You’d probably be forgiven for believing that chess players are all sensible, smart-dress-wearing and eager-to-learn people – but these Canadian sisters prove they can be glamorous and sexy too.
Andrea Botez, 21, dubbed the “world’s sexiest chess player,” and her sibling Alexandra Botez, 28, who has been compared to the fictional protagonist of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, both started playing the game when they were six. were old.
Alexandra has six national championship titles to her name and holds the title of Women’s FIDE Master from the International Chess Federation, while Andrea became the Women’s British Columbia Chess Champion in 2015 at the age of 13.
Now they’ve both found fame on social media, where they offer their combined 1.4 million followers on Twitch and Instagram glimpses of their jet-setting ways, sharing sultry snaps and posting clips from their chess matches.
They have also found success on the livestreaming service Twitch; their channel BotezLive has 1.3 million subscribers.
Andrea Botez, 21, dubbed the “world’s sexiest chess player,” and her sibling Alexandra Botez, 28, who has been compared to the fictional protagonist of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit, both started playing the game when they were six. were old.
Earlier this year, Andrea returned to chess tournaments for the first time in years, but admitted that she was paired with the 11-year-old, who allegedly beat her in the game, according to The sun.
In January, she shared a video on Instagram of herself competing at the Charlotte Chess Center in North Carolina.
“Chess tournaments in a nutshell,” she wrote in her post, before captioning her video: “I’m so excited to play my first chest tournament in years,” before showing off her defeat.
On social media, glamorous jet-setting Andrea shares her interests in DJing and boxing and also shows off her cosplay ensembles, including an image where she dressed up as the character Reyna from the video game Valorant.
Last year she tried out chess boxing, a combination of both sports, in which participants first box each other for three minutes and then do a three-minute chess round.
In December 2022, a Mogul chessboxing championship between Andrea and female grandmaster Dina Belenkaya was watched online by as many as 300,000 people, reported The sun. Andrea lost by checkmate at the Los Angeles event.
The game – which was invented in 2003 by performance artist Lepe Rubingh – continues for five to twelve rounds until someone is eliminated, checkmated or wins on points.
Originally conceived as a form of performance art, twenty years later the sport had grown into a global phenomenon that was practiced all over the world as far away as India.
Alexandra has six national championship titles to her name and holds the title of Women’s FIDE Master from the International Chess Federation, while Andrea (pictured) became the Women British Columbia Chess Champion in 2015 at the age of 13
Now they’ve both found fame on social media, where they’re giving their combined 1.4 million followers glimpses of their jet-setting style, sharing sultry snaps and posting clips of their chess matches. In the photo, Alexandra
Andrea’s sister Alexandra was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Canada by her Romanian immigrant parents. She started playing chess when she was just six years old, after her father made a bet with her mother.
‘My mother only plays a little. So he bet that he could teach me to play and that I could beat her within two weeks,” she previously told the newspaper. New York Post.
Alexandra’s talent became apparent when she defeated her mother in the game, and her father continued to train her for tournaments. Two years later, he started taking her to local parks to find new people to play against.
She was just eight years old when she competed in her first national championship and took first place in her division, Insider reported.
Her passion for chess continued when her family returned to Texas. She was 15 when she won the US Girls National championship for women 18 and under.
She graduated from Stanford University in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. She made her mark at the university by becoming the first female president of Stanford’s chess club.
They have also found success on the livestreaming service Twitch; their channel BotezLive has 1.3 million subscribers. In the photo, Andrea
Alexandra also co-founded the now-defunct social media company CrowdAmp, which used artificial intelligence for more personalized communications, according to the New York Post.
She was still a student when she started livestreaming chess on the gaming platform Twitch BotezLive account, which she manages together with her sister Andrea.
After her startup collapsed in 2019, she decided to make a career out of streaming chess, a decision that was met with confusion by both her parents and some of her advisors.
Looking for a fresh start that year, she moved to New York City and focused on streaming and producing content for chess.com.
At the start of 2020, she had 61,000 fans on Twitch, but those numbers skyrocketed when the coronavirus pandemic hit.
“Chess exploded on Twitch and I was one of the top streamers. I remember being so excited that I couldn’t sleep. I was so high on adrenaline,” she told the New York Post.
Alexandra received another boost to fans after the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit premiered, prompting a number of comparisons between the Canadian and Beth, the show’s fictional chess player.