The BBC World Service YouTube channel posted a video on March 12, 2026, about women chess streamers. The tools of the trade for chess streamers are different than what’s used for playing over-the-board chess. Also specialized are the tools used to teach chess in person.
Chess Streamers
The BBC World Service video begins with Sarah El Barbry, the 2025 Moroccan Women’s Chess Champion. The narrator states, at 1 minute, 18 seconds into the video, “Despite being a champion, Sarah doesn’t see a career in competitive chess. Instead, she wants to make a living as a chess streamer.”
Then Sarah tells the tools of her trade, “This is my streaming setup, you have everything here. My two screens that are very important. My camera, very, very important. The microphone, the lights.”
To see examples of her streaming work, go to https://www.youtube.com/@sarahchess. Her YouTube channel has 19,800 followers, as of March 15. Although she streams in French, the videos with English titles are auto-dubbed into English.
The BBC World Service video also profiles FM and WGM Qiyu “Nemo” Zhou. Her YouTube channel has 595,000 subscribers, as of March 15.
Chess Teachers
Before the pandemic, I taught in-person chess classes and camps. If the place I taught at didn’t have chess equipment available, I brought my own chess sets and boards for students’ practice. I also brought a demonstration board, which is a large chess board that hangs on a map hook or an easel. It came with pawns and pieces that fit into slots on its squares. I had a collection of chess clocks too.
Especially when I taught at the UT Dallas chess camp, I used chess instructional handouts. Its former director, Jim Stallings, wanted each camper to have homework each day. Handouts were the best way to convey homework assignments. I sometimes used them during class time too.
Once the pandemic began, restrictions on gatherings made in-person chess classes and camps impossible. Time passed. Then restrictions on gatherings started to ease. But some places didn’t resume offering in-person chess instruction. They either ceased operating altogether or stayed with online instruction. For example, in 2021, 2022, and 2023, the UT Dallas chess camps were online only. I didn’t want to teach at online chess camps for children, as I already taught online courses for adults. That is, I felt I spent enough time in front of a computer screen already!
In the summer of 2024, UT Dallas offered both five weeks of online and two weeks of in-person summer chess camps. By then, I was out of the habit of teaching in person. I decided to give away my chess teaching equipment in August of 2024.
At that same time, my son William began his new job as the children’s librarian at the Paris Public Library (Paris, Texas). William told me that the library director ran chess at Paris Public Library and he wouldn’t have anything to do with chess there. Based on what William told me, I gave away many of my extra chess clocks to Louis Reed, a friend of mine who runs the Alliance (Texas) Chess Club. He didn’t want the chess sets and boards I offered, as he already had plenty of those.
Then William took over the Paris (Texas) Public Library chess club and wanted chess sets, boards, and clocks from me. I gave him the sets and boards, along with two of the clocks that I had left. I kept clocks for my husband and me, as we still play in chess tournaments.
William assured me that he would NOT be offering instruction, just chess club meeting times. Based on what William told me, in early 2025 I gave away two of my three chess demonstration boards to my friend National Master Jeff Ashton, who runs the Panda Chess Academy in Houston.
Then on November 20, 2025, Jorge Moreno, a 17 year old FIDE-rated player, and his mother stopped by the Paris Public Library. Jorge wanted to volunteer to teach chess. What were the odds that he walked into a small-town library where a librarian knew what a FIDE rating was and already ran a chess club which met every other Friday?
Starting in January of 2026, William began running chess every Friday, with Jorge offering instruction during club time. Since then, the Paris Public Library chess club typically has attracted more than 20 participants each Friday. Impressive, since the population of Paris is only 25,000.
And guess what Jorge requested for his chess teaching: A demonstration board! I was reluctant to part with my one remaining demonstration board. What if I were asked to give a chess lecture? Luckily, Dr. Tim Redman, the retired founder of the UT Dallas Chess Program, had a demonstration board that he gave to William. It was missing its pieces and pawns, but I ordered replacements.
I hope Jorge doesn’t ask for chess worksheets, as I gave hundreds of my chess instructional handouts to my friend Nithya Marimuthu of Coppell Chess Club. I kept a few blank chess diagrams, as they are some of my favorite handouts. For example, blank diagrams can be used to practice knight’s tours, or to record positions one wants to remember.
I should also make a chess teaching confession here. Having given up in-person chess teaching by 2024, I then reversed myself by spending an enjoyable week teaching in person at the 2025 Caveman Chess Camp. There I learned how to use a combination of laptop and projector as a substitute for my usual demonstration board and chess instructional handouts. I didn’t want to try to pack my demonstration board on an airplane. And, as mentioned, I had given away most of my handouts.
Chess Stories
I once wrote an article for Chess Life magazine about “Chess Hoarding,” which meant holding onto chess items long after they were last used. I hadn’t used my chess teaching equipment or my chess instructional handouts since the start of the pandemic in 2020. Rather than holding on, which felt to me like hoarding, I gave most of my chess stuff to my friends Louis Reed, Jeff Ashton, and Nithya Marimuthu. Then I had less stuff to give to William when he changed his mind about chess at his new job, a story I’ve told to several people in person. And now I’ve told the story as a SparkChess article. As a chess writer, stories are tools of my trade.
