Alexandra Botez

"Its crazy to me to have this kind of support and this kind of viewership online for chess. Chess has always been a passion of mine, but it was never something that was popular. It was never something I would have imagined would have grown to what it is today."

"Sometimes its the people who are your closest friends that think females are genetically worse at chess. Ive often heard comments like, youre playing the girl, its an easy win. It gets in the back of your head when youve heard it for so long, and it messes with your sense of confidence. Maybe you start doubting yourself a little bit more, but you just try to keep fighting those thoughts."

"It doesnt matter what their social or economic background is — its very cheap to play, and you can get good just by practicing. Kids from rural areas can play kids from private schools. It develops confidence and the ability to work with logic."

"The growth of chess has been so healthy on Twitch, and its one of those games that is never going to die out. Chess has really survived the age of time. So I think its gonna survive on Twitch as well."

"Women in chess is not something very common. It has taken very long to get to the point where were starting to change the stereotype that women are not genetically inferior to men at playing chess."

"With my first Twitch stream, like 60% of it was just people trying to flirt with me and chat, or people just commenting on my appearance the entire time. They didnt care about the game play at all."