Andrea Botez

She learned chess from her father and sister at six and began playing US Chess tournaments at seven; she won the U8 girls’ title at the Canadian Youth Chess Championship in 2010, became the 2015 British Columbia women’s champion and won the girls’ U14 section of the Susan Polgar National Open the same year.⁠[1]

She went to high school in Oregon, where she was the only girl in the local chess club; when the pandemic cut her senior year short in 2020, she put college on pause, moved to New York, where her sister was living, and became the second star of the stream.⁠[2]

In April 2020 she teamed with Hans Niemann in a Chess.com hand-and-brain Team Battle themed Zoomers Play Chess against Carissa Yip and Justin Liang, with most proceeds going to the child-hunger charity NoKidHungry; it was her first Chess.com Team Battles appearance.⁠[3]

In December 2020 Envy Gaming signed BotezLive as the first addition to its new content creator network; the sisters were then living in Austin, Texas.⁠[4]

She came up with the concept for BlockChamps, held in January 2021; her sister credited her with the idea in a post after the broadcast.⁠[5]

On September 9, 2022, she and her sister appeared on episode 319 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, discussing chess strategy, training, losing, chessboxing and the meaning of life.⁠[6]

In December 2022 she faced Woman Grandmaster Dina Belenkaya at the Mogul Chessboxing Championship, organized by streamer Ludwig at the Galen Center in Los Angeles; she dominated the boxing rounds but resigned on the board facing checkmate, and Belenkaya won.⁠[7]

After fans questioned the referee’s standing-eight counts, the organizer later announced that she was awarded a technical knockout and a belt, without rescinding Belenkaya’s win.⁠[8]

In April 2023 Rolling Stone named the Botez sisters to its list of the year’s most influential creators, noting that she competes in chessboxing and balances board time with extensive gym training.⁠[9]

In June 2023 she made her DJ debut at a small event in Los Angeles and went on to post her sets on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry; she released the track Dune in April 2024 and, on May 10, released on Spotify Queen’s Gambit, co-produced with Alice Efe and inspired by the series The Queen’s Gambit.⁠[10]

In July 2024 she announced her return to classical chess at the Chess Camp, a FIDE-rated event she and her sister hosted in Malibu from July 24 to 31 with a $17,500 prize fund and a field of eight women streamers and players.⁠[11]

In 2024 she played several tournaments in Europe and set a personal FIDE best of 1906; she has also said she enjoys chess content and streaming but not competitive chess.⁠[12]

In February 2025 she commentated, alongside Levon Aronian, on her sister’s Freestyle chess exhibition game against Anna Cramling at Weissenhaus.⁠[13]

For International Women’s Day in March 2025 she and producer WHIPPED CREAM released the techno collaboration Erased on Monstercat; she had previously remixed tracks by Boris Brejcha and Kaskade.⁠[14]

As of October 2026, Monstercat says her music YouTube channel passed 100,000 subscribers within a year, her dark techno mixes have drawn several million views, her Berlin shows at Ritter Butzke fill up, and her original tracks have been featured on SpotifySpotifySpotify is an audio streaming subscription service offering on-demand music, podcasts, and audiobooks through a free ad-supported service and a paid Premium subscription. Its parent company, Spotify Technology S.A., is incorporated in Luxembourg, has its principal operations in Stockholm, Sweden, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (ticker SPOT). It helped move the recorded-music business from buying and owning music to on-demand streaming and is one of the largest audio streaming subscription services by users.Open the full entry editorial playlists.⁠[15]

X: Public account: https://x.com/itsandreabotez (opens in a new window)⁠[1]

Twitch: Public channel: https://www.twitch.tv/botezlive (opens in a new window)⁠[11]