Is Mr. Beast good at chess? A chess player’s analysis!
Mr. Beast is not good at chess. His peak chess.com rating is 800. This is a beginner level rating on chess.com. His games have a lot of mistakes. He likely loses a lot whenever he plays chess.
Mr.Beast is probably one of the biggest influencer in the world right now just behind the almighty PewDiePie, the way that he makes his videos is just unbelievable to me. This is why I was so excited when he announced his interest in chess.
I know I can make an article about him now that he started playing the game, which I will obviously do today. But my bias aside, what do I think about him as a chess player? Is Mr.Beast actually good at chess?
This post is not meant to slander Mr.Beast in any way, I am one of his biggest fans actually. This is just to consolidate the two of my biggest interests in life (of course there are other things that I like, but Mr.Beast and chess are just special).
I will evaluate his actual skills even going beyond my own bias in order to give you a proper evaluation. I will lay out the facts and then you can decide on your own.
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Mr.Beast has a beginner-like rating on chess.com
At the time of this writing, it is very hard to find Mr.Beast chess.com’s rating and you might not discover it by doing a simple google search (I don’t know, maybe he deleted his account?).
However I am sure that his chess.com rating is around 500-800 in all time controls before it is gone. That is pretty much a beginner-level type of rating that starting players have.
In chess.com they gave starting accounts an initial rating that is higher than 500 so this must be accurate, it means that Mr.Beast had to play some games on this account in order to get that rating.
He would need to play against other players in order to accomplish a rating of 500, since that is not the initial rating on a new account. This is pretty weak if we’re talking about your average chess player.
An average chess player who has decent strength would be competing for at least the 1000 rating mark, this means that Mr.Beast is not really that great when compared to other players on the platform.
A 500-800 rating range is the most common place for people who are just starting, this tells a lot about Mr.Beast’s strength.
Mr.Beast did not play well against Hikaru Nakamura
I have watched his games against Hikaru Nakamura and though he is not expected to win against a grandmaster, there are many occasions where Hikaru has given Mr.Beast so many odds that it should be enough for conversion.
If we’re talking to an average chess player at least, we have seen from Mr. Beast’s rating that he does not have a lot of experience in chess, a beginner. It doesn’t surprise me that Hikaru Nakamura crushed him.
He’s not supposed to be a strong chess player and Hikaru Nakamura is one of the best players in the world, of course it’s going to be a one-sided match.
However there is even an instance where Hikaru beat Jimmy Donaldson with only a king and a queen, which is an overwhelming type of odd.
If Mr. Beast is a decent player he definitely would have converted such a material advantage, the fact that he didn’t justify the assumption that his strength is that of a beginner.
Again this is not slander, this is just a chess player’s opinion of another person who is interested in chess. That is my personal evaluation of his current level chess-wise.
A lot of people think that Mr.Beast is not good at chess
From the Hikaru video, a lot of the comments are really trolling Mr.Beast and are constantly talking about how bad he is, probably even worse than xqc for example (no disrespect to xqc, I like him). His skill in my opinion is reasonable though.
A lot of people do not consider the fact that Jimmy Donaldson is one of the biggest personalities in the world right now, of course he doesn’t have a lot of time to invest in something like chess.
I am quite sure that he has other hobbies but he also probably doesn’t master any of them. He is not a player, he just came to have some fun and is not afraid of how bad he is going to perform.
But if we’re talking about his skill only he is definitely a beginner, although he has made some pretty good moves throughout his matches.
This is eclipsed due to the fact that he ultimately lost the games in the end, but I think this is unfair since the games can matter as much as the result.
I am actually impressed that Mr.Beast can even make some of the moves that he has made since I probably would have made something worse back when I was at his level.
Jimmy Donaldson can’t be good at chess since he lacks experience
Mr.Beast has no initial background in chess whatsoever, any experience that he has during his childhood is minimal. This meant that he probably isn’t that good of a chess player and at best average.
