’s second public quest for GM? Will his mental health be ok? What will he do differently? Mentioned: Road to GM Episode 3 with GM Arturs Neiksans https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFILafuQgPg&t=1704s 11:00- What will Levy do to address the weaknesses that GM Neiksans highlighted? Mentioned: IM Alex Ostrovskiy 15:00- Levy discusses his upcoming tournament in Spain. 17:30- Will Levy stream his tournament games? What tournaments is he planning to play? 26:00- Patreon mailbag question: “What can Levy’s fans do to support his renewed GM quest?” 29:00- Will Levy hire a sports psychologist? 31:00- Does Levy have a timeframe in mind for this GM pursuit? 34:00- Levy has been covering popular Twitch streamer and gamer Tyler1’s unusual chess progress. What interests him about this story? Mentioned: Tyler1 is a ChessGM! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gler9fDuhRY 41:00- What led Levy to work on his fitness? 43:00- Has Levy been pleased with the reception to his book? Mentioned: Rey Enigma, Blitzstream 49:00- What was the story behind meeting NBA superstar Luka Donkic? 53:00- What was it like to finally meet Magnus Carlsen IRL? 55:00- Patreon mailbag question: “Can Levy tease any upcoming collaborations?” Mentioned: More info in an article from Tarjei Svensen here: https://www.chess.com/news/view/4-million-buy-in-tournament-wadim-rosenstein-abdusattorov-caruana-nepomniachtchi-niemann 58:00- Patreon mailbag question: “How will Levy work on positional evaluation in his renewed GM quest?” Mentioned: GM Jacob Aagard’s books https://www.amazon.com/Books-Jacob-Aagaard/s?rh=n%3A283155%2Cp_27%3AJacob+Aagaard 1:00:00- Thanks, as always to Levy for joining me! In addition to the usual channels, you can get inside access to his GM quest via his Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/got

Italian chef, restaurateur, writer and buongustaio Aldo Zilli, learned to cook at his mother’s knee and started dreaming of his own Italian restaurants in 1970’s Soho, under the watchful eyes of the mafia, and at a time when you could only buy olive oil in a chemist. Levy Rozman – the international chess master with millions of subscribers - who’s moving the game into the digital age after retiring from the game for the sake of his mental health. Historian Phillipa Langley, not content with finding Richard III under a car park, she’s now looking to try and re-write British history once again hunting for the truth about the Princes in the Tower. Plus the beautiful and powerful Inheritance Tracks of actor and comedian Miles Jupp. Presenters: Nikki Bedi and Jon Kay Producer: Ben Mitchell

This week we are excited to catch up with the most popular chess content creator in the world, IM Levy Rozman aka Gotham Chess. With a Chessable course launching, and a book coming soon, Levy took a break from his busy schedule to reflect on another year of explosive growth in his content. His YouTube channel recently passed 3 million subs, and Levy’s TikTok account went from 0 to 1 million+ followers in about 3 months! In our interview, Levy takes us behind the scenes of the work that goes into the growth, and speculates about what type of chess fans might be driving the latest surge in popularity. It has been almost 2 years since my last interview with Levy, so there are many other topics to catch up on, including the FIDE World Championship, his retirement from OTB chess, his DMs with Magnus Carlsen and much more. It is always entertaining and enlightening to hear Levy reflect on chess and on his success! Timestamps of topics discussed are below. 0:00- You can check out some of my favorite Chessable courses for different rating levels here: https://go.chessable.com/perpetual-chess-podcast/ Sign up for the Perpetual Chess Linkfest- https://benjohnson.substack.com/ Prior Levy appearances: Episode 180 Episode 233 0:02: How much does Levy know about his audience? 0:08- What drives him to keep trying to grow his channel? 0:16:00- Does Levy think this recent growth is propelled by high school kids? 21:00- Does Levy still do his own editing? Who else helps him? 27:00- Has Levy interacted with Magnus one-on-one? 33:00- Levy’s thoughts on the Ding-Nepo World Championship 40:00- How does Levy reflect on his abandoned pursuit of the GM title? 47:00- Patreon mailbag question : What is Levy’s advice to a parent who may be trying to encourage a scholastic player to stick with tournament chess? 56:00- Patreon mailbag question : “Does Levy still have opening novelties he keeps to himself?” 58:00- What lines does Levy recommend in his new Chessable course ? What rating range does it target? 1:04:00- Patreon mailbag question : “What differentiates Levy’s course from other Chessable 1. E4 courses?” 1:07:00- How did Levy’s visit to YouTube headquarters come about? 1:12:00- Has Levy’s daily life in New York changed much since our 2021 interview? 1:13:00- Life as a dog dad 1:15:00- Levy discusses his upcoming book, How to Win at Chess . 1:17:00- Levy’s 2023 plans 1:19:00- Thanks again to Levy for catching up with us! You should check out his YouTube channel! If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess via Patreon, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/perpetualchess Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Levy Rozman aka Gotham Chess is the most popular chess content creator on Youtube with over 2 million subscribers. He is an International Master with a peak rating of 2421, an exciting color commentator, and much more!

