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Samay Raina

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Samay Raina
Samay-Raina Comedian.jpg
Born
Kashmir, India
Occupation
Years active2017–present
Known for
  • Co-winner of Comicstaan season 2
  • Winner (Comedians on Board All Stars)
  • Winner (Botez 'Bullet Tournament')
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2017–present
Genre
  • Comedy
  • Gameplay
Subscribers751 thousand[1]
Total views187.8 million[1]
YouTube Silver Play Button 2.svg 100,000 subscribers 2020
Updated: 31 August 2021

Samay Raina is an Indian stand-up comedian, YouTuber, and chess enthusiast. He was the co-winner of the second season of the stand-up comedy contest Comicstaan.[2] During the COVID-19 pandemic, he began streaming games of chess along with various comedians and chess masters. Through his YouTube channel, he has raised substantial amounts of money for various causes including help for waste pickers,[3] and relief for West Bengal and Assam flood victims.[4][5]

Early life and education

Samay came from what he described as a conservative Kashmiri Pandit family. He enrolled in a print engineering course in Pune, which he said was a waste of time, and started doing open mic events and eventually became a regular in the local comedy scene.[6]

Career

Stand-up

After performing at multiple open mics since 27 August 2017, Samay began opening for well known comedians like Anirban Dasgupta and Abhishek Upmanyu in Pune. As he gained recognition, he moved to Mumbai to pursue a career in stand-up comedy and gave several successful shows in Mumbai and in several cities across the nation.[citation needed]

Comicstaan 2

Eventually he joined Comicstaan 2 from a suggestion from his co-winner Aakash Gupta and later he became the joint winner of Comicstaan 2 with Aakash Gupta which was aired on Amazon Prime Video.[7][8]

YouTube

During the COVID-19 pandemic, all outdoor events were canceled and thus, Raina could no longer perform stand-up comedy. He then began streaming games of chess on his YouTube channel at fellow comedian, Tanmay Bhat's suggestion.[9] His viewership got a boost when he invited YouTuber, Antonio Radić, popularly known as Agadmator, to his channel. In response to this, Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi tweeted that he too would like to join Raina on his channel. Eventually, Gujrathi made an appearance on Raina's channel, giving another boost to Raina's viewership. Since then, the two have fostered a strong relationship and frequently feature on each other's channels. Gujrathi attributes his moving from Twitch to YouTube to Raina's suggestion.[citation needed]

According to many proponents of chess, including GMs Viswanathan Anand, Vidit Gujrathi, Anish Giri, Teimour Radjabov, Baskaran Adhiban, Emil Sutovsky and IMs Tania Sachdev and Sagar Shah, Raina has been instrumental in popularising chess in India through his channel.[10]

Raina tries to make the game of chess more appealing to the masses through his humour which according to many have helped him reach a larger audience.[9]

In addition to the chess players mentioned above, several well-known chess personalities like Pentala Harikrishna; Judit Polgár; former world chess champions Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand; and the current world chess champion, Magnus Carlsen have appeared on Raina's channel.[11][12] He also organised chess tournaments featuring Indian celebrities such as cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal.[13][14]

On 1 November 2020, Samay Raina released a mock diss track about Sagar Shah on YouTube.[15] He is skilled in freestyle rapping with his most popular verse being "Raat ko khaye Bhindi hai ham".[16]

Chess and Comedians on Board (COB)

As of 20 August 2021, Raina has an ELO rating of 0.05 at rapid chess on Chess.com.[17] On 5 May 2021, Raina won the $10,000 Botez Bullet Invitational, a one-hour amateur bullet arena tournament sponsored by Chess.com and hosted by the Botez sisters. He was the only Indian streamer competing among some of the top international Twitch streamers, and earned a prize of $4000.[18]

To attract online audience to chess, he started organizing online chess tournaments on his channel, called Comedians On Board (COB).[19]

Comedians on Board Tournament
Season Dates Winner Runner-up 1 Runner-up 2
Comedians on Board (COB) #1[20] Aakash Mehta Kunal Rao
Comedians on Board (COB) #2[21] 1-3 July 2020 Anirban DasGupta Samay Raina Biswa Kalyan Rath
Comedians on Board (COB) #3[22] 19-21 Nov 2020 Joel Dsouza Vaibhav Sethia Samay Raina

See

References

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b "About Samay Raina". YouTube.
  2. ^ "Aakash Gupta and Samay Raina win Comicstaan 2". The Indian Express. 16 August 2019. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  3. ^ "Charity begins with chess?". Hindustan Times. 30 May 2020. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  4. ^ "Mover & shaker: How stand-up comic Samay Raina is redefining chess for a cause". ESPN. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  5. ^ Kulkarni (Rakesh), Rakesh. "Chess For Charity: Chess for West Bengal, India". Chess.com.
  6. ^ "'Standing up' for Kashmir". The New Indian Express. 23 January 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  7. ^ "Comicstaan Season 2 winners: Akash Gupta, Samay Raina win the Amazon original show, awarded prize money of Rs 10 lakh". India Today. 16 August 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  8. ^ "Comicstaan season 2: Akash Gupta, Samay Raina crowned as winners of Amazon Prime Video India comedy show - Entertainment News , Firstpost". Firstpost. 17 August 2019. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  9. ^ Jump up to: a b RS, Prasad (5 September 2020). "We have made chess more consumable for the masses: Samay Raina". The Times of India. Retrieved 29 September 2020.
  10. ^ "Mover & shaker: How comedy is redefining chess for a cause". ESPN. 25 August 2020. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  11. ^ RS, Prasad (24 March 2020). "Anand to take on stand-up comedians in charity match". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  12. ^ Belz, Emily. "The 2020 internet chess carnival - WORLD". world.wng.org. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  13. ^ "Viswanathan Anand, Yuzvendra Chahal and others raise Rs 8.86 lakh for waste-pickers community through online chess charity tournament". www.wionews.com. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  14. ^ Joshi, Sparsh (25 May 2020). "How One Comedian is changing the way India sees Chess". Medium. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  15. ^ ENDGAME | SAGAR SHAH DISS [OFFICIAL VIDEO], retrieved 1 March 2021
  16. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu0qgALdoB4&t=180s
  17. ^ "M Samay Raina (samayraina) - Chess Profile". Chess.com.
  18. ^ "Samay Raina wins the $10,000 Botez Bullet Invitational - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  19. ^ "32 well-known comedians of India will fight it out in Comedians on Board 3 - ChessBase India". www.chessbase.in. Retrieved 22 November 2020.
  20. ^ "Comedians On Board 1 (COB1)". comediansonboard.in. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  21. ^ "Comedians on Board 2 (COB 2)". comediansonboard.in. Retrieved 27 February 2021.
  22. ^ "Comedians on Board 3 (COB 3)". comediansonboard.in. Retrieved 27 February 2021.

External links

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