“Kramnik gonna be hunting him soon” - Fans react as Tyler1 crosses 1,900 ELO on Chess.com

Long-time Twitch streamer Tyler Steinkamp aka Tyler "Tyler1" has once again done what appeared to be a distant dream - he has smashed past the 1,900 ELO rating on Chess.com. For those unaware, Tyler has essentially been a League of Legends player and streamer for the longest period. However, he appears to have shifted his focus to online chess over the past year or so.

The streamer, who was barely rated 200 at one point, now stands among the top 0.5% of players on the chess-playing website. Popular chess creator Levy "GothamChess" has been up-to-date with Tyler's journey. He took to his X.com profile to share the streamer's latest achievement. Levy wrote:

This piece of news naturally impressed the wider chess and streaming audience. One user mockingly wrote how Vladimir Kramnik, who has been on a verbal rampage recently, might start targeting the streamer:

Here are some other reactions:

Tyler1's foray into the world of chess has been nothing short of remarkable. When he played in Twitch and Chess.com's amateur online tournament Pogchamps 5 in July 2023, the streamer's rating barely scraped 200. You can see his rating here:

In fact, he ended up being relegated to the consolation bracket in the tournament, and ever since, he's been captivated by the game. Though he isn't streaming as frequently, he's dedicating more time to Chess.com.

For context, he has played over 8.5K games at the time of writing. In Rapid games alone, his tally nears 6K games on Chess.com. What's more intriguing is that he plays a rather uncommon opening called the "Cow Opening" (typically regarded as a troll-worthy opening).

Here's a visual representation of his journey:

Recently, fellow Twitch streamer and chess grandmaster Hikaru "GMHikaru" took to his