Levy Rozman

About

American international chess master, commentator, and popular content creator better known online by the alias GothamChess. His engaging educational chess videos have helped him accrue over 1.7 million followers on his levyrozman TikTok account. His content sparked a renewed global enthusiasm for chess during the COVID-19 pandemic, cementing his status as one of the most recognizable and influential figures in the modern chess community.

Before Fame

He started playing chess when he was only six years old. From an early age, he showed talent for the game and began competing in scholastic tournaments before going on to achieve titles through the United States Chess Federation. He later attended Baruch College, where he earned a degree in statistics and quantitative modeling.

Trivia

He achieved his peak Elo rating of 2421 in 2018. He authored the 2023 book How to Win at Chess: The Ultimate Guide for Beginners and Beyond, which reached the #4 spot on The New York Times Best Seller list in the "Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous" category. In 2022, he won Best Chess Streamer at The Streamer Awards and was nominated for the same title in both 2021 and 2023. In 2024, he was named on Forbes' coveted 30 Under 30 list in the "Games" category. 

Family Life

He was born to Lina (née Zeldovich) and Eugene Rozman, immigrants from Russia and Ukraine, respectively. Russian was his first language, and he didn't begin speaking English until he started preschool. He has a younger brother named Leo. He married his wife, Lucy, in 2021 after having met her in 2015. 

Associated With

His online popularity began to rise notably during the 2018 World Chess Championship, when interest in the match between Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen drew many new viewers to his content.