Over 500 signups, including Anna-Maja Kazarian

More than a month before the start of the Amsterdam Chess Open (ACO), the field of participants has already surpassed five hundred. With three grandmasters and a total of 16 titled players on the list, including streamer Anna-Maja Kazarian, the third edition is shaping up to be stronger than ever.

The ACO, October 24-26 at the Corry Tendeloohuis in Amsterdam Zuidoost, is going to be bigger and stronger than ever, but fortunately, there are still places available. With over five hundred players on the list, the third edition has already surpassed last year's number. The tournament is especially interesting for members of Amsterdam clubs because, in addition to the Amsterdam championship title, there are additional cash prizes up for grabs: €250 in Group A, €100 in Group B, and €75 in both Groups C and D.

A special participant is FM Anna-Maja Kazarian from Voorschoten, currently ranked 11th with a rating of 2226. Besides being a strong chess player, Anna-Maja has also been a chess streamer for several years now, following in the footsteps of Levy Rozman and Hikaru Nakamura, but also among many other female streamers, including Alexandra and Andrea Botez, Anna Cramling, Dina Belenkaya, Tallulah Roberts, Alessia Santeramo, Qiyu "Nemo" Zhou, and Anna Rudolf.

Anna-Maja Kazarian, chess player and streamer. Foto: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

The 25-year-old Kazarian learned to play chess from her grandfather during a visit to her grandparents in Georgia when she was six. She proved talented and quickly became one of the best girls in the Netherlands. She ultimately won no fewer than 25 national titles in various age categories and time controls (classical, rapid, and blitz) and earned the FIDE Master (FM) title.

"One day I saw Alexandra Botez streaming," Kazarian told me in the summer of 2024, when we were having a conversation for my book The Chess Revolution. "I didn't know her at all, but I turned on the video and thought: Oh, that looks fun, her just talking to the chat during her game."

She found the interaction between Botez and her viewers interesting, since that's not something you normally get in chess. "Everyone keeps to themselves a bit, so if you're very social, chess is often a bit less enjoyable. So I thought, maybe this is something that can motivate me to keep playing chess."

Kazarian has over 38,000 followers on Twitch and almost 11,000 subscribers on YouTube. She has been streaming since February 2020, a month before the pandemic broke out. In December 2020, the biggest Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf visited her home for a report, and in November 2022 she was a participant in The Genius, a reality game show on Dutch national TV, in which she reached the final.

The report from late 2020 by De Telegraaf.

Kazarian regularly combines her tournament chess with streaming. In videos, she shows what it's like to travel to tournaments as a chess player, how she's doing, whether she's winning, and what happens behind the scenes. She also often does a "recap" after her games: she goes online in the evening and analyzes her moves in a video for fans.

Every now and then, such as at the ACO, a camera films her during the game. In collaboration with tournament organizers, the live footage of her board is then livestreamed to her Twitch and YouTube channels, sometimes with commentary from a friend.

An action shot of Kazarian. Foto: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

With over five hundred participants on the list, the tournament is two-thirds full. The maximum is 750, so you still have a while to go, but if you're considering joining Anna-Maja and the others at the board, make sure you register quickly because it's going fast!