The queens of Chess, Alexandra and Andrea Botez are calling out GMHikaru for unfollowing them on Twitter after some Twitch drama between the Envy and TSM streamers.
On January 12, fans of the Botez sisters alerted them that Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura unfollowed them, causing the duo to explain some recent drama happening behind the scenes to help grow the game.
According to Alexandra, Hikaru has remained upset over her streaming chess in the “Just Chatting” category dating back to July of 2020.
“Hikaru feels strongly about all of his opinions and sometimes he goes out of his way to make them known,” she said. “Like, for example, PogChamps (3) was announced yesterday. It was not supposed to be announced yesterday as far as I know. Hikaru went ahead and tweeted it on the same day we made our announcement.”
As Dexerto reported, Hikaru revealed an incredible star-studded lineup for the next Twitch chess tournament featuring the likes of xQc, Mr Beast, Pokimane, and even Office actor Rainn Wilson.
The announcement Alex was referring to was “Blockchamps” – a chess tournament featuring Minecraft players.
“Hashtag Grow the game unless it’s not something you like and in the exact way you do it,” she further blasted.
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“You should always support other chess streamers,” Andrea chimed in, accusing Hikaru of putting them down despite their efforts to grow the game. “You should be appreciating the effort that they put in and all the work they do every day to actually help the game.”
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Alexandra also accused Hikaru of holding a grudge about her streaming chess in Just Chatting and went behind her back on Chess.com, resulting in certain events being moved around.
“On top of this, when Hikaru was doing commentary on his channel for stuff, we were told to not do our commentary at the same time,” she added. “We were told ‘don’t commentate it, we want to share events’… and then three days before the event was finishing and we were planning ours, he said ‘oh, we totally forgot about something but one-hundred percent we need to make it on Hikaru’s channel.”
“He only cares if the people he’s supporting act the exact way he wants! No, it’s not the community. It’s the community that Hikaru likes. That is very clear and very straight,” she exploded.
“And if you think that’s fake, then you haven’t been watching chess on Twitch. So. stop coming in with this propaganda as if it’s the truth! Because it’s not.”
So far, Hikaru has yet to respond to the Botez sisters’ accusations, but rest assured, Rust isn’t the only game on Twitch right now with drama brewing.