CHECK MATE
Meet glam chess superstar Qiyu ‘Nemo’ Zhou, 24, aiming to use genius to take poker world by storm
Scroll down for a glimpse into Zhou's glamorous lifestyle
QIYU 'NEMO' ZHOU is aiming to use her chess genius to take the poker world by storm.
The Woman Grandmaster, 24, is quickly becoming a rising star in poker after taking up the sport.
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Meanwhile, she is also a popular online streamer and social media personality.
Her glamorous lifestyle page on Instagram has 191,000 followers, with another 128,000 fans following her dedicated chess account.
However, it was her online streams which first got Zhou into poker.
She has explained that she was approached by German poker player Fedor Holz on stream to swap chess lessons for poker lessons.
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Zhou told : "I started playing poker in 2021 when Fedor Holz stopped by my stream and said he would swap poker lessons for chess lessons.
"After that, I was invited by Alexandra Botez and the World Poker Tour to play in their live stream cash game and I did quite well thanks to my coach. This motivated me to play a lot more!
"I was then sponsored for my first tournament at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the Ladies Event 2021.
"So I guess I have to thank everyone for getting me excited about tournament poker."
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She believes her proficiency as a chess player has helped her make the transition to poker, where she has already made a splash.
The Canadian added: "I would say that I got a lot of my skills from chess.
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"Everyone knows that strategic thinking is an important aspect of poker.
"I would really recommend poker beginners to start by just learning the hand rankings and playing lots of hands.
"This gives you a better feel for the game and the situations that arise. And you learn more and more poker terms, which can perhaps quickly confuse a beginner at first."
As for balancing both sports at once, Zhou admitted: "My goal for the next few years is to become a much better poker player.
"I definitely plan to continue learning, playing and working on my poker game with my coach continuing to guide me.
"With chess it's a little more complicated because I have to invest a lot of time to improve. In chess, it becomes exponentially more difficult to improve."
Inside Qiyu 'Nemo' Zhou's glamorous life as a chess and poker superstar...
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