Antonio Radić
| Antonio Radić | |
|---|---|
| Country | Croatia |
| Born | 1987 |
| FIDE rating | 1939 (September 2019) |
| Peak rating | 2010 (July 2010) |
Antonio Radić (born 1987) is a Croatian chess player and host of the Agadmator chess channel on YouTube. He has the largest YouTube chess channel as of November 2019, with over 500,000 subscribers.[1][2] On his channel, Radić reviews both recent and historical chess games, often focusing on recent games during big tournaments such as Grand Chess Tour events and focusing on historical games at other times. He typically posts new videos on a daily basis, and typically reviews games from big tournaments within 24 hours.[1] Many of his reviews of historical games are organized into series, such as the World Chess Championship 1921 match.[3]
Radić has a peak FIDE rating over 2000. Although he doesn't participate in many international chess tournaments, he is active on various online chess platforms, including Lichess.[1][4] The videos on Radić's channel have over 160 million views in total.[2] His most popular video on a game between Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Oleg Chernikov from 1962 titled "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in History" has over 3.5 million views.[5]
Background
Radić was introduced to chess at the age of five by his grandfather, a FIDE Master; however, he later stopped playing and did not return to chess until he was 18 years old.[1] He resides in Križevci, Croatia.[6]
agadmator's Chess Channel
Radić originally began his YouTube channel in 2007, while he was working with his father who had a job as a wedding videographer. He posted wedding videos to promote their business. He later began posting chess videos. When his YouTube channel became popular enough for his YouTube income to exceed his regular income in 2017, Radić quit his regular job as a graphic designer to focus on the channel full-time.[7][1]
Radić's videos almost all follow a similar format. Each video is a review of one chess game. The majority of the screen is taken up by a chess board to show the moves from the game. To the left of the board, there are the names of the two players accompanied by photos. Above the board, there is a quote related to chess and often to the game being reviewed. Radić appears to the right of the board, discussing the game typically while sitting in a chair in his house. Above Radić on screen, there are a list of donations to the channel, highlighting the recent ones and the largest ones separately. To the right of the donations is a photo of Mikhail Tal.[2]
Aside from his chess reviewing, Radić is known for various quips that are common in his videos. He begins every video with the greeting "Hello everyone, and welcome to [a description of the game, probably including the player names and the venue]". Near the start of his videos, he often says "Sorry about that" as he bends down to adjust the volume setup on his equipment. During the video, at crucial points in the game, Radić will give viewers a chance to pause the video to give them time to find the best move in the position. After a few seconds of video time, he will say something along the lines of "For those of you who [found the move], congratulations you are an excellent [finder of that type of move]. And for those of you who just want to enjoy the show, the move is [the move]." If a player executes a brilliant combination, he may award that player a 'Morphy head', and overlay their onscreen portrait with a picture of 19th century American chess master Paul Morphy. He has a running joke that whenever the position permits, White is about to play the Evans Gambit; a well-known aggressive but risky idea rarely seen in modern high-level chess. For videos at Radić's house, there is typically a couch in the background often with emoji pillows, and possibly a dog named Medo (who does not often stay to the end).[2]
References
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