Why is my game not working
Why is Chess.com crashing?
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ladies and gentlemen this video is being
recorded on January 24 2023 and the game
of chess has literally never been more
popular than it is right now it is so
popular in fact that it is crashing
chess.com servers on a daily basis in
this video I am going to take you
through exactly why the chess boom is
happening I'm going to explain to you
why the chess.com servers are crashing
based on a statement that they put out
and at the end of the video I will share
personal analytics from my own YouTube
dashboard things that you never see and
these will explain to you why so many
people are getting into chess right now
if you're a returning viewer hi welcome
back you know me if you don't know me
I'm Levy or also known as Gotham chess
let's talk about the chess boom all
right it's gonna be a short video I'm
going to talk a lot it's going to be
things on your screen I hope you enjoy
uh chess is booming and our servers are
struggling this is a message put out by
chess.com
um if you want to read the article I'll
put it in the description we'll read
this and then we are going to look at
some of the reasons why chess is booming
you see the Mogul chess boxing
championship you see Messi and Ronaldo
give me like 10-15 minutes of your time
and we're going to be in good shape
you're going to find things out in this
video that you otherwise may not have
okay
on December 31st we had 7 million active
members on chess.com in a single day for
the first time on January 20th we had 10
million members so they basically
doubled their uh not doubled but it
basically went up by you know from seven
to to ten uh in the span of about you
know three weeks which is crazy I mean 3
million when it's originally 7 million
right goes up that much it traffic on
chess.com in general has nearly doubled
especially during peak hours from noon
to 4 pm Eastern we're very sorry we know
it's frustrating uh and now they're
going to discuss what's going on here so
I don't know if you guys know this
shells.com was number two in the free
game section of the IOS app store and
actually was number one in some
countries it was gardenscapes and chess
Play and Learn that's chess.com I mean
first of all I don't know what the heck
these bozos are doing playing gardening
games but that is insane because if you
think about the amount of kids that are
using iPads and phones just to download
random nonsense games to play and even
adults like we we know we got to kill a
little bit of time we all have a guilty
pleasure for me it was OverWatch okay
that game is like 20 and extremely toxic
but that's crazy that it was the second
most downloaded app that is millions of
people since December 5th 1 million
people have solved the daily puzzle uh
on January January 19th we had one
million visits from Google for the first
time uh we had over 300 000 members
joining a single day and uh there was
almost 32 million games played I mean
think about that 32 million chess games
and this is the chess.com internal
dashboard showing the craziness that's
going on right now
um now here they talk about some of
these things I'm gonna go actually more
more in depth as a person who is a
content creator and I'm constantly
around analytics and I love this stuff
and this is all the stuff I think about
and goes into my titles and everything
I'll get into that a little bit more
most popular social media post uh 2022
featuring Messi and Ronaldo many
celebrities talking about Chess ever
since Queen's Gambit or some you know
some other stuff cheating controversy
and the resulting drama with lawsuits uh
creators blah blah blah chess boxing I
don't know how many people got into you
know chess because of the acquisition
but okay yes during the holidays there's
a lot of Chess gifts very much a thing
uh App Store and of course yeah mittens
I mean chess.com's mittensbot was
unbelievably viral like if you check
Google Trends it's uh it's completely
horrifying how many people just know
chess because of mittens and um so here
there's uh some description about the
servers
uh their database spins out the control
they can't write fast enough 250 000 new
accounts are being created every day
people are playing more games people add
friends commenting chatting using
classroom analysis blah blah blah and
this is mostly for the developers uh
let's be honest 95 of us watching this
right now just want the servers to work
faster we know absolutely nothing about
what it takes to run a website or to
code it and I've actually seen some
threads where people are discussing like
you know yes it could be better but a
website cannot really prepare for a
doubling of its traffic in three weeks
this is basically what I'm reading
regardless of what it's coded in and
you've probably seen this 502 database
connection error
um and what chess.com is doing right now
is they are ordering expensive uh they
have something uh sharding here not that
sharding this type of sharding um you
know I I don't know I you can read
