Often called the Game of Kings, chess has reached a level of global establishment that few other competitive and leisure entertainment activities have ever come close to attaining. However, it is not a pastime that frequently gets mentioned in a gambling context, as it is mainly a duel of wit where bragging rights are on the line. But, since one of the planet’s most famous real money poker players has picked up this game, it has made its way onto our platform.
Daniel Negreanu, often referred to by his nickname Kid Poker, is a Canadian poker legend who has won six WSOP bracelets and two WPT championship titles. In 2014, the Global Poker Index, an independent poker ranking service, recognized him as the best card player of the 2000s, and that same year, he got inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
Negreanu’s estimated net worth hovers around the $60 million mark, and per the Hendon Mob database, his live earnings total $46 million. It is also public knowledge that he got paid $4 million per year to be one of the faces of PokerStars, yet no one knows precisely how much money he has made playing online poker.
In 2018, on Twitter, Negreanu stated that he had begun playing chess seriously, quickly discovering that he had a knack for the most famous board game ever. So, four years ago, he registered a profile at Chess.com, where he is now a Diamond Member. His Chess.com stats remark that, at writing, Negreanu has played 3,222 games on this platform. He has more than a dozen matches going at all times, all of which the site’s patrons can review.
Occasionally, Negreanu has streamed his chess sessions on Chess.com on his YouTube channel. When doing so, he provides the same in-depth commentary that his viewers have gotten used to hearing when they watch Negreanu stream his betting action on legal online poker sites.
What is Daniel Negreanu’s Chess Rating?
Daniel is a popular Chess.com user.
There is no one chess rating system. Various governing organizations, such as the International Correspondence Chess Federation, the US Chess Federation, and FIDE, each have their own. Without question, most view FIDE, also known as the World Chess Federation, as the top governing body of international chess competitions. It got founded in 1924 and has two hundred and one-member federations.
Hence, whoever is at the top of this organization’s ranking gets considered the best chess player in the world. To advance through these standings, players must compete in FIDE-recognized events. Furthermore, everyone needs to play at least twenty official games to attain a FIDE rating.
Naturally, given the fact that Negreanu is not a professional or semi-amateur chess competitor, he has no FIDE rating. According to the Chess.com system, Daniel’s hovers around the 1,200-mark, which is pretty good.
Beginners start at around 500 and require over six months to advance to a 1,000+ rating and qualify as trained beginners. From 1,000 to 1,200 is what many call an astute beginner. With over two to three years of active play in chess tournaments, a dedicated player can become an intermediate beginner, boasting a rating of over 1,200.
It takes eight to ten years, on average, before someone reaches a rating above 1,800, which is near expert status.
In truth, Negreanu has not made any significant strides regarding his Chess.com rating in recent years. He almost instantly hit above the 1,000 mark and has stayed in the 1,200-territory since late-2019. But that is not an accurate representation of his skill level, as he often beats 1,400+ players. Negreanu frequently plays online chess with fellow poker player Brian Hastings, who boasts a similar rating as Daniel. The two exchange wins and losses.
For comparison, most experienced card gamblers will say that it takes twelve to twenty-four months before someone can be good enough at poker to start profiting from playing Texas Holdem online.
Negreanu Beat Pokimane in Chess
In February 2021, Chess.com held the third online amateur chess tournament in their PogChamps series, which took place over two weeks. Unlike the first two iterations of the competition, which had a prize pool of $50,000, the third had double that amount, and it featured Negreanu as a contestant. He met Canadian Internet personality Pokimane in the Group Stage, where she refuted his Englund Gambit attempt. Negreanu ran a detailed analysis of their match on his YouTube channel, as did many others.
In 2021, Negreanu beat streamer Pokimane in a charity online chess tournament.
The event, which aired on Twitch, amassed over 115,000 concurrent viewers on all the platforms it streamed live. Negreanu lost to the professional Overwatch player and fellow Canadain xQc and beat Spanish-Norwegian Youtuber El Rubius during the group stage. After advancing to the championship bracket with six points, Daniel got knocked out in the quarterfinals by English YouTuber and Fortnite Player, BenjyFishy. The latter competitor lost to actor Rainn Wilson in the semi-finals. Wilson failed to beat League of Legends player Sardoche and won the consolation reward of $12,000 in the finals.
So, Negrenue has not enjoyed the same level of chess success as the one he has in poker games online.
All the PogChamp tournaments are charitable events, where each contestant picks a not-for-profit organization for Chess.com’s prizes to go to. Negreanu chose the One Drop Foundation, a Montreal-based charity focusing on water initiatives.
Negreanu is no stranger to charity tournaments, as he has participated in multiple poker ones over the past two decades. Six months after PogChamps 3, he provided a one-hour online poker lesson as a reward to the runner-up in the poker app Charity Series of Poker Tournament benefiting St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
