Antonio Radić

Antonio Radić (born 16 June 1987) is a Croatian chess player and host of agadmator's Chess Channel on YouTube. He has the largest YouTube chess channel as of June 2020, with over 686,000 subscribers.[1][2] On his channel, Radić reviews both recent and historical chess games, often focusing on recent games during big tournaments such as Grand Chess Tour events and focusing on historical games at other times. He typically posts new videos on a daily basis, and consistently reviews games from big tournaments within 24 hours.[1] Many of his reviews of historical games are organized into series, such as the World Chess Championship 1921 match.[3]

Antonio Radić's personal photo, the owner of agadmator's Chess Channel on Youtube
Antonio Radić
CountryCroatia
Born16 June 1987
Križevci, Croatia
Peak rating2010 (July 2010)

Radić has a peak FIDE rating over 2000. Although he doesn't participate in many international chess tournaments, he is active on various online chess platforms, including Lichess and chess.com.[1][4] The videos on Radić's channel have over 190 million views in total.[2] His most popular video on a game between Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Oleg Chernikov from 1962 titled "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in History" has over 4 million views.[5]

Background

Radić was introduced to chess at the age of four by his grandfather Anto Krnjić, a FIDE Master; however, he later stopped playing and did not return to chess until he was 16 years old.[1] He resides in Križevci, Croatia.[6]

agadmator's Chess Channel

Radić originally began his YouTube channel in 2007, while he was working with his father who had a job as a wedding videographer. He posted wedding videos to promote their business. He later began posting chess videos. When his YouTube channel became popular enough for his YouTube income to exceed his regular income in 2017, Radić quit his regular job as an assistant to his father's wedding photography business to focus on the channel full-time.[7][1] Colonel David A. Hater, a writer for US Chess, has called him "one of YouTube’s leading chess streamers".[8]

Almost all of Radić's videos follow the same format. Each video is a review of one chess game. The majority of the screen is taken up by a chess board to show the moves from the game. To the left of the board, there are the names of the two players accompanied by photos. Above the board, there is a quote related to chess and often to the game being reviewed. Radić appears to the right of the board, discussing the game typically while sitting in a chair in his house. Above Radić on screen, there is a list of donations to the channel, highlighting the recent ones and the largest ones separately. To the right of the donations is a photo of Mikhail Tal.[2]

Aside from his chess reviewing, Radić is known for various quips that are common in his videos. He begins every video with the greeting "Hello, everyone, and welcome to [a description of the game, probably including the players' names and the venue]". Near the start of his videos, he often says "Sorry about that" as he bends down to adjust the volume setup on his equipment. During the video, at crucial points in the game, Radić will give viewers a chance to pause the video to give them time to find the best move in the position. After a few seconds of video time, he will pronounce a sentence of the format "For those of you who [found the move], congratulations; you are an excellent [finder of that type of move]. And for those of you who just want to enjoy the show, the move is [the move]." When a game diverges from the chess database, he announces, "As of move [order of the move after which the game diverges from the database], we have a completely new game." If a player executes a brilliant combination, he may award that player a 'Morphy head', and overlay their onscreen portrait with a picture of 19th century American chess master Paul Morphy. He has a running joke that, whenever the position permits, White is about to play the Evans Gambit, a well-known aggressive but risky idea rarely seen in modern high-level chess. In videos at Radić's house, there is typically a couch in the background, often with emoji pillows and with a dog named Medo, who does not usually stay until the end, on it.[2] He also started a podcast called the agadmator Podcast[9] on May 17, 2020, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the guest for the first episode. Hikaru Nakamura is all set to be his guest for his second episode on 27th of June.

References
  1. Shah, Sagar. "Agadmator - the man who has 290,000+ followers on YouTube". Chessbase India. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  2. "agadmator's Chess Channel". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  3. "Capablanca vs. Lasker - World Championship Match 1921". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  4. "Agadmator". Lichess. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  5. "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in Chess History - Nezhmetdinov vs Chernikov (1962)". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  6. Belani, Hrvoje (21 February 2018). "Antonio Radić: 'Svojim YouTube kanalom mogu svakoga zainteresirati za šah'" (in Croatian). Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  7. Johnson, Ben (14 January 2020). "The Perpetual Chess Podcast Ep.160". The Perpetual Chess Podcast. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. Hater, Colonel David A. (19 March 2019). "Tani Wins at NYS Scholastic Championships". United States Chess Federation. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  9. "agadmator Podcast". Retrieved June 13, 2020.
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