through this this might mean something
to you essentially they're saying we
understand this is a problem we are not
unaware of it and you know we're
ordering expensive material and Hardware
to kind of improve everything and it's
true like you know if I download
chess.com and I get into chess and I get
a server error twice in the first like
four attempts like I'm not gonna use it
I'm not gonna lie like imagine your
friend recommended you a website right
and and you know you're getting into
this thing and also it's just crashing
all the time like you can forgive it
every now and then so chess.com was just
I mean who could have expected this
right it's not I can't I can't say it's
their fault I can say that I wish it was
better and I wish you know but why would
you spend the money on potentially you
know going from seven million to 10
million users in three weeks that seems
completely nuts but this seems to be the
new reality all right
and they made this post you can get into
it people here discussing in the
comments
um and unfortunately this just kind of
like the people who are already in the
Chess World are just gonna have to deal
with this you know New Wave now all
right let's talk about what's going on
in chess apologies for the you know dark
to light switch chess has literally
never had a higher popularity on Google
and on YouTube than right now you folks
you have to understand something you and
I've seen this on Reddit YouTube
comments whatever everybody has a theory
people tell me what they think is going
on and I'm the Creator and I'm gonna
tell you right now and hopefully you
know it sticks
um
the chess has literally never been
popular 100 is basically Peak Interest
in the last five years you go back 20
years there's only been one other time
it's been close this is Queen's Gambit
this is p Queen's Gambit Mania and this
is where we are now
and it's beyond that I mean I think it's
literally double okay it is absolutely
nuts what is going on now remember
chess.com said Messi and Ronaldo put out
this post yes absolutely this is just
good exposure for chess period someone
sees this they're like oh chess maybe
that's you know something that I played
in the past in school but I didn't have
a lot of friends who did it it was
boring to learn back in the day a lot of
you watching who are in your 20s 30s 40s
50s 60s 70s 80s blah blah blah you
probably played chess in school at some
point but it was lame there's no good
teachers like me and anybody else you
watch on YouTube right so this was good
uh chess boxing was absolutely massive I
mean this this event was absolutely huge
um I also did two wired interviews I
didn't throw them up on here but uh if
you go to the wired YouTube page uh it's
uh it's actually quite I wonder if I can
just you know go there right now
um my videos on wired no my videos on
wired had so many views it was
absolutely shocking this one pro answer
question 4.3 million
three and a half million on the one I
did prior the only person that had more
views than me is Millie Bobby Brown and
Jenna Ortega that is insane it's Millie
Bobby Brown Jenny Ortega and Gotham
chess
that's nuts okay now some other stuff
also happened between December and
January I'm gonna get into that uh Emil
sotovsky who is a CEO of uh fide I
thought he was director General I think
he got a promotion congratulations to
him uh he he commented on this post and
he said I feel video events were among
the key drivers Madrid candidates was a
you know just basically saying over the
board tournaments like the Chennai
Olympiad World rapid and Blitz also
contributed and you know tell it to your
mittens with this smiley face that's uh
how the russian-speaking audience writes
a smiley face
um
he's not wrong that these events were
massive successes where he is incorrect
is
the events themselves are accredited to
fide
but here's the thing you need media
Outlets to get those events out there
and the number one reason the world
rapid and Blitz went viral is because of
these guys Sagar Shah uh amruta uh and
uh the whole chess based India team
um like these guys are unbelievable you
they are still uploading live footage
they work look at their shorts views
from the last month eight million seven
five five this is all that tournament
that Emil is talking about I got news
for you that tournament probably has
more than 120 million views look at
these shorts this is all from the last
two weeks
by the way soccer you can uh I'll
invoice you for the free promo I'm just
kidding
um they are awesome all right they are
absolutely awesome and uh you gotta you
like you absolutely have to check them
out
um just incredible stuff I mean I get
their videos all the time and uh oh I
didn't even see I get videos all the
time I didn't even realize it wasn't
subscribed so I'm gonna hit that
subscribe button here you go that's the
thing like sometimes you don't even
realize because I see their content so
much I thought I would subscribe I had
no idea there you go I'll subscribe and
these guys probably have 200 million
