"Mom, Botez Raided Me!": Meet HunterWhiz

Mick

Dec 15, 2023, 8:00 AM | 74 | Other

HunterWhiz is a relatively recent addition to the online chess landscape, but it hasn’t taken him long to beome an established presence on Twitch, TikTok, Instagram, and more. Even Chess.com’s very own IM Danny Rensch is a bit of a fan and has been spotted in his chat!

The team caught up with Hunter at TwitchCon Las Vegas to ask him some questions and learn more about one of the fastest-rising chess content creators out there.

If you could do a collab with anyone (chess or non-chess), who would it be?

That’s a tough one. I definitely think that if it’s chess-related, I’d have to go with GothamChess, the Botez sisters, or Nemo. I’ve watched them for a long time, so those would be my top three for chess. Outside of the chess world, I watch Jynxzi a lot; Jynxzi’s really funny, I love his streams and have been a fan of his for a while.

How about if you could play a game with anyone in the world?

Oh, man… I think [GM Bobby] Fischer would definitely be someone I’d want to have a game with. Outside of chess, I don’t know… Maybe Mr. Beast? I think he’s played chess before.

What’s been your happiest or proudest moment while streaming so far?

Definitely one of the first things I remember was getting a million views on one of my TikToks that I posted. That was earlier this year when I started posting content on there. Probably one of the other moments was a raid from Chess.com, when Danny came to my stream a month or two ago, and also when GothamChess raided me when I first started streaming and I had maybe 300 followers. That was definitely the most memorable, I’d say!

What are your tips for people starting with chess streaming or content creation?

Around this time last year at TwitchCon, I first started streaming. For me, the key was just putting in the work, grinding it out; I stream pretty much 50-ish hours a week minimum, mostly on chess. If I had to give myself advice a year ago, I would probably spend more time posting TikToks, Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and things like that. I feel like that is definitely how you grow... you get one video that does really well and that can just blow you up.

Did TwitchCon last year play a role in inspiring you to grow your channel?

I would say so, for sure. I was almost at 1,000 followers on Twitch in October last year, and then in January I got the partnership with Chess.com. I would say it was more like motivation; when I came here and met everybody it was definitely motivation to keep going and take it as more than just a hobby or something that I just did for fun.

You can find Hunter on Twitch, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X.

Previous Streamer/Creator of the Month articles: