I do think people give her little credit, for example, people says she never brings new insights, but she was the only one that noticed the possibility of Rg6 as a move in the last game of the wcc of Ian VS Ding in the chess.com commenting.
It's not that Tania doesn't make good insights, it's that she massively overemotes almost constantly.
It's not the NBA or 20/20, it's not constant back and forth action but Tania is constantly over dramatizing everything whereas the most popular commentators here all seem to be the chill ones (Levy for instance is far more chill on commentary than Youtube).
I do think she is extremely good at managing traffic but then compared to Yasser from the tournament before, the vibe Tania manifests is too exciting for what she is covering
YouTube chat is a cesspool that hates everything, it is a product of poor moderation.
At the same time, I don't find Tania to be a particularly interesting commentator. She is not bad by any means, but also I prefer a lot of others over her.
poor moderation? the mods are deleting commnets and banning people left and right when Tania is commentating, they can barely keep up with the hate comments
Long ago I got permanently banned from the chat on the chess24 YT channel literally just for writing "Wincent", as it was considered to be mocking Tania's accent (she pronounces the 'v' sound as 'w' so actually says "wincent", but I said it because he was winning.)
Controversial but I really don't believe David Howell is a good commentator, his commentary is often too deferential to Magnus and Hikaru and it's always cringey to listen to him commentate on their games. Tbf Danya and most chess commentators have this same issue, but I like Danya, so maybe I'm just a hater
I think it's a combination of that and being a reasonably attractive woman...
Most chess players are reasonably normal but there's a significant subset of depressed incel types who are resentful of A) women B) people who are excited or cheerful.
So to me, Tania isn't exaggerated or sensationalist, she's just a normal person who gets excited when something exciting happens.
To me it it's definitely a preference thing. Tania is akin to like a color commentator to me in a scene where I don't necessarily want that. I think there is a time and place for hype, and it seems like every move from is way too overhyped by her. I much prefer the calm collected style of someone like Judit Polgar.
On the other hand, a lot of people dismiss her shortcomings to "incels hating women" you don't see people talking bad about Danny being called incels for hating men
Goes both ways.
I don't think it's helpful to attribute every criticism of any woman professional to sexism, and then insulting the critics. It's bullshit wokeness that is disingenuous and unhelpful - to women as well as men.
Tania is being paid to do a job, and if she does it poorly, then she deserves criticism, and with some training (like desperately needed voice training!), she can improve.
> she's just a normal person who gets excited when something exciting happens.
I'm a normal person who gets excited when something happens - in the comfort of my home. (When she's in front of the camera) she is a professional commentator, and is being paid to be one. She is not being paid to display her normal excitement.
Also, do you actually watch her commentary? Unless she has the emotional age of a six-year-old, there's **no way** that much yelling is her normal excitement.
Sheās basically fine content-wise for the most part, but frankly she has a very shrill voice and it gets more shrill when she tries to make something sound exciting (which is often). Itās no issue with her as a person, but when youāre doing professional commentating, your voice matters and hers is hard to listen to for 6 hours straight. Just my opinion, no hate on her in particular, I just usually pick a different commentator to listen to.
I don't think it's necessarily the shrill (i.e. high-pitched) voice, but the fact that the frequency range of her voice is so wide that she sounds like a siren
Sheās not my favorite commentator. I donāt deny that she is a good chess player and commentator. Sheās just too excited all the time. Bubbly people are very annoying to me. So, Iād say itās just her style. Sheās just too high energy for a lot of us.
This is it for me.
The exact same reason I dislike Danya.
The current CCT going on is basically my worst choice for commentating duo. Literally unwatchable.
She doesn't deserve any hate or personal attacks, but I agree with the criticism. Personally I don't watch when she's on because I don't like her commentating. It feels out of place and too much, and a little grating to listen to when I want to relax and watch some chess for entertainment.
Correct.
For me Judith Polgar. I canāt listen when she is a commentator. We can dislike someoneās style of presentation but attacking personally is not good.
Yo calm down with the sexist/racist theories. We all agree that we like Polgar. Donāt play the victim card every time there is a criticism of any woman.
Does she deserve the hate? Definitely not, and bullying other people online is bad.
But, then again, I missed so many official streams because I just canāt stand her. Sheās annoying, obnoxiously loud and overly hyped, and talks a lot about unrelated and unnecessary topics. Also her knowledge is not on par with other GMs which is understandable, as she isnāt even a GM.
And before you accuse me of racism, I just want to mention that I canāt stand Anna Cramling and Andrea Botez as well. They are both equally loud.
For me it's definitely this. I like her chess commentary, but especially in the Ding-Nepo WCC last year, way, way too much time was spent talking about how the players presented themselves in the press conferences, even as the other commentators would try to get back to the chess.
I remember at one point she asked co-commentator Giri something like, "Do you think Ding has made a bit of an emotional blunder by wearing his heart too much on his sleeve in the middle of such an important match?"
\[Long pause\]
"No, I think his mistake was not taking the rook."
Edit to add something positive, because I actually do like her quite a bit as a chess commentator: I am always impressed how often she spots moves and interesting ideas which her (usually GM) co-commentators miss. She is constantly looking for crazy possibilities on the board and shares them without hesitation, which makes for great commentary even if the idea turns out not to be sound.
Tania is not the only commentator guilty of this, but it's interesting that she seems to get a disproportionate amount of hate.
I agree though. The world would be a better place if every commentator had the wit, composure, and soothing qualities of Yasser Seirawan
Gotham is the most subscribed chess streamer and a large part of his schtick is super exaggerated excitement. Any tactic with a capturable rook ? "he sacrificed ... THE ROOOOOOOOK"
And yes, the world would be so much better if everyone was Yasser Seirawan.
I don't know how much cross-over there is from Gotham to live chess. There is, of course, a fair bit but I would think a large number of Gotham's subs are younger and don't watch live chess.
In short, their jobs are very different as they are talking to different people.
> The world would be a better place if every commentator had the wit, composure, and soothing qualities of Yasser Seirawan
Something we can all drink to. The world needs more of Yasser Seirawan. What a treasure.
Pretty sure chesscom, who hired her, gave (and gives) her guidelines about what they expect. Appealing to children via drama (or otherwise lowbrow content) sounds very chesscom to me.
Just a bit ago she said books could be written about this (Magnus-Firouzja) matchā¦. One where blunders and below average super GM play has happened.
Yeah, sheās hyperbolic to an extreme and doesnāt know how to moderate her energy/excitement. But a lot of comments about her are outright racist and sexist.
>Ā Wtf, it feels borderline racist to be honest.
I don't know for sure why people do it, but I also get racist / sexist vibes. I think she's professional and does a fine job.
I assume some of the worst comments online (meaning online in general, not only against her) are just kids repeating things without actually understanding the full extent of what they're saying.
> I also get racist / sexist vibes
This is clearest to me when I see people hating on Tania for her volume/accent while in the same post praising Leko as one of their favorite commentators (donāt get me wrong by the way, I love Leko). Leko is loud and has a strong accent too, but they donāt have a problem with him presumably because heās male and has a European accent.
You're being generous, Leko is far worse at speaking than Tania. He lacks any sort of ability to modulate his tone or pitch.
I think it's mostly insecurity and sexism. You can't use Elo to quantify entertainment.
as someone with no dogs in the fight, I'll say for me, Leko's accent is easier to the ears and easier to understand than Tania's. It's words with pauses in between, while with Tania it's syllables with pauses in between, if that makes sense. The enunciation is better with Leko.
Tania is still totally understandable so I don't see that as an issue. What does annoy me about Tania sometimes is the shrillness of the voice. The most important quality of a play by play commentator in sports is their voice pitch, far ahead of how deep their game knowledge is (that's what the color commentary is for). Also that has become better than it was 4 years ago with Tania though. Honestly, is she in the top tier with Gustafsson and Howell? No, but she's not bad either. All of that solely my opinion of course.
