Julius Baer Generation Cup, which was an online chess tournament that gathered some of the best chess players in the world, has recently come to an end. It was the seventh of the nine events the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour has, and had a $150K prize pool.
World champion and chess legend Magnus Carlsen came into the tournament as one of the favorites, and he didn't disappoint. He had an amazing tournament run, which culminated in a dominant victory against Arjun Erigaisi in the final. With this victory, it's now the fourth tournament of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour that Magnus Carlsen has won, and he is now looking to secure the two tournaments that remain. Worth noting that Magnus Carlsen didn't attend the FTX Road to Miami, but is still by far the player with the most tournament wins in the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.
Not only did Magnus Carlsen win the event, but he also became the first player to score over 2900 Tour Rating points, adding yet another record to his illustrious career. He was praised by many of his peers, with Internacional Master Jovanka Houska saying:
“Magnus in killer mode. He’s just relentless. He really is not stopping here. If we had any doubt Magnus would slip up, he has come in here today in absolute fighting mode. He is the beast.”
The tournament was also marked by the ongoing “cheating” controversy between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann, which is a hot topic in the chess world currently. One of the only two losses that Magnus Carlsen had in the Julius Baer Generation Cup, came against Hans Niemann, as the world champion resigned from the game after just one move. Many people criticized Magnus Carlsen for the decision, saying that it was a bad look for chess and for himself.
The world champion didn't comment on the matter while the tournament was ongoing, but has since released a letter. Magnus Carlsen acknowledges that his actions have frustrated many in the chess community, including himself. He says that “cheating in chess is a big deal and an existential threat to the game”, and accused Hans Niemann of cheating, “I believe that Niemann has cheated more - and more recently - than he has publicly admitted”.
Julius Baer Generation Cup was the second most popular tournament of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, with 82K Peak Viewers. The event was also the fifth most popular chess tournament of 2022. It was broadcasted for 34 hours and drew 40K Average Viewers. The tournament was the most watched of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour so far, with viewers watching the event for 1.38 million hours.
Chess24 YouTube channel was the most popular among those covering the Julius Baer Generation Cup, both by Hours Watched and Peak Viewers. The channel of Grand Master Hikaru Nakamura was the second by peak viewership, with 18K simultaneous viewers. With the YouTube stream of tournament winner Magnus Carlsen taking third place in the metric. When it comes to the most-watched channels, the second place goes to the Twitch channel of Chess24 with 154K Hours Watched, and Portuguese streamer Raffael Chess closes the top three with 144K Hours Watched.
YouTube was the most popular streaming platform for the Julius Baer Generation Cup, with viewers watching 74.3% of the total on the streaming giant. The YouTube stream had 69.7K Peak Viewers, as viewers gathered to watch day two of the final. Twitch was the second most popular streaming platform with 24.4% of Hours Watched, while Facebook was third in the metric.
Regarding the most popular languages, English takes the first place, with 65.5% of the 1.4 million Hours Watched happening on English streams. Portuguese was the second most popular language of the event, with 10.5% of the Hours Watched, while German took the third palace with 6.8%. Raffael Chess, one of the biggest Brazilian chess content creators, was the big responsible for so many Portuguese speakers watching the event. He had the third most watched stream of the event, and was the broadcast of choice for Portuguese-speaking viewers that wanted to watch the tournament.
Most Popular 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour tournaments
Compared to the other tournaments of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the Julius Baer Generation Cup tournament was the most watched event this year, and became the second most popular of 2022. It had 29.3% more Peak Viewers than the FTX Crypto Cup, which was the previous tournament of the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.
With 1.38 million Hours Watched, it dethroned the Airthings Masters 2022, which was the first 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour tournament of the year, and had 1.3 million Hours Watched. When compared to the biggest chess tournament of 2022, we can see that the Julius Baer Generation Cup, despite having a smaller prize pool than most tournaments on the list, was the fifth most watched and most popular event of the year. Only the FIDE Candidates 2022, Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022, Airthings Masters 2022, and FIDE Grand Prix 2022 Leg 1, were more popular.
There is no doubt that the Julius Baer Generation Cup was one of the biggest chess tournaments of the year. It entertained thousands of chess fans from all over the world, and drew the attention of many viewers. More viewers seem to be interested in the competitive scene of chess, which is great for the growth of the game.
