Written by David Roberts
Reviewed by Lucas Walter
Updated
The top chess YouTubers in 2026 are GothamChess, ViperKing, Magnus Carlsen, GMHikaru, and Igor Smirnov. This list ranks 19 chess YouTubers by median views across their recent videos, not by subscriber count. Each one was found by searching across hundreds of thousands of top-performing videos in the chess niche.
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All 19 are listed in rank order. Select a row to jump to the write-up.
| Rank | Creator | Subscribers | Median views | Engagement | Known for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GothamChess @GothamChess | 8.5M | 949K | 2.4% | Chess entertainment and Guess the Elo |
| 2 | ViperKing @ViperKingYT | 355K | 437K | 1.5% | Invented chess variants |
| 3 | Magnus Carlsen @themagnuscarlsen | 1.6M | 139K | 1.6% | The world number one, on and off the board |
| 4 | GMHikaru @GMHikaru | 3.3M | 81.5K | 2.1% | Bullet, blitz, and speedruns from stream |
| 5 | Igor Smirnov @GMIgorSmirnov | 1M | 78.1K | 2.8% | Opening traps and a system for reaching 2000 |
| 6 | Anna Cramling @AnnaCramling | 1.7M | 75.8K | 2.1% | Tournament games, from the Olympiad to the pyramids |
| 7 | agadmator @agadmator | 1.4M | 67.9K | 2.4% | One famous game per video |
| 8 | King Takes King @KingTakesKing | 11.1K | 62.4K | 1% | Video essays on chess history and scandals |
| 9 | AdviceCabinet @AdviceCabinet | 38.9K | 53.7K | 1.9% | Endgames and calculation drills |
| 10 | Dina Belenkaya @DinaBelenkaya | 1M | 48.7K | 1.9% | Tactics Shorts and club-night vlogs |
| 11 | Eric Rosen @eric-rosen | 707K | 43.7K | 1% | Speedruns, traps, and Titled Tuesday |
| 12 | Sara Herman @zefcatt | 41.7K | 43.5K | 2.3% | How TV shows get chess wrong |
| 13 | Eric Hansen & Aman Hambleton @chessbrah | 417K | 35.5K | 1.8% | Speedruns by rating band |
| 14 | Alessia Santeramo @Alessia_Santeramo | 265K | 34.9K | 2.5% | Simple setups for beginners |
| 15 | Nelson Lopez @ChessVibesOfficial | 670K | 34.3K | 2.6% | Plain-English lessons for club players |
| 16 | sadisticTushi @sadisticTushi | 723K | 32.5K | 3.3% | Opening traps and the Bongcloud speedrun |
| 17 | James Gardner @epicchess2021 | 116K | 29.4K | 1.5% | This week’s top games, told as news |
| 18 | ChesswithAkeem @ChesswithAkeem | 231K | 27.6K | 2.6% | Openings that win below 2000 |
| 19 | Alex Banzea @AlexBanzea | 138K | 23.9K | 2% | The London System and the Caro-Kann |
The best chess YouTubers aren’t simply the channels with the most subscribers. YouTube shows videos to people based on how the video performs individually, not just based on who subscribes to the channel. As a result, a small or midsized channel can reach more people than one several times its size.
That’s why we rank chess YouTubers by median views of their videos (the average number of people a typical video reaches). As of November 2026, the five most watched are GothamChess, ViperKing, Magnus Carlsen, GMHikaru, and Igor Smirnov.
Grouped by what each channel makes, from big-audience entertainment to lessons. The number beside each name is the creator’s overall rank.
Sketches, made-up variants, and joke-titled traps. Chess for viewers who watch more than they study.
Guess the Elo episodes, AI engines playing each other, and celebrity matches, filmed as a talking head over a board. Long videos and Shorts in about equal measure, most days of the week.
3 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in VPNs and energy gum.
Made-up chess variants played out on drawn boards: snail chess, camel pieces, a board that loops back on itself. Narrated in the first person, with the odd street challenge.
1 sponsored video in the last 90 days, in electronic chess boards.
A near-daily long video of rapid and bullet games reviewed move by move, and a numbered Bongcloud speedrun. Shorts with joke titles about traps and how to punish them.