views in the last couple of months all
right World rapid and Blitz so Emil's
not wrong but if there was no media
outlets for these over-the-board
tournaments folks you know it and I know
it you wouldn't even know that these
tournaments are going on sometimes you
find out a chess tournament is going on
when the tournament is literally
happening or a day before all right so
fide is good they're running the
tournaments fine
uh you know but you need you need like
if you go to the I'm not even gonna go
to the fide YouTube channel because
we you know you you need guys like this
you need Partners who are very good at
creating the content now folks I told
you at the beginning of the video I'm
gonna share my personal analytics this
is gonna shock you
I don't know if you've been on my social
blade recently all right I don't know if
you've been on my
uh
let's go over here
you may have noticed that in the month
of December and the month of January
something weird has been going on on my
channel
look at these look at that chart
look at this
folks in the month of December I gained
300 000 subscribers folks it's January
24th right now I am already up nearly
500
000 in the month of January like there
is a legitimate chance of this continues
I will get up to seven eight maybe nine
maybe ten by the end of the year
that growth is catalyzed
by the following
I started posting short form content my
Tick Tock Channel
you don't have to follow me you don't
you might not even like tick tock
I have 220 million views on Tick Tock in
the last 50 days December 1st until now
220 million here's a peek inside of my
YouTube dashboard I've never shown this
on stream before if I hit that button
you'll see how much money I make I'm not
going to do that maybe a little you know
maybe at 10 million
um look at these numbers
like this is completely nuts
look at
156 million views that is now 380 and if
you go to my Instagram it's a lot of the
same thing Instagram reels get they make
less
they have less less uh exposure but it's
also about 20 30 million folks we are
talking about four
hundred plus million views between
December 1st and yesterday two days ago
all right whenever I you know created
this all right I posted 92 pieces of
content I am a Workhorse but views are
coming in from the short speed browse
features suggest that all these
different things not even subscribers
okay this is the stuff that makes chess
boom in the last 50 or so days
just my face and then you count all the
people that are reposting my content
illegally violating copyright
my face might be out there five six
hundred million times chess based India
content is out there one two three
hundred million times boat says started
posting more short form content her face
and chess is out there twenty Thirty
forty million times all the other short
form chess creators on tick tock on
YouTube whatever you want to call it
chess Clips Magnus started streaming
again Hikaru speed Chess Championship
okay World rapid and Blitz Magnus wins
the Triple Crown all right Hikaru uh
gets second place uh in the in I believe
it was the world Blitz like everything
everything like all of it chess has had
billions of Impressions the amount of
times my videos have been recommended
not clicked but just recommended in the
last 40 days it I mean it's something
like 2 billion yeah literally literally
in the last uh 50 days my channel has
been recommended to people two billion
times and it has been clicked on about
you know five six percent of the time
and that translates into views on my
videos
so I can give you the personal uh
element of it which is this is the
amount of people that are seeing chess
through my content I can give you a
landscape overview of wired chess boxing
Messi and Ronaldo uh chess base India
anything Hikaru or Magnus does always
has a good chance of going viral uh
botes all right like it's it's out there
the mittens bot it is all out there and
chess has literally never been more
popular so the servers are struggling uh
but keep signing up for accounts uh it's
free and um play chess teach your friend
chess really like there has never been a
better time to get into chess
and it's really not as boring as you
might have thought in childhood it's
it's a little bit of a dorky game but
it's also pretty fun and uh learning it
the long the the Younger You Learn chess
the much higher chance you have of
becoming extremely good but doesn't mean
that if you start at 20 or 30 even you
know later than that you can achieve
great things it just takes time patience
dedication uh and you know
there's you can start on my channel
learning some of my beginner stuff you
can start anywhere else uh that's the
beautiful thing about Chess right now if
you get into it you don't have to stick
with one Creator like let's say you get
into chess through me but I'm too loud
and annoying there's like 20 other
YouTube channels you can go to that's
the beautiful thing about it so
that's what's going on with chess that's
what's going on with chess.com
yeah I'll see in the next video get out
of here