Benjamin Finegold, Chess GM and outspoken critic of the new life being breathed into the game by Twitch stars, has been banned from Twitch.
There’s something weird going on over at Twitch.tv. Chess is having a revival on the streaming platform thanks to the likes of Hiarku Nakamura, a grandmaster ranked in the top five of the blitz format, as well as Twitch superstar xQc. The two teamed up recently to bring Chess to the masses, but some of the old guard weren’t too pleased with them.
One of those old guard is Ben Finegold, another popular GM who’s been openly critical of new Chess streamers like xQc. And by openly critical, I mean accusing xQc’s followers of being “racists, homophobes, six-year-olds,” and various other childish insults that don’t bear repeating.
This chess drama apparently got to the point where Twitch needed to step in. And when it comes down to Finegold (with a few thousand followers) and xQc (who has a few million followers), Twitch definitely sided with xQc. That, and xQc really wasn’t the guy throwing open shade on their platform. That was all Ben.
Finegold’s followers woke up today to find his account and all his videos had been taken down. There’s no word yet on how long the ban is for, and Finegold has yet to comment on social media (although he did apologize to xQc for his comments).
One thing is certainly clear: Twitch has had enough of the chess drama.
Source: Twitch
