The Takes Takes podcast - "Where we put the spotlight on chess streamers"

There are two things I think about when I hear the word "podcasting". 1) Podcasting is taking over the world by storm. 2) I could not see myself doing podcasting, let alone with chess being the focus of it.

Boy was I wrong on the 2nd point.

Apart from now officially becoming a chess podcaster, I found a niche in the chess podcasting world which I feel my podcast can have a voice in. Simply put, I want to invite chess streamers onto my podcast and hear about their chess journey. I want to know how they got into chess, what made them fall in love with it, who taught them, do they play in tournaments, do they play in clubs, do they play OTB or online, do they teach chess or have a chess coach, which streamers/youtubers they enjoy watching and supporting.

I want to know how they got into chess streaming and what gave them the courage to broadcast themselves out to the unknowns of cyberspace and connect with fellow enthusiastic chess viewers from all over the world. I say courageous because streaming is not for the faint of heart. One of the biggest fears in the world is public speaking - and it's very hard to conquer. Not impossible, but difficult. Trust me I know - I'm a professional public speaker and I've seen it first hand how tough that obstacle is to conquer.

I'm also a chess entrepreneur.

(Myself at the chess.com Champions Chess Tour Finals 2023)

I wasn't always one though - I was a semi-competitive chess player like the many of us who took chess a bit further than a hobby. I've played chess all throughout my life and have a CFC OTB rating of over 1900. That's pretty good I have to keep reminding myself - that's the top 1% of the world in chess rating. I would also teach chess lessons on the side for fun and to make a bit of side money, and I co-founded a local chess club called the Etobicoke Chess Club where it re-ignited my love for chess and made me get back into it competitively after not playing competitively for over 11 years, age 18-29.

I'll save my personal chess journey for another blog :)

One thing I loved about public speaking was the ability to connect with others with your words and actions. Chess is a beautiful form of connection that, well in the old days where OTB was dominant you can feel the connection of playing against an opponent and attempting to bend their will in the game, and likewise them with you. With the recent boom of chess due to the Queen's Gambit and COVID-19, there are now more members of our global chess community reaching out to others in the form of chess videos, chess shorts, and now chess streams and expressing the game we all love from their own perspective, and having fun with it.

I want to hear all those stories as I've always been interested in people generally and decided that the best form of connecting to these chess streamers was having a conversation with them via a podcast.

My first episode feat. International Master Mark Plotkin. You can find clips of it on my youtube channel.

First episode will be out this Sunday, January 7th. If you're interested in being a guest on the podcast and sharing your chess journey with me, send me a message or email me at Vegereness@gmail.com.

Peace

-Vegereness