Twitch streamer GMHikaru qualifies for the Candidates Tournament, the second biggest chess event in the world

Hikaru "GMHikaru," a very popular chess streamer and chess Grand Master, qualified for the second biggest chess event in the world: the Candidates Tournament.

Hikaru is widely known as an extremely good chess player, but on top of that, he's been able to find success in the world of streaming. He constantly streams to his audience of thousands on Twitch, practicing his moves, playing random opponents, and sometimes giving live commentary over chess matches.

Recently, he has attracted even more attention as he was temporarily banned from Twitch for watching YouTube streamer Dr DisRespect's chess matches while on stream. This broke Twitch's terms of service, which state that streamers cannot feature a banned person on a stream, no matter the conditions.

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GMHikaru qualifies for Candidates Tournament after big comeback

After serving his ban, which was lifted one day early for an unknown reason, GMHikaru announced that he would be returning the following day to stream himself competing in the qualifying rounds for the Candidates chess tournament.

During his ban, he only won one of the matches he played in, but after being able to return to Twitch and continue competing while streaming, he won every single match he played.

While he was playing in his final match, he was speaking with the hosts of the event when they notified him that he had won due to the resignation of his opponent. He nonchalantly shrugged off the massive comeback victory, acting as if it was no big deal.

"Leinier has just resigned, so congratulations on qualifying to the Candidates." / "Huh, that's something, that's nice."

The streamer then explained why he wasn't extremely enthusiastic about winning, and how qualifying for a huge tournament wasn't as exciting as it used to be.

"I know for some people, especially chess viewers, it's probably off-putting, but I'm not over the moon, I'm just like 'It's another tournament that I qualified for.' That's really how I feel, and I don't really feel the need to try and pretend."

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Fans react to GMHikaru making it into the Candidates Tournament

With the huge victory gained from such a massive comeback, many fans celebrated the news on Reddit and Twitter, sharing jokes and compliments for both him and his teammate.

With GMHikaru making it to Candidates, it's possible he may end up facing current world champion and long-time rival Magnus Carlsen, which would truly make for an amazing match.