1 sponsored video in the last 90 days, in study-abroad services.
Grandmasters and masters playing their own games, from blitz streams to tournament halls.
Tournament highlights and the world number one’s own games, talked through over the board, from Titled Tuesday blitz to Esports World Cup matches. Short reaction and quiz clips between events.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Cuts from Hikaru Nakamura’s streams: bullet and blitz, speedruns against low-rated players, and head-to-heads with Magnus Carlsen. Shorts outnumber long videos, and uploads land several times a day.
2 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in investing research apps.
Games against titled players, strangers, and family, filmed at tournaments and on location. Olympiad rounds streamed live, and reflective videos about a life in chess.
31 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in chess sites and chess equipment.
Blitz with the webcam in the corner: a numbered opening speedrun, Titled Tuesday streams, and trap and endgame Shorts. Family-friendly, as the channel says itself.
12 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in chess training sites.
Two grandmasters’ channel: speedruns through each rating band with one opening, and titled arenas cut from stream. Meme Shorts of lower-rated players’ blunders.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Coaches who teach one idea a video, from opening traps to endgame drills. Each sells or promotes a course or book.
Remote Chess Academy, the online school the grandmaster founded in 2009. Single-trap Shorts on an animated board, plus longer lessons on openings and how to think at the board.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
A coach rated 2200 FIDE sets a position, asks the viewer to pause, then talks through the calculation. Screen-recorded boards with arrows, in Shorts and lessons of two to six minutes.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
A Woman Grandmaster’s daily puzzle and one-rule Shorts, often captioned just “can you find it?” Between them, vlogs from tournaments and the Ladies Knight club nights.
3 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in chess apps, energy gum, and handbags.
A weekly lesson that plays and explains one opening setup with no memorizing, plus tactic Shorts filmed at home with grandmaster Noël Studer.
18 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in chess courses.
Chess Vibes, which promises to explain chess so anyone can understand it: tactics training, principle lists, and tournament games at 2000 and up. Screen-recorded lessons, no Shorts.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Opening lessons on how to beat players from 500 to 2000 with the Caro-Kann, the Scotch, or the Jobava London, and a numbered speedrun. Shorts are single moments from those games.
4 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in chess opening apps.
An International Master plays one repertoire against club players, in videos of 40 to 90 minutes split into chaptered games. The London System for White, the Caro-Kann for Black.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
One famous game, one essay, or one TV scene a video. Analysis and stories rather than lessons.
One game a video, walked through move by move on a plain board: this month’s elite events and historic classics. Long videos only, nearly every day.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Narrated essays of 15 to 25 minutes on chess history, characters, and controversies, told over archive stills. Close to one a day, each built on a single argument.
No sponsored videos found in the last 90 days.
Chess in Media, a series that reviews the chess scenes in cartoons and sitcoms move by move. Between episodes, bughouse, bullet, and puzzle videos from stream.
1 sponsored video in the last 90 days, in chess camps.
Epic Chess: games from this month’s elite events, narrated over the board in 10 to 15 minutes under a headline title. Close to daily.
8 sponsored videos in the last 90 days, in VPNs and chess training sites.
We analyzed the 656 videos these 19 creators published on YouTube in the last 30 days. Of those, 79 beat their creator’s usual views by 3× or more.
Here is how this month’s breakouts open, read from what each video says in its first seconds, or from its caption when nobody speaks.
“Wait. Did it just blunder?”
These breakouts start mid-move, with no greeting and no title card. The creator is already reacting to a position, or a sketch is already running, so the viewer arrives inside a problem and stays to see how it ends.
GMHikaru 2.1M views · 25.4× their usualFewer of the same channels’ usual uploads open this way. More of them start with a recap or a promise of what the video will show.
“Most people blunder this position.”
The first line names an error: a position most players get wrong, an opening to stop playing, a queen about to fall. Five of the nine come from sadisticTushi’s trap Shorts, which start by naming a bad habit.
AdviceCabinet 393K views · 7.3× their usualViewers can test the claim at once: pause, look at the board, and see whether they would have made the same move.
“Bro thought it’s a checkmate”
A position, a caption, and music: several breakouts say nothing out loud. Five of the seven are Dina Belenkaya’s puzzle and club-night Shorts.
