The real-life Beth Harmon: Chess player delights Queen's Gambit fans (2024)

• Alexandra Botez was born in Dallas, Texas, and raised in Canada by her Romanian immigrant parents who taught her chess at an early age
• The chess star was eight years old when she competed in her first national championship and won first place for her division
• Alexandra has won a total of six national championships and holds the International Chess Federation title of Women’s FIDE Master
• The Stanford University graduate has nearly 500,000 followers on the live-streaming platform Twitch and more than 215,000 followers on Instagram
• Alexandra has earned comparisons to Beth Harmon, the fictional chess prodigy in the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit

A chess influencer who has more than 215,000 Instagram followers has been hailed as the real-life Beth Harmon by fans of the Netflix drama The Queen's Gambit.

Alexandra Botez, 25, was born in Dallas, Texas, andraised in Canada by her Romanianimmigrant parents. She started playing chess when she was just six years old after her father made a wager with her mother.

'My mom only plays a little. So he made a bet that he could teach me toplay and that, in only two weeks, I would be able to beat her,' she told the New York Post.

Alexandra's talent was apparent when she defeated her mother in the game, and her dad continued to train her for tournaments. Two years later, he started taking her to local parks to find new people for her to play against.

'He’d say, "Is it OK if my daughter tries a game?" They would make room for me to play but be annoyed,' she said, recalling how confused they would get after she beat them. 'They would say, "Who is your daughter?"'

The chess star was just eight years old when she competed in herfirst national championship and won first place for her division, Insider reported.

Her passion for chess continued when her family moved back to Texas. She was 15 when she won theUS Girls National championship for females 18 and under.

Chess dominated Alexandra's world when she was in high school. All of her friends played and most of their conversations revolved around the strategic game.

'When we traveled to events, we'd all be focused on our tournaments, and then after, we'd hang out with the same group of people,' she told Insider. 'It was a very unique experience.'

The influencer admitted that she has faced sexism as a female chess player since she started competing.

'Sometimes it's the people who are your closest friends that think females are genetically worse at chess,' she explained, saying she frequently hears condescending comments like, 'You're playing the girl, it's an easy win.'

Alexandra has won a total of six national championships and holds the International Chess Federation title of Women’s FIDE Master. However, she's more than just a talented chess player.

The rising gaming star graduated from Stanford University in 2017 with a bachelor's degree in international relations.She made her mark at the university by becoming the first female president of Stanford's chess club.

Alexandra also co-founded the now-defunct social media company CrowdAmp, whichutilized artificial intelligence for more personalized communication, according to the New York Post.

She was still a college student she started live-streaming chess on the gaming platform Twitch under her BotezLiveaccount, which she runs with her 18-year-old sister, Andrea, who is also a chess player.

After her startup went under in 2019, she decided to make a career out of streaming chess, a decision that was met with confusion by both her parents and some of her advisers.

Looking for a fresh start that year, she moved toNew York City and focused on streaming andproducing content for chess.com.

By the start of 2020, she had61,000 fans on Twitch, but those numbers skyrocketed when the coronavirus pandemic hit.

'Chess exploded on Twitch, and I was one of the top streamers. I remember being so excited, I couldn’t sleep. I was so high on adrenaline,' she told the New York Post.

Alexandra recently moved to Austin, Texas, with her sister Andrea, who is taking a gap year after graduating from high school. They're reportedly on the verge ofsigning with an agency that represents top e-sports athletes.

Influencers and streamers earn money fromsubscription and advertising revenue as well as sponsorships, which can be extremely lucrative for rising stars like Alexandra.

For example, gamer Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins is worth $25 million, according toCelebrity Net Worth.The 28-year-old YouTuber is currently the number one streamer on Twitch with 16.5 million followers.

Alexandra, who now has more than 469,000 followers on Twitch, got another boost in fans after the Netflix series The Queen's Gambit premiered in October — prompting a number of comparisons to Beth, the show's fictional chess star.

As a female chess player, shecan personally relate to the sexism that Beth faced as well as the character's hyper-focus.

'She's totally engulfed in the chess world, it seems like nothing else exists except for these games, training, the community, and chess,' she told Insider of Beth. 'The way that is portrayed is extremely accurate.'

While Alexandra and the fictional character share similarities, including a passing resemblance, her personal life is far less dramatic.

Based on a 1983 book of the same name by Walter Tevis, the show follows Beth (Anya Taylor-Joy), a chess prodigy and orphan from Kentucky, as she rises to the top of the chess world while battlingdrug and alcohol addictions during the 1950s and 1960s.

The Queen's Gambit has become the unexpected hit of lockdown as the seven-part series offers the escapism of glamorous locations — with tournaments in Las Vegas, Mexico City, and Paris — and the delights of the period fashions that play such a key role in the storytelling.

Alexandra could relate to the sexism that Beth faced as a female chess player as well as the character's hyper-focus.

'She's totally engulfed in the chess world, it seems like nothing else exists except for these games, training, the community, and chess,' she told Insider of Beth. 'The way that is portrayed is extremely accurate.'

Between the pandemic and the show, people's sudden interest in chess has thrust Alexandra into the spotlight more than ever before.

In addition to her nearly 500,000 followers on Twitch, she has more than 215,000 Instagram followers and close to 200,000 subscribers on herYouTube channel BotezLive.

A few months ago, Alexandra played up her resemblance to Beth by donning a red wig for one of her live-streams.She tweeted side-by-side pictures of herself and the fictional character, writing: 'I tried — live now as Beth Harmon.'

'She really posted two pics of Beth like we wouldn’t notice,' one person commented, while Alexandra's sister jokingly asked: 'Wow which one is which?'

'I swear as soon as I saw the movie's name I was like ... wooohhh did just Netflix make a movie about Alexandra,' someone else commented.