Chess streamer and Woman Grandmaster Qiyu “Nemo” Zhou shared a video from a recent convention appearance that’s getting passed around online, and it’s not a good look for one of the attendees.
The clip shows Zhou wrapping up a booth session where fans were lining up to play short timed games against her. One of those fans did not handle his loss with grace.
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The man waited a while to get his game in, sitting down near the end of the convention day. The match was a quick timed game, the kind you’d expect at a meet-and-greet booth. He lost on time, with viewers also noting he blundered his queen earlier in the game.
As the venue prepared to close, Zhou started packing up. That’s when the attendee snapped. He accused her of wasting his time, complained that the game felt rushed, and kept going even as Zhou tried to end the conversation politely.
Zhou apologized, stayed calm, and even offered him free chess.com membership codes as a goodwill gesture. He wasn’t having it. The interaction ends with the man swearing at her and giving her the middle finger on camera.
The context he later gave
A follow-up explanation attributed to the attendee, circulated on TikTok, claims he didn’t actually know who Nemo was beforehand. His main gripe was reportedly about waiting around during his last hour at the convention, allegedly seeing someone get ushered ahead of him, and then feeling like the game was cut short. That explains the frustration. It does not explain the obscene gesture.
For the record, Nemo holds the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and FIDE Master (FM) titles. She’s not an open Grandmaster (GM), despite how casually the term gets thrown around online. Either way, she’s a titled player, and losing a blitz game to her at a convention booth is not exactly a shocking outcome.