Eric Hansen & Aman Hambleton 701K views · 19.8× their usualThe caption does the work of the hook. It states the rule, the challenge, or the joke, and the board shows the rest. Every usual upload we read had someone talking from the start.
ViperKing: “Immortal Snail Chess!” reached 22M views, 49.9× their usual.
sadisticTushi: “Fry the French Fries 🍟” reached 905K views, 27.8× their usual.
Sara Herman: “Arthur’s Chess Episode is So Bad it’s Good” reached 972K views, 22.3× their usual.
This table shows what the chess channels on this list do at each size on YouTube. Use it to judge whether a creator’s numbers are strong for their tier.
| Tier | Subscribers | Median views | Engagement | Videos a week | Sponsored videos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Micro | Under 100K | 53.7K | 1.9% | 3.7 | 1% |
| Mid | 100K to 500K | 32.2K | 1.9% | 3.8 | 11% |
| Macro | 500K to 2M | 58.3K | 2.2% | 6.6 | 5% |
| Mega | Over 2M | 515K | 2.2% | 18.8 | 1% |
The figures are medians across these 19 channels, from each channel’s recent videos. “Sponsored videos” is the share of videos in the 90 days to Nov 6, 2026, that carry a paid-promotion label or a stated sponsor, or are part of a brand campaign.
Whether you want a chess channel to learn from or one to sponsor, start with what the channel makes, not with the title of the person behind it.
A video on why one opening wins below 2000 and a move-by-move tour of a world-championship game serve different players. Look at the ratings in the titles and the openings a channel keeps returning to; teaching channels usually name the level they teach.
Some channels here post almost nothing but Shorts, and others post none. A Short collects views fast and is gone in a minute; a long video holds a viewer for ten minutes or more and has room for a sponsor’s read. Check the last 30 uploads before you compare two medians.
Most teaching channels sell their own course, book, or coaching, and many carry a referral link for a chess site in every description. A brand with a rival course or app should know what its audience already sees under each video.
Some channels here label every deal, and others drop a brand’s link into the description and say nothing. YouTube’s own rule is that a creator with a sponsor must select the paid-promotion button, and the video then opens with a label. Put that in the agreement.
We identified and ranked these creators by searching hundreds of thousands of top-performing chess videos across YouTube with Klint.
We rank by median views across each channel’s recent videos, so one viral video can’t lift a channel up the list. Channels from any country qualify if they post in English, make chess their main subject, reach a ranking median of at least 20,000 views, and posted at least six videos in the last 90 days.
To get this list or a similar one for yourself, describe the creators you’re looking for in the Klint web app, or paste this prompt into any AI agent connected to Klint:
Find the top 19 chess YouTubers who post in English, ranked by median views across their last 30 videos or their last 90 days, whichever is lower. Show subscribers, median views, engagement, sponsors, and each one's best video this month.
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As of November 2026 the top five chess YouTubers by median views are GothamChess, ViperKing, Magnus Carlsen, GMHikaru, and Igor Smirnov.
GothamChess, the channel of International Master Levy Rozman. Its 8.5M subscribers are the most of any chess channel here, and a typical upload draws about 949K views.
The grandmaster channels on this list are Magnus Carlsen, GMHikaru, Igor Smirnov, and Eric Hansen & Aman Hambleton. Counting International Masters and women’s titles, 9 of the 19 channels are run by titled players.
A channel needs chess as its main subject, a ranking median of at least 20,000 views, and at least six uploads in the last 90 days. Some well-known channels post rarely now, and company and federation channels are left out because no single creator fronts them.
Search YouTube for the openings, puzzles, or events your product fits, and note who keeps showing up with strong views on recent uploads. Or ask Klint for chess channels under 100K subscribers that teach openings; each comes back with its median views and its sponsors.
Chess creators price a dedicated video, a sponsor segment in a game recap, and a Short differently. Price it on the channel’s median views, not its subscribers. Many chess deals are ongoing affiliate or ambassador arrangements with chess sites and apps rather than one-off fees.
Yes. Any creator can ask to be taken off Klint’s lists, and the request applies to every page they would otherwise appear on.
Are you on this list and would you rather not be? Write to privacy@tryklint.ai and Klint will take you off.