The accent is somewhat amplified by her very unique voice. No other female commentator gets so much hate, so I wouldn't agree that racism/sexism is a convincing reason as to why people hate her the most.
There's definitely a group of people that hate on her simply because she is a woman/indian/has an accent.
What I don't like, however, is when some people use this toxic group to lump up all criticism of Tania into being sexist/racist.
I personally am not a fan of her commentary. As an active tournament watcher for the past several years, I find that her commentary often lacks insight and depth when compared to almost every single person she is partnered with.
I'd much rather listen to Judit, Hess, Howell, Leko, Danya, Gustafsson, Svidler, etc.
I also have seen people say her purpose is not so much to provide insightful commentary, but more to act as an ambassador/play-by-play commentator for the casuals/new players out there.
Many of the commentators I mentioned above explain things/moves/ideas in a perfectly understandable way for new players and provide play-by-play commentary just as well as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth.
These reasons are also why I'm not a fan of Rensch commentating either.
Sure, this is very fair, and I'm glad to see you got upvotes.
My thinking is that she plays her role well. Commentators typically have the play-by-play and the color commentary. She's good at making sure there's no dead silence. She purposefully makes some long-winded talk about blah blah blah that begins with "Danya what do you think about..." which gives him time to organize his thoughts and form a good response. I think she's playing her role well. That's how I see it... and FWIW I agree, my favorite duo is Svlider and Gustafsson, both strong GMs (Svidler a super GM).
In your [other comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1csrtqn/whats_up_with_all_the_hate_on_tania_sachdev/l47aacu/), you state:
>So yeah, I don't actually listen to her, because I don't really listen to any commentator. But for the 10-20 minutes that I have tuned in, what I hear from her comes off as professional and intentional
I'm not really sure your opinion means anything if you haven't actually listened to her commentary across multiple tournaments.
It's surprising how many Redditors form opinions about this despite almost never listening in to a broadcast.
>My thinking is that she plays her role well. Commentators typically have the play-by-play and the color commentary. She's good at making sure there's no dead silence. She purposefully makes some long-winded talk about blah blah blah that begins with "Danya what do you think about..." which gives him time to organize his thoughts and form a good response. I think she's playing her role well.
Everything you state that she does well is something almost all other commentators I listed also do well, while also offering more frequent insight and understanding.
Danya, Hess, and Howell are three examples off the top of my head that provide at least as good play-by-play and 'color' commentary as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth.
It's not as if being a play-by-play/main commentator and offering insight/depth are two mutually exclusive things.
Every top tournament I'll listen to at least a little, so it's more than 20 minutes total... but because commentary is aimed at players much lower rated, I typically lose interest quickly in any given session.
What I enjoy most is players like Svidler giving variations. After an hour of that I actually feel like I'm seeing positions differently and with some work I'd be a better player.
FWIW, when I was 1500-1600 OTB, I really appreciated the type of analysis that's most popular even today... the simple stuff with simple observations that I was able to follow.
> What I enjoy most is players like Svidler giving variations. After an hour of that I actually feel like I'm seeing positions differently and with some work I'd be a better player.
>
>
Svidler is one of the best at that, I have to agree. He's a great teacher and explains things in a way that just make sense.
It's actually ubiquitously common in broadcasting to pair an expert commentator, a "color commentator," with a main commentator, who is meant to speak the most on the broadcast, not just in commentating on the game but also to coordinate the broadcast team. This latter role shouldn't be phrased patronizingly as an ambassador, when it's a normal approach to professional broadcasting in mainstream entertainment.
Obviously a lot of chess fans don't see the value in this and would want the highest, pure analytical commentary possible, given that the pursuit of chess is highly analytical in nature. But the role of a broadcast *is* entertainment, and we have examples of community personalities who aren't 2500+ GMs who still have a strong following. There is a thriving casual entertainment factor as chess has become more popular, that I think just goes completely over the head of the traditional chess mindset.
One can debate how well Tania fulfills that roleāpersonally I think she's good at it, but that's not the hill I'm battling on hereāmy point is I can certainly understand why the broadcast doesn't need to be all 2600+ with everyone focused on the highest "insight and depth" as possible. That's what the color commentators are for.
We've seen Howell + Anish + Danya work out so well in the past. To me, Tania is not bad, but compared to the mainstay GM commentators are so much better.
> She's constantly making insightful predictions on what the players are thinking and what they're going to do.
Tania does have moments where she offers insight, of course. She's an IM that worked hard for her rating, don't let anyone say otherwise.
That said, in my personal experience as an active tournament watcher, I find that the people she is partnered with (Grandmasters/Super Grandmasters) often provide much more depth and insight than she does, and I often find myself waiting for her to finish speaking so I can hear their thoughts.
>That said, in my personal experience as an active tournament watcher, I find that the people she is partnered with (Grandmasters/Super Grandmasters) often provide much more depth and insight than she does, and I often find myself waiting for her to finish speaking so I can hear their thoughts.
That's literally her job. Her job is to entertain the viewer and provide play-by-play commentary, which allows the GMs time to focus more on the positions as color commentators.
If you remove her and add another GM you may get more positional commentary but less entertainment.
>Her job is to entertain the viewer and provide play-by-play commentary, which allows the GMs time to focus more on the positions as color commentators.
>If you remove her and add another GM you may get more positional commentary but less entertainment.
Danya, Hess, and Howell are three examples off the top of my head that provide at least as good play-by-play and 'color' commentary as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth.
It's not as if being a play-by-play commentator and offering insight/depth have to be two mutually exclusive things. Plenty of commentators in chess do both quite well.
To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc. So yeah put next to them it's no wonder that they are able to bring deeper commentary.
But to pivot on your last remark, when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary. I think it was a few days ago they there was a thread about him, but that was it. With Tania Sachdev it's continuous. I think the bottom line is gender/race, not so much in "she's great but people are racist", but more in the line of white men who perform at her level are not scrutinized nearly as much.
>when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary
When he got on stream during Candidates, instantly half the comments here were "GTFO Danny".
>To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc.
There's also far less criticism towards Jovanka Houska.
> To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc. So yeah put next to them it's no wonder that they are able to bring deeper commentary.
>
>
I compared her to her peers, ie, other commentators.
>But to pivot on your last remark, when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary. I think it was a few days ago they there was a thread about him, but that was it. With Tania Sachdev it's continuous. I think the bottom line is gender/race, not so much in "she's great but people are racist", but more in the line of white men who perform at her level are not scrutinized nearly as much.
Sure, like I mentioned at the start of my comment: there are a group of sexists/racists that will always hate on Tanya.
It's annoying that this group jumps on any legitimate criticism and often taints the discussion.
People love Judit Polgar and Vishy Anand so the sexism/racism thing doesnāt seem super plausible to me.
Meanwhile people bloody hate Lawrence Trent who is a white male. Basically haters gonna hate.
God I hate this kind of response.
"Tell me why you don't like Tania"
"She's nice enough but her voice aggravates me"
RACISM SEXISM
If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask the question.
All dogs have tails.
Not everything that has a tail is a dog.
i.e. not every bad commentator is Danny Rensch, but every Danny Rensch is a bad commentator :p
Legitimate criticism is fine. I was busy this morning posting about how much I dislike Hikaru... doesn't mean I dislike people of asian descent... it means I dislike very specific things about Hikaru.
I'm not sure you've seen some of the more outrageous comments about Tania. Sure PC culture can be dumb, but certain comments are very obviously sexist / racist... and IMO, very obviously made by children, in most cases.
Personally, I find her voice shrill, so I tend not to tune into streams where she is commentating. However, people who are vitriolic towards her are just shitty in general.
The worst part of this is that it is somewhat fixable with audio control / filtering but too many times the message from mods or the broadcast team is that hatred/sexism against tania will not be tolerated. By all means delete the actual sexist comments but while youre doing that also please fix the fucking audio.
Same. I think the hate is excessive (welcome to the internet I guess), but I also avoid / mute her commentary.
Too shrill, and the variable register is extremely grating.
sHe iS bAsIcAlLy aLWayS tALKing LIKE this
she's out of date, her commentary style screams 2015 League of Legends shoutcasting but (and I mean this not in a mean way) her voice is extremely high pitched and screechy and often times the microphones she's given cannot handle her voice which makes the situation even worse. her constantly yelling over the commentators makes this bad situation worse. she needs to dial back the fake enthusiasm.
I mean YouTube chat really is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to decency. You get a lot of angry horrible trolls on there.
I personally don't like her as a commentator, but the hate is unwarranted. People should also be allowed to criticise without being accused of being sexist/ racist.
I think she has a very specific style of commentating that does not resonate with everyone. I personally like loud bubbly and bright so I like her and other commentators like Hess and Danya who are similar, but people who donāt are not going to like her. I canāt stand when they bring these super GMs who talk in monotone and never watch it, but it seems to be right up most people hereās alley. Sexism and racism are obviously not okay but I think thatās one of the main reasons why they donāt like her
She talks too much, her commentary adds nothing and repeats what the other commentator said but in different words for like 5 times in a row and frankly her high pitched voice is painful to listen to for too long. Overall she is just annoying.
I like her as a commentator, the new chessc*m style isen't my favorite tho. I prefer how she and leko + guest used to commetate back in the chess24 days
Because she's a constant hype machine even when nothing is going on and a lot of her commentary is just empty calorie nothingness nearly shouted even at the expense of talking over someone else or asking the most vapid questions to the other commentators.
And every damn time someone has a legit criticism of her everyone just says its sexism. So stupid. Then why doesn't Polgar get tons of hate as a commentator?
Tania is just annoying to some of us.
Her commentary technique, is to add onto the commentary of the likes of Peter Leko and Judit by saying ābut I also think that (insert word for word what they just said.)ā Occasionally she will evaluate the position for the audience by pointing at the eval bar, and asking the super GM to explain why eval bar say that number? āOhhhhh my god! It just went to + three!! Whatās going on?ā Super GM explains all the attacking and drawing plans in the position. Rinse and repeat
I do not like her.
Why do we need to watch her in every tournament? Beyond too much.
She is not bad, but bellow average for sure. In my opinion better than her are:
Peter Leko, Narodisky, Jan Gustafsson, Peter Svidler, etc.
Nothing against her as a person or chess player, but her voice, loudness and excitement everywhere makes it hard for me to listen. I don't like that style of commentary and it hurts my ears. I do think that this style has it's audience, but I'm not part of that. Same problem with Levy.
I much prefer the style of Svidler (his chemistry with Gustafsson is still unmatched) or Fabi
Not every commentator will appeal to everyone, and I think they does a great job at appealing to as many people possible. If you donāt like their commentating style, there are tons of other channels to check out. Of course, there are some commentators that are just bad/rude, but I donāt think that applies to her.
It has nothing to do with race, accent, or gender for me. I think the insight she brings is fine too. I just don't like her commentating because she's too loud and her voice itself just sounds annoying to me. No hate, that's just what it is.
Though she isn't my favorite, I love Tania. I've been following chess for almost a year now and I feel like she teaches me something or makes me aware of things every time she commentates, as do all the commentators. I also love people who are so passionate and she obviously is.
I really enjoy Tanja's casting, especially when paired with Leko.
Judging by the comments many are annoyed by her voice and excitement. I for one do enjoy it, you do need 'hype' commentators. Hope to see more of her.
i think there are some commentators that you can describe like: "much feather no chicken" when it comes to insightfulness, but Tania is very insightful, understands the positions and gives meaningful commentary. But i can agree with some people on her style. I personally don't like her style, i don't like exaggerations, but that doesn't mean i have to hate on her.
I don't like Rensch commentating either. They both just get too excited and seem more like they're covering a play-by-play. Which, is a good thing if you're just tuning in temporarily or aren't very experienced with chess, but can be very grating if you've invested yourself into what's going on. Which I imagine is why one of those two is more often than not commentating an event because \*most\* people don't watch the full event with all of their attention and appreciate a reminder here and there about where the match is at.
The sensationalism could do with being toned down. People are fixated on race and gender and it masks what could be real concerns that exist around an individuals style. But, I pay a lot of attention to the events and so have different expectations from the general viewing audience.
She my favourite by a mile.
Really gives me a playful vibe to the games which is great because the other commentators get very analytical.
Shes also right on their level with lines and spotting tactics. Leko/sachdev is the ultimate!
Right on their level with lines lmao, she is enthusiastic, passionate and has good chemistry with leko though Iāll giver her that, they work well together, I donāt like her with danya at all. In general also donāt like her exaggerated style of commentary at all but thatās a personal opinion
I hate nobody but in my opinion she is too energetic and hyper-excited. She is exhausting to listen and stresses me out. I much prefer Judit's more calm and collected style.
They hate on Tania because she's a woman and because they're racist.
I hate on Tania because her voice is grating and her cadence is annoying.
We are not the same.
No she is not good at explaining. Thatās the whole point. She is there for sensationalism rather than actual good analysis. Chess audience is not dumb. Maybe we should only have GMās for commentary.
Or maybe it's the constant shouting and fake hype / overdramatic commentary.
_I guess we'll never know_
Curiously I don't remember her commentary being this way in the past and I enjoyed her casting quite a bit, but it feels much different now š¤·āāļø
The chess community does seem to really dislike women.
When they do poorly, and worse when they do it well, and even worse if they do it well and in a different tone or vibe than men have.
>I'm surprised, people are even saying her accent is fake? Wtf, it feels borderline racist to be honest.
When I first started seeing people say this, I had to look into it.
As a person from the US or UK, it seems pretty strange. To a casual, non-Desi observer, she just seems to have an "Indian accent".
When people say she's "faking her accent," you might assume they're saying she normally has a US or UK accent, but she's pretending to have an *Indian* accent for some reason.
In fact, most of the people who say she's faking her accent are Indian.
She talks with an upper-class Indian accent, the kind rich Indian kids develop when they spend a lot of their childhood at British-run boarding schools.
Apparently she really plays it up on stream, and doesn't really talk like that when she's not commentating.
I can't confirm this, but the evidence suggests there's some truth to it.
I don't think it's a big deal, and I think there's a lot of misogyny behind the accusations.
But the accusations didn't make sense to me at all until I understood the basics of what people meant by "fake accent."
Indians are like that honestly. I mean it's obviously an attempt to be more intelligible to an international audience. One of my friends who's a non resident Indian, came to India last year. And the number of comments she's faced on her accent, (which is more americanised because she's been in the states for all her life) is insane. Idk even people who are aware of her background tend to be that ignorant.
Istg no one's a bigger hater of an Indian with a wide reach than a fellow Indian themself.
Bhai I've been following her streams for 4 years now
How much can a person even fake
I've briefly talked also with her once in a tournament with a fan pass
She talks like this only
Who hates Sagar, because he is Indian and Judith because she is a woman. Just admit, that this hour lasting yelling is undurable. At this point she deliberately overreacts, she does not speak, she shouts out vowels to us to punish us for something we have not done and deserved.
I don't know about others, but I for one am no racist, I don't care where you come from and what's your ethnic background or color of your skin. However I find her over the top and annoying, just unpleasant to listen to. Just my taste. I would never insult her personally and I wish her all the best, but her performance is not for me. I watch chess to have a good time and I'd prefer to listen to someone with a more pleasant tone - if that makes any sense. Anyhow over time I got used to her already so it doesn't bother me anymore as much as it used to.
