Andrea Botez hits back at chess critics after losing to comedian following major blunder

Chess streamer and DJ Andrea Botez was one of the favorites to win Super PogChamps, but an embarrassing mistake cost her the title and resulted in some criticism.

In early December 2025, Chess.com hosted Super PogChamps, a star-studded competition featuring content creators, many of whom only play chess from time to time.

Among the sea of competitors, which included Tyler1, Sonicfox and FaZe Sparg0, chess streamer turned DJ Andrea Botez was one of the major players going in.

While not as high rated as her sister, Alexandra, Andrea dominated her group and qualified for the semi-finals, where she took on Indian YouTuber and comedian Samay Raina.

Despite the odds stacked against him, and a near 300 rating deficit, Raina was able to force a tie-breaker against Botez by going 1-1 against her, even earning the white pieces in their final game by having a more accurate score.

In their tie-breaker, Andrea started running low on time. Despite Raina hanging a Knight, leaving it free for the taking, the chess streamer completely missed it.

Instead, much to the dismay of big sister Alexandra, who was on commentary, Raina ended up finding a genius move with a discover check that won him Andrea’s queen – a critical blow in the endgame.

Raina would go on to defeat Sardoche in the final round to win the entire tournament, but the horrific blunder by Andrea sparked some criticism from fans.

Andrea Botez defends chess skills after blunder cost her Super PogChamps

In a post going viral on X, a user shared the clip of Andrea’s misplay and called her out for the mistake.

“A chess ‘influencer’ pushed and constantly marketed by chess.com,” they mocked.

“Her and her sister basically take advantage of lonely chess dorks,” another blasted. “That’s their only real existence.”

I make chess *content* I’m not trying to be a Grandmaster… btw this was a fun charity event … for content

we built an entire brand on blundering queens, what point are you trying to make? 😂 https://t.co/b1ZKJeSjq1

— Andrea Botez (@itsandreabotez) December 7, 2025

Andrea, however, wasn’t having any of it and quickly shut down the attacks by explaining her situation.

“I make chess *content,* I’m not trying to be a Grandmaster… btw this was a fun charity event… for content. We built an entire brand on blundering queens, what point are you trying to make?”

Botez was referring to the infamous ‘Botez gambit,’ where the siblings would end up losing their queen during a game. Despite the name, it’s not a true “gambit,” as the lost queen isn’t an intentional sacrifice.

“This chess ‘influencing’ and ‘marketing’ helped me win a $5K prize fund that I will be donating all to the Daniel Naroditsky memorial fund,” she further noted.

Andrea also highlighted the skills of those competing in Super PogChamps, remarking: “I myself trained three hours a day for this from my hyperbaric oxygen chamber while doing hearing recovery. Sardoche is now 2000 ELO (aka my Elo). The competition was very real and scary.”

This isn’t the first time Andrea has faced backlash as a chess creator. Back in 2021, she came under fire from GM Hikaru Nakamura for asking a joke question to competitors at the World Chess Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi.