GothamChess is now a New York Times bestseller and a Forbes 30 Under 30

GothamChess (aka Levy Rozman) has had quite the month.

His first book, How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond, became a New York Times bestseller in the first week of November, and this week, he made Forbes‘ 2023 30 Under 30

How to Win at Chess had nearly 20,000 preorders before its debut Oct. 24, helping to secure its spot on The List. We’re betting a good deal of those preorders came from Rozman’s digital following: he has 4.4 million subscribers on YouTube and another million on Twitch, and has long been established on both platforms as “the internet’s chess teacher.”

For Rozman, How to Win at Chess is a way to make the game available to as many people as possible.

“I think historically the game has had a problem with accessibility,” he tells Tubefilter. “I thought I could combine a welcome voice of some authority, like an educator, just with a modern twist. So the book can be read before sleep, it can be read with literally zero chess knowledge whatsoever. This is the book you should buy your relatives that have been hesitant about chess, or your spouse or your partner or younger siblings or your cousin. Dog. Cat. You know.”

The book comes with QR codes that link its text-and-image lessons to videos from Rozman–an element that is, again, part of making things accessible.

Rozman has been teaching the game on YouTube and Twitch for years, but writing How to Win at Chess was a whole new level, he says.

“In the writing process, I felt the gravity of the moment, because in YouTube videos, you can make mistakes,” he says. “Even two videos ago, I said, just very confidently in the first 10 seconds, that this tournament is leading to the tournament in 2014 instead of 2024. And all the comments are like ‘2014, we’re going backward.’ And then we all move on.”

With the book, there was more pressure. “But I enjoyed it,” he says. “A lot of it is like puzzle-solving in the sense of, how do I make a legacy piece of content so that in 20 years people can still read this book and feel the same exact way about it that they feel now, that it still covers all the bases, that it’s not one-dimensional in its training approach? And how can I feel proud of that? I think I did that.”

Rozman says he’s thinking about writing more books for mid- and high-level players. And also maybe one for babies. (He did start learning chess when he was five.) But those plans aren’t solid yet.

As for Forbes, Rozman made the 30 Under 30 list in the Games division:

What’s next after both these accomplishments? Rozman says he’s looking into establishing some physical chess clubs where enthusiasts can come meet–and challenge–him and each other.