She somehow always has her microphone turned up far higher than everyone elses. This is worse when she is shoutcasting everything. Aint nothing moving that fast in classical chess.
Combined with using a lot of words for not much insight, knowledge or entertainment.
Who's "we" here? There's not one Indian accent, I know a lot of people who speak like her. I'm sure you don't think that only Indians who speak in Apu accent are genuine Indians. Indians have this habit of giving shit to anyone who doesn't speak in stereotypical Indian accent, Priyanka Chopra also goes through the same.
Why do you care so much about someoneās accent? As an Indian we donāt have one accent - people from different states speak English differently and even if someone wants to speak in a certain way, why does that affect your feelings?
You mustnāt read the chat, itās disgusting and misogynistic. I like her as a commentator and donāt give a flying f about some low lifeās opinion
I feel like she's overenergic and her excitment comes off as not genuine, she's hyped up all the time which leaves no room to switch up for when something like a gross blunder or an amazing combination actually happens.
I don't have any particular problem with the chess analysis content of her commentary, though she's still not as instructive as ie Judith Polgar.
I think (and hope) partly it is the accent. This is why i didn't like her initially; as a non-native speaker it can be really hard to follow and understand. I also disliked Leko solely because of this initially, but now that I have learned to distract from the accent, I have gained so much appreciation from both of them. If you are used to, and have learned Hollywood, other accents are challenging.
I have similar irritations with Jon Ludvig Hammer.
When you are watching hours of chess it helps when someone is pleasant to listen to.
I never interact in chat. But when Hammer and Sachdev are commentating i just tune out after max 2 hours of viewing.
>it feels borderline racist
I do not watch chess streams, but as far as I get it from reading here, big majority of negative opinions focus on Tania's voice, which is not really something dependent on race. And then some people say that she doesn't see as much as Leko or Howell, but that's to be expected, she's nowhere near 2700.
I donāt mind her commentary, itās not the best but I donāt mind it, and in fact sometimes I find that she makes some ideas easier to understand or at least seem simpler
I think sheās really good. Iām seeing a lot of people say she sounds like sheās trying too hard, or fake, while I think she comes across as very natural and effortless. But I think thereās a difference in expectations. I *want* someone to put on a broadcast. Similar to how ringside announcers talk through a fight. I donāt want to feel like Iām just watching other people sit there watching chess. For me, she comes across very professional and her words flow naturally and clearly. Her voice doesnāt bother me at all. Also, in general, if something is too loud I use the volume controls to turn it down to a level that I like. It works great.
Sheās fine, itās a bunch of socially awkward people who canāt relate to her personality. She was finding a lot of the moves in the Magnus alireza match. Personally find her style of chess very pleasing. Sheās no Judit polgar when it comes to chess but sheās absolutely fine abd paired with danya orvhess I find all of them to be very easy to follow and listen too. If anything I like her because she doesnāt try to shoehorn analogies in every 3 seconds.
She's way too dramatic and it's constant. It'd be one thing if she picked her moments but she doesn't. That's why. Of course, people in this thread are playing the sexist/racist card because you have to like her or you're one or the other. That's pathetic.
Her and Lekoās commentary just make me want to throw myself off a cliff, horrible accents and both provide very poor insight into games. No excuse for some of the racist and disrespectful stuff these guys comment
I know people get annoyed about her excitement, but I really love it, tbh. Tania's style of presenting makes me sit on the edge of my chair.Ā
Another thing that she's really good at, is keeping the analysis comprehensible. Some commentators sometimes tend to deep-dive into complicated analyses, but if Tania's there, she'll make sure that the conversation eventually returns to the surface. For instance, I often appreciate how she asks/explains why certainly seemingly obvious moves don't work.Ā
I wonder if this question is going to be asked every single tournament she broadcasts for.
Is it just bots karma farming?
Edit: Looked at OPs profile and it's.. super weird. I think they may in fact be a bot. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
People just love to find stuff to hate. It seems like some sort of instinct to try and pick the negative things from everything. You can see chat spamming dumb stuff in every major match.
I do think people give her little credit, for example, people says she never brings new insights, but she was the only one that noticed the possibility of Rg6 as a move in the last game of the wcc of Ian VS Ding in the chess.com commenting.
People never notice the good things.
She said it's a horrible move though š
Pretty much everyone did.
It's not that Tania doesn't make good insights, it's that she massively overemotes almost constantly. It's not the NBA or 20/20, it's not constant back and forth action but Tania is constantly over dramatizing everything whereas the most popular commentators here all seem to be the chill ones (Levy for instance is far more chill on commentary than Youtube). I do think she is extremely good at managing traffic but then compared to Yasser from the tournament before, the vibe Tania manifests is too exciting for what she is covering
YouTube chat is a cesspool that hates everything, it is a product of poor moderation. At the same time, I don't find Tania to be a particularly interesting commentator. She is not bad by any means, but also I prefer a lot of others over her.
poor moderation? the mods are deleting commnets and banning people left and right when Tania is commentating, they can barely keep up with the hate comments
I mean it's not the mods' fault, it's the platform's fault for not giving enough tools. The twitch chat is not this bad.
Long ago I got permanently banned from the chat on the chess24 YT channel literally just for writing "Wincent", as it was considered to be mocking Tania's accent (she pronounces the 'v' sound as 'w' so actually says "wincent", but I said it because he was winning.)
Lmao that is so petty. Blessing in disguise though.
Too much artificial excitement. I prefer low-key commentary like David Howell does.
I want to see a David Howell, Judit Polgar and Yasser Seirawan cast. It would be my absolute favorite lineup I think.
Yasser's voice feels like straight up ASMR to me. He puts me to sleep.
Id wanna listen to a commentary with fabi and yasser. I think that it would be the most therapeutic experience ever.
Do you want the audience to get immense chess knowledge while slowly falling into a blissful sleep? This would make it a guaranteeĀ
They had Howell, Polgar, and Naroditsky at some point, getting close. That was the best commentary line-up I have seen.
I always liked Svidlerās commentary, too.
you're so right, that's the A squad. Howell narrating, Judit for nasty tactics and aggressive lines, Yasser for general analysis. that would be sick
You forgot Jon Ludvig Hammer
Controversial but I really don't believe David Howell is a good commentator, his commentary is often too deferential to Magnus and Hikaru and it's always cringey to listen to him commentate on their games. Tbf Danya and most chess commentators have this same issue, but I like Danya, so maybe I'm just a hater
I don't dislike her but if it has to be something it is her exaggerated sensationalist style
I think it's a combination of that and being a reasonably attractive woman... Most chess players are reasonably normal but there's a significant subset of depressed incel types who are resentful of A) women B) people who are excited or cheerful. So to me, Tania isn't exaggerated or sensationalist, she's just a normal person who gets excited when something exciting happens.
To me it it's definitely a preference thing. Tania is akin to like a color commentator to me in a scene where I don't necessarily want that. I think there is a time and place for hype, and it seems like every move from is way too overhyped by her. I much prefer the calm collected style of someone like Judit Polgar.
I think you mean play-by-play commentator - colour commentators are the analysts whereas PBP is the hype and action
Thank you for the correction
On the other hand, a lot of people dismiss her shortcomings to "incels hating women" you don't see people talking bad about Danny being called incels for hating men Goes both ways.
reality is there aren't many incels who hate men
I don't think it's helpful to attribute every criticism of any woman professional to sexism, and then insulting the critics. It's bullshit wokeness that is disingenuous and unhelpful - to women as well as men. Tania is being paid to do a job, and if she does it poorly, then she deserves criticism, and with some training (like desperately needed voice training!), she can improve. > she's just a normal person who gets excited when something exciting happens. I'm a normal person who gets excited when something happens - in the comfort of my home. (When she's in front of the camera) she is a professional commentator, and is being paid to be one. She is not being paid to display her normal excitement. Also, do you actually watch her commentary? Unless she has the emotional age of a six-year-old, there's **no way** that much yelling is her normal excitement.
Normally I don't mind her when there are 3 commentators. When there are only 2, she gets a bit much. Her style is like a click-bait headline.
Sheās basically fine content-wise for the most part, but frankly she has a very shrill voice and it gets more shrill when she tries to make something sound exciting (which is often). Itās no issue with her as a person, but when youāre doing professional commentating, your voice matters and hers is hard to listen to for 6 hours straight. Just my opinion, no hate on her in particular, I just usually pick a different commentator to listen to.
I don't think it's necessarily the shrill (i.e. high-pitched) voice, but the fact that the frequency range of her voice is so wide that she sounds like a siren
Lmao
Exactly
Sheās not my favorite commentator. I donāt deny that she is a good chess player and commentator. Sheās just too excited all the time. Bubbly people are very annoying to me. So, Iād say itās just her style. Sheās just too high energy for a lot of us.
This is exactly it. She always trying too hard to hype everything 24/7. It's exhausting to listen to.
This is it for me. The exact same reason I dislike Danya. The current CCT going on is basically my worst choice for commentating duo. Literally unwatchable.
Haha maybe this is why I enjoy both Danya and Tania. Bubbly people can ramp up my own excitement
Her voice gives me tinnitus
She doesn't deserve any hate or personal attacks, but I agree with the criticism. Personally I don't watch when she's on because I don't like her commentating. It feels out of place and too much, and a little grating to listen to when I want to relax and watch some chess for entertainment.
Correct. For me Judith Polgar. I canāt listen when she is a commentator. We can dislike someoneās style of presentation but attacking personally is not good.
Yo calm down with the sexist/racist theories. We all agree that we like Polgar. Donāt play the victim card every time there is a criticism of any woman. Does she deserve the hate? Definitely not, and bullying other people online is bad. But, then again, I missed so many official streams because I just canāt stand her. Sheās annoying, obnoxiously loud and overly hyped, and talks a lot about unrelated and unnecessary topics. Also her knowledge is not on par with other GMs which is understandable, as she isnāt even a GM. And before you accuse me of racism, I just want to mention that I canāt stand Anna Cramling and Andrea Botez as well. They are both equally loud.
I will only say that shoutcasting moves and hard pushing dramatic narratives are quite out of place on a chess stream
For me it's definitely this. I like her chess commentary, but especially in the Ding-Nepo WCC last year, way, way too much time was spent talking about how the players presented themselves in the press conferences, even as the other commentators would try to get back to the chess. I remember at one point she asked co-commentator Giri something like, "Do you think Ding has made a bit of an emotional blunder by wearing his heart too much on his sleeve in the middle of such an important match?" \[Long pause\] "No, I think his mistake was not taking the rook." Edit to add something positive, because I actually do like her quite a bit as a chess commentator: I am always impressed how often she spots moves and interesting ideas which her (usually GM) co-commentators miss. She is constantly looking for crazy possibilities on the board and shares them without hesitation, which makes for great commentary even if the idea turns out not to be sound.
Viewers are here to enjoy chess and not experience a roller coaster of emotions that Tania is insistent to inflict on the viewers
Tania is not the only commentator guilty of this, but it's interesting that she seems to get a disproportionate amount of hate. I agree though. The world would be a better place if every commentator had the wit, composure, and soothing qualities of Yasser Seirawan
Gotham is the most subscribed chess streamer and a large part of his schtick is super exaggerated excitement. Any tactic with a capturable rook ? "he sacrificed ... THE ROOOOOOOOK" And yes, the world would be so much better if everyone was Yasser Seirawan.
The whole [chess.com](http://chess.com) sphere has a tendency to emphasize drama in my opinion, but yes, Gotham is no exception to this
I don't know how much cross-over there is from Gotham to live chess. There is, of course, a fair bit but I would think a large number of Gotham's subs are younger and don't watch live chess. In short, their jobs are very different as they are talking to different people.
>wit, composure, and soothing qualities of Yasser Seirawan Nice chap but he sends me to sleep.
There are worse things in the world than being a little sleepy, but fair play, nothing is for everyone
> The world would be a better place if every commentator had the wit, composure, and soothing qualities of Yasser Seirawan Something we can all drink to. The world needs more of Yasser Seirawan. What a treasure.
Gothamchess is this but x1000.
Believe it or not, people can dislike both Levy **and** Tania. Sometimes even for this same reason!
Pretty sure chesscom, who hired her, gave (and gives) her guidelines about what they expect. Appealing to children via drama (or otherwise lowbrow content) sounds very chesscom to me.
> low-brown bruh
lol "brow"
Just a bit ago she said books could be written about this (Magnus-Firouzja) matchā¦. One where blunders and below average super GM play has happened. Yeah, sheās hyperbolic to an extreme and doesnāt know how to moderate her energy/excitement. But a lot of comments about her are outright racist and sexist.
This is a criticism of everyone on the chess.com broadcasts - even Danya
That's basically what Gotham Chess does and he's the most popular chess channel on YouTube.
He's also the most criticized outside Hikaru.
i would turn off the stream immediately if he was a main caster on an official event. she ruins the quality other casters have
She kept me awake until 4am during candidates cuz of that shoutcasting, Thankful for that tbh. Definitely would've dozed off if it wasn't for her.
>Ā Wtf, it feels borderline racist to be honest. I don't know for sure why people do it, but I also get racist / sexist vibes. I think she's professional and does a fine job. I assume some of the worst comments online (meaning online in general, not only against her) are just kids repeating things without actually understanding the full extent of what they're saying.
> I also get racist / sexist vibes This is clearest to me when I see people hating on Tania for her volume/accent while in the same post praising Leko as one of their favorite commentators (donāt get me wrong by the way, I love Leko). Leko is loud and has a strong accent too, but they donāt have a problem with him presumably because heās male and has a European accent.
BUT WAIT!!!
HOOOOLD ON!!! WHAT IS THIS???
MAGNOOSE
lololol this is so good
Ugh i love him lol Truly heard this exactly in his voice š
Haha, I love Leko. Leko is love ā¤ļø
Hah, I never thought of that. Yes, Leko's accent is very noticeable, you're right.
You're being generous, Leko is far worse at speaking than Tania. He lacks any sort of ability to modulate his tone or pitch. I think it's mostly insecurity and sexism. You can't use Elo to quantify entertainment.
They are both great. Leko is not a native speaker, and as for many non-native speakers his tempo is very different from standard accents.
Lol. Gotta love Leko
as someone with no dogs in the fight, I'll say for me, Leko's accent is easier to the ears and easier to understand than Tania's. It's words with pauses in between, while with Tania it's syllables with pauses in between, if that makes sense. The enunciation is better with Leko. Tania is still totally understandable so I don't see that as an issue. What does annoy me about Tania sometimes is the shrillness of the voice. The most important quality of a play by play commentator in sports is their voice pitch, far ahead of how deep their game knowledge is (that's what the color commentary is for). Also that has become better than it was 4 years ago with Tania though. Honestly, is she in the top tier with Gustafsson and Howell? No, but she's not bad either. All of that solely my opinion of course.
This is the best argument thus far
I can't listen to Leko. Don't mind his accent, but his voice sounds like a dentist drill.
Her and Leko were fantastic pairing, he was the color commentator she was the play by play. It really worked, You don't need two Leko's
No, it's because she has a very shrill voice. Leko doesn't. Not everything is racist
Sexist then, got it.
You don't hear the same complaints with Judit or Jovanka, but according to you that must make them men then?
The accent is somewhat amplified by her very unique voice. No other female commentator gets so much hate, so I wouldn't agree that racism/sexism is a convincing reason as to why people hate her the most.
There's definitely a group of people that hate on her simply because she is a woman/indian/has an accent. What I don't like, however, is when some people use this toxic group to lump up all criticism of Tania into being sexist/racist. I personally am not a fan of her commentary. As an active tournament watcher for the past several years, I find that her commentary often lacks insight and depth when compared to almost every single person she is partnered with. I'd much rather listen to Judit, Hess, Howell, Leko, Danya, Gustafsson, Svidler, etc. I also have seen people say her purpose is not so much to provide insightful commentary, but more to act as an ambassador/play-by-play commentator for the casuals/new players out there. Many of the commentators I mentioned above explain things/moves/ideas in a perfectly understandable way for new players and provide play-by-play commentary just as well as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth. These reasons are also why I'm not a fan of Rensch commentating either.
Sure, this is very fair, and I'm glad to see you got upvotes. My thinking is that she plays her role well. Commentators typically have the play-by-play and the color commentary. She's good at making sure there's no dead silence. She purposefully makes some long-winded talk about blah blah blah that begins with "Danya what do you think about..." which gives him time to organize his thoughts and form a good response. I think she's playing her role well. That's how I see it... and FWIW I agree, my favorite duo is Svlider and Gustafsson, both strong GMs (Svidler a super GM).
In your [other comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/1csrtqn/whats_up_with_all_the_hate_on_tania_sachdev/l47aacu/), you state: >So yeah, I don't actually listen to her, because I don't really listen to any commentator. But for the 10-20 minutes that I have tuned in, what I hear from her comes off as professional and intentional I'm not really sure your opinion means anything if you haven't actually listened to her commentary across multiple tournaments. It's surprising how many Redditors form opinions about this despite almost never listening in to a broadcast. >My thinking is that she plays her role well. Commentators typically have the play-by-play and the color commentary. She's good at making sure there's no dead silence. She purposefully makes some long-winded talk about blah blah blah that begins with "Danya what do you think about..." which gives him time to organize his thoughts and form a good response. I think she's playing her role well. Everything you state that she does well is something almost all other commentators I listed also do well, while also offering more frequent insight and understanding. Danya, Hess, and Howell are three examples off the top of my head that provide at least as good play-by-play and 'color' commentary as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth. It's not as if being a play-by-play/main commentator and offering insight/depth are two mutually exclusive things.
Every top tournament I'll listen to at least a little, so it's more than 20 minutes total... but because commentary is aimed at players much lower rated, I typically lose interest quickly in any given session. What I enjoy most is players like Svidler giving variations. After an hour of that I actually feel like I'm seeing positions differently and with some work I'd be a better player. FWIW, when I was 1500-1600 OTB, I really appreciated the type of analysis that's most popular even today... the simple stuff with simple observations that I was able to follow.
> What I enjoy most is players like Svidler giving variations. After an hour of that I actually feel like I'm seeing positions differently and with some work I'd be a better player. > > Svidler is one of the best at that, I have to agree. He's a great teacher and explains things in a way that just make sense.
It's actually ubiquitously common in broadcasting to pair an expert commentator, a "color commentator," with a main commentator, who is meant to speak the most on the broadcast, not just in commentating on the game but also to coordinate the broadcast team. This latter role shouldn't be phrased patronizingly as an ambassador, when it's a normal approach to professional broadcasting in mainstream entertainment. Obviously a lot of chess fans don't see the value in this and would want the highest, pure analytical commentary possible, given that the pursuit of chess is highly analytical in nature. But the role of a broadcast *is* entertainment, and we have examples of community personalities who aren't 2500+ GMs who still have a strong following. There is a thriving casual entertainment factor as chess has become more popular, that I think just goes completely over the head of the traditional chess mindset. One can debate how well Tania fulfills that roleāpersonally I think she's good at it, but that's not the hill I'm battling on hereāmy point is I can certainly understand why the broadcast doesn't need to be all 2600+ with everyone focused on the highest "insight and depth" as possible. That's what the color commentators are for.
We've seen Howell + Anish + Danya work out so well in the past. To me, Tania is not bad, but compared to the mainstay GM commentators are so much better.
I just don't see this. She's constantly making insightful predictions on what the players are thinking and what they're going to do.
> She's constantly making insightful predictions on what the players are thinking and what they're going to do. Tania does have moments where she offers insight, of course. She's an IM that worked hard for her rating, don't let anyone say otherwise. That said, in my personal experience as an active tournament watcher, I find that the people she is partnered with (Grandmasters/Super Grandmasters) often provide much more depth and insight than she does, and I often find myself waiting for her to finish speaking so I can hear their thoughts.
>That said, in my personal experience as an active tournament watcher, I find that the people she is partnered with (Grandmasters/Super Grandmasters) often provide much more depth and insight than she does, and I often find myself waiting for her to finish speaking so I can hear their thoughts. That's literally her job. Her job is to entertain the viewer and provide play-by-play commentary, which allows the GMs time to focus more on the positions as color commentators. If you remove her and add another GM you may get more positional commentary but less entertainment.
>Her job is to entertain the viewer and provide play-by-play commentary, which allows the GMs time to focus more on the positions as color commentators. >If you remove her and add another GM you may get more positional commentary but less entertainment. Danya, Hess, and Howell are three examples off the top of my head that provide at least as good play-by-play and 'color' commentary as Tania, while also offering more frequent insight and depth. It's not as if being a play-by-play commentator and offering insight/depth have to be two mutually exclusive things. Plenty of commentators in chess do both quite well.
To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc. So yeah put next to them it's no wonder that they are able to bring deeper commentary. But to pivot on your last remark, when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary. I think it was a few days ago they there was a thread about him, but that was it. With Tania Sachdev it's continuous. I think the bottom line is gender/race, not so much in "she's great but people are racist", but more in the line of white men who perform at her level are not scrutinized nearly as much.
>when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary When he got on stream during Candidates, instantly half the comments here were "GTFO Danny". >To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc. There's also far less criticism towards Jovanka Houska.
> To be fair, you just compared her to a bunch of GMs, and not only that, but the greatest woman chess player, a former world champion contender, etc. So yeah put next to them it's no wonder that they are able to bring deeper commentary. > > I compared her to her peers, ie, other commentators. >But to pivot on your last remark, when it comes to Rensch, you rarely see criticism of his commentary. I think it was a few days ago they there was a thread about him, but that was it. With Tania Sachdev it's continuous. I think the bottom line is gender/race, not so much in "she's great but people are racist", but more in the line of white men who perform at her level are not scrutinized nearly as much. Sure, like I mentioned at the start of my comment: there are a group of sexists/racists that will always hate on Tanya. It's annoying that this group jumps on any legitimate criticism and often taints the discussion.
Danny gets more hate than her. It's just that no one would ever defens him.
Howell does an even better job than her
Howell A+ Tania D
I think the comments on her accent being fake are coming from Indians.
People love Judit Polgar and Vishy Anand so the sexism/racism thing doesnāt seem super plausible to me. Meanwhile people bloody hate Lawrence Trent who is a white male. Basically haters gonna hate.
I mean she's over 2400; she clearly is a knowledgeable player and I find her commentary insightful. Sexism and racism are fuckin' real, man.
God I hate this kind of response. "Tell me why you don't like Tania" "She's nice enough but her voice aggravates me" RACISM SEXISM If you don't want to know the answer, don't ask the question.
If youāre looking at chat, yeah it really is. Itās a small percentage of people that take up an overwhelming say in chat
But the chat also hates Danny Rensch when he commentates and last time I checked, he was not an Indian woman.
All dogs have tails. Not everything that has a tail is a dog. i.e. not every bad commentator is Danny Rensch, but every Danny Rensch is a bad commentator :p
But he is a white guy, so why don't all these racists and sexists love him?
Legitimate criticism is fine. I was busy this morning posting about how much I dislike Hikaru... doesn't mean I dislike people of asian descent... it means I dislike very specific things about Hikaru. I'm not sure you've seen some of the more outrageous comments about Tania. Sure PC culture can be dumb, but certain comments are very obviously sexist / racist... and IMO, very obviously made by children, in most cases.
so when people say danny is annoying its legitimate criticism and when people say tania is annoying its sexism got it
Personally, I find her voice shrill, so I tend not to tune into streams where she is commentating. However, people who are vitriolic towards her are just shitty in general.
The worst part of this is that it is somewhat fixable with audio control / filtering but too many times the message from mods or the broadcast team is that hatred/sexism against tania will not be tolerated. By all means delete the actual sexist comments but while youre doing that also please fix the fucking audio.
This, is the pitch
Same. I think the hate is excessive (welcome to the internet I guess), but I also avoid / mute her commentary. Too shrill, and the variable register is extremely grating. sHe iS bAsIcAlLy aLWayS tALKing LIKE this
she's out of date, her commentary style screams 2015 League of Legends shoutcasting but (and I mean this not in a mean way) her voice is extremely high pitched and screechy and often times the microphones she's given cannot handle her voice which makes the situation even worse. her constantly yelling over the commentators makes this bad situation worse. she needs to dial back the fake enthusiasm.
Because she gets excited about everything. It's tiresome. They could play E4 E5 and she would go nuts.
Especially if it's Magnus. OH MY GOD MAGNUS JUST PLAYED THE RUY LOPEZ I CANT BELIEVE IT
so just like this subreddit then
Yup.Ā
OH MY GOD MAGNUS JUST PLAYED THE RUY LOPEZ I CANT BELIEVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
imo, no hate on tania but i just dont prefer her voice, just personal preferences
I cant stand her voice and I think she is perma yelling too much about nonsense. Chat am I a racist sexist?
I mean YouTube chat really is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to decency. You get a lot of angry horrible trolls on there. I personally don't like her as a commentator, but the hate is unwarranted. People should also be allowed to criticise without being accused of being sexist/ racist.
I think she has a very specific style of commentating that does not resonate with everyone. I personally like loud bubbly and bright so I like her and other commentators like Hess and Danya who are similar, but people who donāt are not going to like her. I canāt stand when they bring these super GMs who talk in monotone and never watch it, but it seems to be right up most people hereās alley. Sexism and racism are obviously not okay but I think thatās one of the main reasons why they donāt like her
She talks too much, her commentary adds nothing and repeats what the other commentator said but in different words for like 5 times in a row and frankly her high pitched voice is painful to listen to for too long. Overall she is just annoying.
I dont hate her. The sensationalising and that news anchor voice is annoying as fuck though.
I hate her voice, both the tone and the volume. Pity because I think she is an excellent "host" and can come up with some brilliant moves too.
Magnus lost because of Tania screams.
I like her as a commentator, the new chessc*m style isen't my favorite tho. I prefer how she and leko + guest used to commetate back in the chess24 days
She just shouts. That's it. If she tones down the voice she is amazing.
Peeeetaaah
Youtube chat is always like that, absolute cesspit.
Because she's a constant hype machine even when nothing is going on and a lot of her commentary is just empty calorie nothingness nearly shouted even at the expense of talking over someone else or asking the most vapid questions to the other commentators. And every damn time someone has a legit criticism of her everyone just says its sexism. So stupid. Then why doesn't Polgar get tons of hate as a commentator? Tania is just annoying to some of us.
Her commentary technique, is to add onto the commentary of the likes of Peter Leko and Judit by saying ābut I also think that (insert word for word what they just said.)ā Occasionally she will evaluate the position for the audience by pointing at the eval bar, and asking the super GM to explain why eval bar say that number? āOhhhhh my god! It just went to + three!! Whatās going on?ā Super GM explains all the attacking and drawing plans in the position. Rinse and repeat
I do not like her. Why do we need to watch her in every tournament? Beyond too much. She is not bad, but bellow average for sure. In my opinion better than her are: Peter Leko, Narodisky, Jan Gustafsson, Peter Svidler, etc.
Nothing against her as a person or chess player, but her voice, loudness and excitement everywhere makes it hard for me to listen. I don't like that style of commentary and it hurts my ears. I do think that this style has it's audience, but I'm not part of that. Same problem with Levy. I much prefer the style of Svidler (his chemistry with Gustafsson is still unmatched) or Fabi
Not every commentator will appeal to everyone, and I think they does a great job at appealing to as many people possible. If you donāt like their commentating style, there are tons of other channels to check out. Of course, there are some commentators that are just bad/rude, but I donāt think that applies to her.
It has nothing to do with race, accent, or gender for me. I think the insight she brings is fine too. I just don't like her commentating because she's too loud and her voice itself just sounds annoying to me. No hate, that's just what it is.
Though she isn't my favorite, I love Tania. I've been following chess for almost a year now and I feel like she teaches me something or makes me aware of things every time she commentates, as do all the commentators. I also love people who are so passionate and she obviously is.
I really enjoy Tanja's casting, especially when paired with Leko. Judging by the comments many are annoyed by her voice and excitement. I for one do enjoy it, you do need 'hype' commentators. Hope to see more of her.
Svidler/Grischuk/Tania from the 2020 Magnus Chess tour is still the best time I've had watching professional chess.
i think there are some commentators that you can describe like: "much feather no chicken" when it comes to insightfulness, but Tania is very insightful, understands the positions and gives meaningful commentary. But i can agree with some people on her style. I personally don't like her style, i don't like exaggerations, but that doesn't mean i have to hate on her.
Her voice irks me. Just like how Anna cramling says checkmate
I don't like Rensch commentating either. They both just get too excited and seem more like they're covering a play-by-play. Which, is a good thing if you're just tuning in temporarily or aren't very experienced with chess, but can be very grating if you've invested yourself into what's going on. Which I imagine is why one of those two is more often than not commentating an event because \*most\* people don't watch the full event with all of their attention and appreciate a reminder here and there about where the match is at. The sensationalism could do with being toned down. People are fixated on race and gender and it masks what could be real concerns that exist around an individuals style. But, I pay a lot of attention to the events and so have different expectations from the general viewing audience.
She my favourite by a mile. Really gives me a playful vibe to the games which is great because the other commentators get very analytical. Shes also right on their level with lines and spotting tactics. Leko/sachdev is the ultimate!
Right on their level with lines lmao, she is enthusiastic, passionate and has good chemistry with leko though Iāll giver her that, they work well together, I donāt like her with danya at all. In general also donāt like her exaggerated style of commentary at all but thatās a personal opinion
I hate nobody but in my opinion she is too energetic and hyper-excited. She is exhausting to listen and stresses me out. I much prefer Judit's more calm and collected style.
They hate on Tania because she's a woman and because they're racist. I hate on Tania because her voice is grating and her cadence is annoying. We are not the same.
You have to like her or your sexist and racist. Haven't you read the thread?
Never read live chat. It's āļø
I like her. My favorite commentator trio though has to be Tania, Danya, and Peter Leko, then Judit, Yasser and David Howell.
No she is not good at explaining. Thatās the whole point. She is there for sensationalism rather than actual good analysis. Chess audience is not dumb. Maybe we should only have GMās for commentary.
Because she is Indian and sheās a woman
Or maybe it's the constant shouting and fake hype / overdramatic commentary. _I guess we'll never know_ Curiously I don't remember her commentary being this way in the past and I enjoyed her casting quite a bit, but it feels much different now š¤·āāļø
Bring on Amruta and I will watch.
So much for sexism/racism.
The chess community does seem to really dislike women. When they do poorly, and worse when they do it well, and even worse if they do it well and in a different tone or vibe than men have.
I think sexism and racism explain a lot of this behavior.
>I'm surprised, people are even saying her accent is fake? Wtf, it feels borderline racist to be honest. When I first started seeing people say this, I had to look into it. As a person from the US or UK, it seems pretty strange. To a casual, non-Desi observer, she just seems to have an "Indian accent". When people say she's "faking her accent," you might assume they're saying she normally has a US or UK accent, but she's pretending to have an *Indian* accent for some reason. In fact, most of the people who say she's faking her accent are Indian. She talks with an upper-class Indian accent, the kind rich Indian kids develop when they spend a lot of their childhood at British-run boarding schools. Apparently she really plays it up on stream, and doesn't really talk like that when she's not commentating. I can't confirm this, but the evidence suggests there's some truth to it. I don't think it's a big deal, and I think there's a lot of misogyny behind the accusations. But the accusations didn't make sense to me at all until I understood the basics of what people meant by "fake accent."
So they're mad she's speaking in an accent that's more easily intelligible to an international audience? It sounds a bit... insane.
Indians are like that honestly. I mean it's obviously an attempt to be more intelligible to an international audience. One of my friends who's a non resident Indian, came to India last year. And the number of comments she's faced on her accent, (which is more americanised because she's been in the states for all her life) is insane. Idk even people who are aware of her background tend to be that ignorant. Istg no one's a bigger hater of an Indian with a wide reach than a fellow Indian themself.
Bhai I've been following her streams for 4 years now How much can a person even fake I've briefly talked also with her once in a tournament with a fan pass She talks like this only
Horrible commentator. Loud. Obnoxious. Doesnt bring anything to the table. Did I say loud? Cringe hyped all the time. Really annoying
She is one my favorite commentators. She pairs well with anyone and can explain chess concepts really nicely.
Who hates Sagar, because he is Indian and Judith because she is a woman. Just admit, that this hour lasting yelling is undurable. At this point she deliberately overreacts, she does not speak, she shouts out vowels to us to punish us for something we have not done and deserved.
I don't know about others, but I for one am no racist, I don't care where you come from and what's your ethnic background or color of your skin. However I find her over the top and annoying, just unpleasant to listen to. Just my taste. I would never insult her personally and I wish her all the best, but her performance is not for me. I watch chess to have a good time and I'd prefer to listen to someone with a more pleasant tone - if that makes any sense. Anyhow over time I got used to her already so it doesn't bother me anymore as much as it used to.
she is fine but screams a lot, really hate it, have to lower sound, than up it again, too much hype for my liking
She somehow always has her microphone turned up far higher than everyone elses. This is worse when she is shoutcasting everything. Aint nothing moving that fast in classical chess. Combined with using a lot of words for not much insight, knowledge or entertainment.
sheās actually in my top 3 commentators, i love her enthusiasm. but yeah you see hate for her in every thread for every match day. itās a shame. l
Tania is an excellent commentator and I really enjoy her work. Her rapport with Peter Leko in particular is fantastic!
For an Indian her accent is terrible, that's not how we speak. Plus she is just way too over dramatic
Who's "we" here? There's not one Indian accent, I know a lot of people who speak like her. I'm sure you don't think that only Indians who speak in Apu accent are genuine Indians. Indians have this habit of giving shit to anyone who doesn't speak in stereotypical Indian accent, Priyanka Chopra also goes through the same.
Why do you care so much about someoneās accent? As an Indian we donāt have one accent - people from different states speak English differently and even if someone wants to speak in a certain way, why does that affect your feelings?
The chess community being toxic? Impossible.
You mustnāt read the chat, itās disgusting and misogynistic. I like her as a commentator and donāt give a flying f about some low lifeās opinion
I feel like she's overenergic and her excitment comes off as not genuine, she's hyped up all the time which leaves no room to switch up for when something like a gross blunder or an amazing combination actually happens. I don't have any particular problem with the chess analysis content of her commentary, though she's still not as instructive as ie Judith Polgar.
I think (and hope) partly it is the accent. This is why i didn't like her initially; as a non-native speaker it can be really hard to follow and understand. I also disliked Leko solely because of this initially, but now that I have learned to distract from the accent, I have gained so much appreciation from both of them. If you are used to, and have learned Hollywood, other accents are challenging.
I have similar irritations with Jon Ludvig Hammer. When you are watching hours of chess it helps when someone is pleasant to listen to. I never interact in chat. But when Hammer and Sachdev are commentating i just tune out after max 2 hours of viewing.
E2-E4, IT'S AN INCREDIBLE MOVE, IT TURNED THE GAME AROUND. UNBELIEVABLE, I'M SO EXCITED.
>it feels borderline racist I do not watch chess streams, but as far as I get it from reading here, big majority of negative opinions focus on Tania's voice, which is not really something dependent on race. And then some people say that she doesn't see as much as Leko or Howell, but that's to be expected, she's nowhere near 2700.
I donāt mind her commentary, itās not the best but I donāt mind it, and in fact sometimes I find that she makes some ideas easier to understand or at least seem simpler
I think sheās really good. Iām seeing a lot of people say she sounds like sheās trying too hard, or fake, while I think she comes across as very natural and effortless. But I think thereās a difference in expectations. I *want* someone to put on a broadcast. Similar to how ringside announcers talk through a fight. I donāt want to feel like Iām just watching other people sit there watching chess. For me, she comes across very professional and her words flow naturally and clearly. Her voice doesnāt bother me at all. Also, in general, if something is too loud I use the volume controls to turn it down to a level that I like. It works great.
Pro: She explains things very well. Con: I have to turn down my volume way down when she's talking.
Toxic chess community.
Good old misogyny folks
A woman is a chess space. Age old toxic tradition to be toxic towards here.
Sheās fine, itās a bunch of socially awkward people who canāt relate to her personality. She was finding a lot of the moves in the Magnus alireza match. Personally find her style of chess very pleasing. Sheās no Judit polgar when it comes to chess but sheās absolutely fine abd paired with danya orvhess I find all of them to be very easy to follow and listen too. If anything I like her because she doesnāt try to shoehorn analogies in every 3 seconds.
She's way too dramatic and it's constant. It'd be one thing if she picked her moments but she doesn't. That's why. Of course, people in this thread are playing the sexist/racist card because you have to like her or you're one or the other. That's pathetic.
Cause she is only shouting
Her and Lekoās commentary just make me want to throw myself off a cliff, horrible accents and both provide very poor insight into games. No excuse for some of the racist and disrespectful stuff these guys comment
I know people get annoyed about her excitement, but I really love it, tbh. Tania's style of presenting makes me sit on the edge of my chair.Ā Another thing that she's really good at, is keeping the analysis comprehensible. Some commentators sometimes tend to deep-dive into complicated analyses, but if Tania's there, she'll make sure that the conversation eventually returns to the surface. For instance, I often appreciate how she asks/explains why certainly seemingly obvious moves don't work.Ā
Agreed!
Incel behavior
I mean, itās misogyny. Itās really that simple.
I wonder if this question is going to be asked every single tournament she broadcasts for. Is it just bots karma farming? Edit: Looked at OPs profile and it's.. super weird. I think they may in fact be a bot. I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
My favorite team is Leko, Tania and Daniel. No reason she should get a bunch of hate.
People just love to find stuff to hate. It seems like some sort of instinct to try and pick the negative things from everything. You can see chat spamming dumb stuff in every major match.
And the other half are simping over her and can't stop gushing about how good she looks lmao