IM Levy Rozman a/k/a “GothamChess” is a chess commentator, Twitch streamer, and, of course, creator of one of the most popular Chess YouTube channels in the World. His channel has seen explosive growth since his prior visit to Perpetual Chess, one year ago. It recently surpassed 1 million subscribers and is still growing quickly! In our conversation, Levy reflects on the success of his channel, and shares lots of advice for other aspiring content creators. We also discuss his recent return to competitive chess. Levy recently competed in the National Open in Las Vegas. He had pretty good results over the board, but perhaps more surprisingly, the videos analyzing his tournament games proved to be amongst his most popular ever! Why does he think that is? Will his comeback and pursuit of the Grandmaster title continue? Will he ever stop speaking out on political issues? We tackle all of these questions and many more in this fun, wide-ranging conversation. Please read on for more details, timestamps, and relevant links. 0:00- We begin by doing a post-mortem on Levy’s recent return to over-the-board “OTB” chess. How does Levy reflect on his performance in the recently completed National Open in Las Vegas? 11:00- Levy answers a Patreon mailbag question , relating to whether making videos during a tournament is distracting, and why he thinks his game recap videos were so popular (often with more than 400,000 views per episode)! The first of Levy’s game recapps from Vegas is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqNenU-sQZI His recap of his game with IM Christopher Yoo is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPBLVuVk1zw Also mentioned: GM Alex Grischuk, Czech Open, GM Wojciech Moranda, FM Kyron Griffith 25:30- With so much content coming out, what steps has Levy taken to avoid burnout? 29:30- What aspects of his chess game does Levy think he needs to work on? 34:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by Chessable.com. Check out their latest offerings here: New Chess Courses Online - For All Levels- Chessable.com Also be sure to subscribe to Chessable’s new podcast focused on chess improvement How to Chess (hosted by me), more info here: https://howtochess.com/ 35:00- Levy delves into some of the key decisions behind his YouTube channel’s huge growth in the past year. Mentioned: IM Eric Rosen, Agadmator, Guess the Elo , Kasparov vs. the World Video- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOrLfEZav14 , Hanging Pawns YouTube, Mato Jelic YouTube, Kevin Durant, Dewa Kipas, WGM Irene Sukander 50:00- Levy answers another question from a Patreon subscriber, relating to explaining his YouTube success. 53:00 Another Patreon question- “What advice does Levy have for new chess streamers? “ Mentioned: Agadmator, GM Daniel King, IM John Bartholomew, GM Hikaru Nakamura, Mr. Beast, TierZoo, Daily Dose of Chess 1:01:00- What encounters with celebrities has Levy had as a result of his success? Mentioned: Levy’s lesson with Gordon Hayward , Joe Posnanski’s blog post about chess is here: https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/chess 1:03:00- Perpetual Chess is brought to you in part by <a h

IM Levy Rozman is a 24 year-old, New York-based chess streamer, Chess.com announcer and instructor. Levy has quickly found an audience online due to his ability to explain chess in a humorous and accessible way. In our conversation, we talk about the origins of Levy’s announcing career, his chess ambitions, and about the fast-changing world of Twitch chess streaming in 2020. Please read on for lots more details, and timestamps. Embedded hyperlinks can be found on the podcast website here: https://www.perpetualchesspod.com/new-blog/2020/6/2/episode-180-im-levy-rozman 0:00- We dive right into a discussion of the ways that chess coverage on Twitch has been making news recently. This includes the continued ascension of GM Hikaru Nakamura’s popular Twitch channel Mentioned: GM Ben Finegold, Chessbae94, Alexandra Botez, GM Daniel Naroditsky 6:45- Levy traces the origins of his popular Twitch channel, Gotham Chess. Mentioned: IM Eric Rosen, IM Alex Ostrovskiy, Alexis Parades, Brooklyn Castle, Baruch College, 15:00- Friend and Patreon supporter of the podcast, Chris Wainscott, asks Levy about whether he plans to pursue the Grandmaster title. Mentioned: Chess.com’s I am not a GM tournament 23:00- What are Levy’s goals for his Twitch channel? What recommendations would he give to others thinking of getting into Twitch streaming? 28:00- The Magnus Touch by Magnus Carlsen is still on sale at Chessable.com. Get it here: https://www.chessable.com/the-magnus-touch-chess-strategy/course/39478/ 29:00- Levy tells the story of how he got his start as an announcer for Chess.com. Mentioned: GM Robert Hess, GM Daniel Naroditsky, IM Danny Rensch, Levy’s Recap of one of Magnus’ Recent Blitz Games, Mr. Dodgy’s compilation of GM Magnus Carlsen’s recent Twitch stream, GM Peter Leko, GM Alexander Grischuk, GM Anish Giri, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Jan Gustafsson 35:00- Chris Wainscott asks Levy about the status of his amusing chess show, Post Mortem. 39:00- We also dive into a recent controversy involving Chess.com and Chess24.com, and the way that the sites broadcast events that are sponsored by their competitors. 44:30- Levy answers another question from the Patreon mailbag, and gives some advice to a newer player who is having trouble avoiding blunders. Mentioned: You can buy Levy’s opening repertoire course here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf-75djkXcEvJns9wvhony5bItA8Bv_f63lLUyXmvMPlCfIRg/viewform 51:00- A related question has to do with how a newer player should be using Chessbase. Mentioned: The London System, The King’s Indian Attack 59:00- Levy fields a few fun questions from Twitter, and tells the story of why he got kicked out of legendary GM Arthur Yusupov’s chess camp as a kid. Mentioned: International Chess Academy, Sam Copeland’s interview with Levy Rozman, Greg Shahade, IM Teddy Coleman, Jen Shahade, IM John Bartholomew, IM Alex Ostrovskiy Thanks to Levy for coming on the show. Here is how you can keep up with him: Twitch:https://www.twitch.tv/gothamchess Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQHX6ViZmPsWiYSFAyS0a3Q Twitter: https://twitter.com/GothamChess?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor If you would like to help support Perpetual Chess, you can do so here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices