GothamChess vs Hikaru is the chess bout for November. Levy Rozman's second book came out on October 6. In October, Hikaru Nakamura became the first player in Chess.com history to reach a 3,500 blitz rating. On YouTube, when we checked on November 2, @GothamChess had 8.4M subscribers and @GMHikaru had 3.28M. The card doesn't use that number. Paste both handles on an Aura Duel card, read the gloves, and drop the /d/ link in the chat before someone says "obviously Hikaru" or "obviously Levy."
Qoks turns public creator signals into a fight ticket. It's a game. It won't play a single move and it won't tell you who's better at chess (one is an IM, the other is a GM ranked No. 2 by FIDE). The card answers a smaller question: whose YouTube aura is louder on the day you print?
Weigh-in: print the bout
- Open the prefilled card: @GothamChess vs @GMHikaru on YouTube.
- Check that both platform chips say YouTube. Use the main channels, not clip channels or fan edits.
- Print. Each corner gets an overall aura and five glove scores out of 100.
- Share the
/d/link. Every ticket is stamped when it's printed, so a reprint after the next big Titled Tuesday can move.
Pick your corner before the card loads. Calling it after the numbers show up is a premove you didn't make. If the whole chess club is in on it, the influencer debate game has rules for points and penalties.
The five gloves (Consistency and Chaos decide this one)
Subscribers aren't on the card. These are:
- Growth: who is climbing right now. More in growth aura.
- Engagement: whether people answer the posts. More in engagement aura.
- Consistency: who keeps posting on a steady beat. Watch this one first. More in consistency aura.
- Chaos: clip-and-send energy, the video that ends up in every group chat. Watch this one second. More in chaos aura.
- Loyalty: whether people stick around between viral hits. More in loyalty aura.
Why Consistency? On November 2, Hikaru's channel showed about 5.7K videos and Levy's showed 3.5K, roughly 1.6 for every one of Levy's. Wikipedia says that by 2020 he was streaming on Twitch most days. Video count isn't the same as rhythm, so let the card read it.
Why Chaos? Both of them treat chess as a bit. Wikipedia notes Hikaru plays joke openings on stream, including the Bongcloud Attack, the Jerome Gambit and the Botez Gambit. Levy's calling card is the rook sacrifice, which is a meme on its own. In November 2025 he played "Levy Rozman vs The World" on Chess.com and beat over 225,000 players. Their shared videos are chaos too: one Hikaru Short, "Hikaru Trolling Blindfolded @GothamChess," showed 8.8 million views when we checked. Another, "Levy Blunders on Move 2," showed 2.9 million.
Growth is a story worth checking. Wikipedia puts Hikaru's YouTube at 78,900 subscribers at the start of 2020. Levy had 379,000 in January 2021. Both shot up during the pandemic chess boom, but the Growth glove reads who is climbing now, not who climbed in 2020.
So: does Levy's 2.6x subscriber lead hold up once Hikaru's upload count and Bongcloud clips get scored? Your print will tell you.
Overall wins the bout. If the overalls tie, it's a draw unless the chat agreed on a tiebreak first (most gloves won is the usual one). Full scoring notes are in how to read an Aura Duel.
We aren't printing a GothamChess vs Hikaru score in this post, and we aren't picking a winner. Your ticket decides.
The YouTube house card (how a ticket reads)
Neither chess channel has a house poster yet. YouTube does: MrBeast vs MKBHD, the house main event on the YouTube rivalries card.
On that exhibition card (labeled sample / heuristic), MKBHD takes the bout 43–57. MKBHD wins Growth 47–68, Engagement 43–67 and Chaos 25–62. MrBeast wins Consistency 41–36 and Loyalty 50–45. Every number is from the live /d/ page, and the footer says "Admit one · not a real ranking."
What to take from it: MrBeast won two gloves, but each by only 5 points. MKBHD's three wins were by 21, 24 and 37. Narrow glove wins don't carry a YouTube bout. If Hikaru takes Consistency by a few points and Levy runs away with Chaos or Engagement, the overall goes Levy's way, and the reverse works too.
Those are MrBeast's and MKBHD's bars. They tell you nothing about Levy or Hikaru, so print the bout.
Open the MrBeast vs MKBHD fight card
Full recap of that house bout: MrBeast vs MKBHD Aura Duel.
Why this pairing works
They're friends who keep ending up on the same board. Both started streaming on Twitch in 2018: Levy on May 19, 2018, Hikaru as GMHikaru the same year. Levy's first big night came that November, during the Caruana–Carlsen World Championship. By September 2021 he had passed Agadmator to become the largest chess creator on YouTube, and his channel was the first chess channel to pass one billion views. Hikaru brings the over-the-board résumé: grandmaster at 15 years and 79 days in 2003, five U.S. Championships, and the 2022 World Fischer Random title.
The collabs are all on Hikaru's channel: "Bongcloud Sub Battle vs Gothamchess," "King of the Hill Sub Battle vs Gothamchess," a blindfold series where they "take turns not seeing the chess pieces," "Levy Plays Odds Games vs Hikaru," "Chess Opening TIER LIST for the Grandmaster Level with GothamChess" and "GM Hikaru's First Ever Game vs @GothamChess in Fog of War." One is the teacher with the bigger audience. The other is the speed-chess GM who plays him blindfolded on camera. Who is more popular explains why the card reads signals, not headcount, and how to compare two influencers covers comparing any two accounts by hand.
Want more YouTube? The best YouTube creator rivalries card has the house main event and the undercards, including the other friendship bout, Markiplier vs Jacksepticeye. Rather do a cross-app bout? Read YouTube vs TikTok creator duel first. Seed an influencer bracket with Levy, Hikaru and whoever else streams chess and send the winners through.
Roast the bars, not the people
Keep it on the card. Tease a low Consistency bar or brag about a big Chaos number. Leave private lives and old chess-drama threads out of it, and don't post a losing ticket in either streamer's chat. House rules: Aura Duel is a roast, not hate. Ways to share without being weird about it: how to share an Aura Duel.
Open the weigh-in, set both chips to YouTube, and settle it before someone plays the Bongcloud on you. Want to warm up on a finished card? The duels hub has every house poster.