A lot of strong chess players that you see on these online platforms have been playing for years, including Hikaru Nakamura. Jimmy probably didn’t have a lot of exposure to chess when he was little.
It is helpful to participate in something while you are still young since you will have a lot of experience ahead of everyone else.
Mr.Beast as a beginner understandably performed horribly since he doesn’t have a lot of background in chess.
Mr.Beast is not good at chess and that is okay
With Mr.Beast I think he doesn’t have a lot of exposure to chess in most periods of his life, I’m actually surprised that he still managed to play without just blundering everything when I have watched some of his chess.com games.
He made a lot of blunders but he also made a substantial amount of good moves, that is actually enough for me. Most experienced chess players are sensitive to mistakes since they have been playing for a long time.
The experienced players tend to forget how it is like to be a beginner on this game (trust me, a lot of people are elitist in this community) I don’t want to be one of those individuals since I was also bad at chess several years ago.
I have studied a lot and became an incredible player, but someone like Mr.Beast is something that I can tolerate since I was probably worse than him back then.
Mr.Beast is not good at chess yet in my opinion
If you’re going to ask my personal opinion as a chess player myself, he is not that good, probably a beginner. He is better than someone who has absolutely no knowledge about chess but he is still in the early stages.
Again, he is not a complete fool since he is probably better than me at my worst, but he is still at the early stages of development.
If we are talking about his chess skill it is definitely a work in progress, there are a lot of improvements to be made on his game. He blunders a lot and makes mistakes, a signature of someone who is just learning.
In my personal opinion, he can be stronger if he really gets serious (but I probably don’t think that he should) and can be an incredible player with a little bit of experience. He is a beginner but he is definitely not hopeless.
Mr.Beast has a business to run, he doesn’t have time for chess
I have watched a lot of interviews of Mr.Beast on youtube and it shows how dedicated he is to the business that he has created, he spends almost all time of the day working on his channel. I would be very shocked if he is actually good at chess.
There are YouTube chess channels that you can watch for improvement. You can read my other article about this.
He doesn’t have a lot of time to master anything other than those that are related to his business, and I actually think that it is a smart decision on his part.
The fact that he can even make some good moves is surprising to me. He is not very good at chess but he definitely has the potential if he can tap on his talent.
As of the moment his performance is terrible but is expected in a beginner l, you can’t really expect a multi-millionaire to be as good as someone who plays chess for most of their life.
He played somewhat interestingly to me honestly, because he has some good decision-making (sometimes).
Mr.Beast would probably still not be good at chess in the future
He probably won’t be better in the future since he has his entire brand behind him that he should focus on, it doesn’t make sense to waste time playing chess if he can do business by being an influencer.
And as a chess player I don’t want him to focus on chess at all, it is a complete waste of time for someone who has a business as big as he does. He probably won’t play as much anymore.
Even if he plays some games it will probably just be casual play where he looks to have some fun, he would probably never study seriously in order to be good at chess since he doesn’t have a lot of time.
He is not good at chess but he is so good at other things that it doesn’t even matter, but if we are talking about his strength only it would probably still be beginner-level in the future.
Final thoughts
Mr.Beast’s chess.com account has a rating of around 500-800 during the time that it is active. Mr. Beast is an absolute beginner in chess as can be seen in his matches against Hikaru Nakamura, losing even when given incredible odds. Jimmy makes good moves at times but is still a beginner.
Jimmy Donaldson might not have the best abilities when it comes to chess but he hasn’t taken interest in the game in order to get good at it, he was kind of just having fun. I think a lot of people didn’t do him justice.
He is literally a total beginner in the game, even I was as bad as he is when it comes to chess just two years ago, taking away all the study that I have done until now. He is not good at chess but that is perfectly okay.
I am also not good in other fields that I have never participated in, which is actually normal for most people since not everyone will have the talent to excel immediately.
So he has a big pass from me since his skills are kind of expected and normal, I don’t know what the people are expecting. I have really enjoyed writing this article, that is all, sleep well and play chess.
