TwitchCon, TwitchCon, TwitchCon. I simply celebrated my first time on the conference as a part of the Chess.com workforce. Positive, I anticipated issues to be slightly bit wild. However what I walked into was a vibrant ball of purple-drenched chaos, inflatable pawns, and world record-smashing instances. When you couldn’t be part of us for the motion in particular person, right here’s every thing you missed:
The Calm Earlier than The Pawn Storm
Earlier than Twitch opened its doorways to the general public, I took benefit of the “downtime” to get pleasure from our neighborhood picnic hosted in Hondeneiland Zuiderpark. We invited members of our Discord channel, in addition to creators, to begin the weekend with some wholesome competitors. FM Anna-Maja Kazarian and WCM Alexandra Prado joined us, and it was the right method to mingle earlier than the conference buzz started.
The Sales space
After which the doorways opened. Armed with chess socks, a schedule of meet-and-greets, and a sales space utterly lined with boards, we have been prepared for something. All through the weekend, many creators have been challenged by gamers and watched by many. TwitchCon is the place you’ll be able to spark a dialog with anybody, and I met some unbelievable folks, from full chess newbies to a former Irish Girls’s Nationwide workforce participant. Some acquainted faces, together with EsfandTV, dropped by our sales space and shared their love for chess.
The World File
We’ve all seen that clip of the man who solves the Rubik’s dice in below 4 seconds, proper?
This yr, we challenged TwitchCon to arrange a complete chessboard at document velocity. I made a decision to make everybody’s life slightly bit trickier that day; not solely would challengers be restricted to utilizing one hand when organising the board, however you might additionally solely transfer one piece at a time.
Queues shaped as over-the-board gladiators waited for his or her flip. As quickly as a challenger lifted their palms from the velocity timer, the clock began, and their destiny was counted in milliseconds. The primary-day document was set by an impressively calm Polish grandmaster, Kacper Piorun, also referred to as GMSolver. I assume that grandmaster title helped him obtain the document of 28.76 seconds. However was he overwhelmed?
Twitch RivalsÂ
At TwitchRivals, we cheered on chess legend WFM Anna Cramling as she took on the gaming world with Wirtual. However Anna’s secret weapon was her on-site assist within the type of two inflatable chess items. I attempted out the inflatable pawn costume for myself, and although it was scandalously scorching, I concluded that it was one of many happiest and most carefree moments of my life.Â
The Twist At The Finish
Because the weekend wound down and TwitchCon’s safety began swarming the venue like a ultimate boss, one aggressive challenger returned to provide the chessboard problem one final attempt. In a movie-like flip of occasions, the ultimate try and be made earlier than closing the sales space resulted in a crushing 27.91-second victory, beating the World File by simply shy of two seconds. Necktyz, our problem winner, went dwelling with a model new picket chessboard as their prize.
The Total Vibe Score: 10/10
My expertise at TwitchCon was a vibrant and splendidly chaotic journey. Essentially the most heartwarming half was seeing the various and rising chess neighborhood at our sales space, with each acquainted and new faces. The truth that after I requested folks about their favourite chess streamers, a lot of them talked about “Tyler1” was a transparent indication of the widespread development of chess.
We look ahead to seeing you all at TwitchCon San Diego in September!
