He’s got the moves

Samay Raina hasnrsquot slept all night We are chatting over a video call at 845 am and he plans to crash as soon as this interview is done He wasnrsquot partying he tells us just streamingmdashchess that is It all started last year as Rainarsquos Instagram bio explains ldquoI used to be a comic till someone ate a batrdquo With COVID19 hitting the standup scene in the most brutal way Raina began streaming chess games onlineldquoI first learnt chess from my grandfather as a 10yearold I would go to Delhi from Hyderabad where we then lived for my vacation and all I wanted to do was beat him at the gamerdquo remembers the 23yearold Punekar But school and studies took over and he had to keep the chessboard aside ldquoI only started playing again while in college I would follow Antonio Radic who is called the Agadmator on YouTube and is one of the biggest creators He brought beauty to the game of chessrdquoSamay Raina started playing chess in 2020 because he was stuck at home during the lockdown waiting for the gigs scene to startHaving found fame with the standup competition series Comicstaan 2 2019 which he won everything else took a backseat Raina feels he may have never met his old love again if the pandemic hadnrsquot thrown a spanner in the works ldquoItrsquos been nearly two years now and we are still waiting for live gigs I was just sitting around waiting for the pandemic to go away and Tanmay Bhatt suggested that I start streaming chess I wanted to be relevant and busy so I said why notrdquo says Raina In hindsight it was one of his best decisionsOnline chess has grown exponentially during the lockdown Chesscom which was cofounded by international master and Phoenix native Daniel Rensch received 15 million new subscribers in April 2020 compared to 670000 in January according to ForbesComic Joel Dsouza feels that chess makes the player feel like a pseudo geniusIn August last year India was crowned joint winner with Russia at the online Chess Olympiad This was the first time that the prestigious event was held virtually During the online Olympiad final between India and Russia Rainarsquos YouTube stream saw over 60000 people He now has 742k subscribers Even the legendary Gary Kasparov got wind of his work and recently commented on his game ldquoIn the beginning I didnrsquot even know if people would watch But I organised a tournament called Comedians on Boards and around 1500 people turned up Comedian Akash Mehta won the first tournament I won the fifthrdquo he smirks adding that Biswanath Ghosh and Joel Dsouza are some of the standup comics who play great chessOn some days Raina says he forgets that he is also a comic ldquoI had a show yesterday and I wanted to write jokes But instead I played chess all daymdashbefore the show and even after I am obsessed I read a quote recently that applies to memdashlsquoChess is worth giving up your life forrsquordquo Raina now spends most of his days analysing his own games to see where he went wrong playing puzzles which ask him to end the game in four moves He also feels he has learned a lot about life ever since he started playing the game ldquoI did realise I could make more money by sitting on a chair and streaming than standuprdquo he laughs adding ldquoHow you play chess is how you live life Some people takes risks some play defensive I want every move to complicate the position Something crazy should happen I am like that in life as wellmdashI take decisions on the fly but they should have a big impact I need to be stimulatedrdquoComic Joel Dsouza 25 who is a regular on Rainarsquos teams and who grew up playing gully chess with the neighbourhood boys says itrsquos the new online ecosystem which is making it fun for everyone ldquoThese skills canrsquot be used anywhere but itrsquos a great sport and itrsquos fun to playrdquo he tells us in a deadpan way ldquoIt also makes us all feel like pseudo geniusesrdquoAsk Raina what he thinks the connection between a comic and chess player is and he says validation ldquoWe want to feel like rockstars When you laugh that makes us feel good If we win at chess we feel lsquoOh we could do this in these many moves Wowrsquordquo He doesnrsquot have any plans for the future though and he says thatrsquos because he doesnrsquot like thinking about it too much ldquoI only plan for two weeks into the future Itrsquos like calculating five moves ahead and then wersquoll see how it goesrdquo