Antonio Radić

Antonio Radić (born 16 June 1987) is a Croatian YouTuber and chess player who hosts a chess channel under the name Agadmator. As of June 2020, his channel is the most popular chess channel on YouTube, with more than 700,000 subscribers.[1][2] On his channel, Radić reviews both recent and historical chess games, often focusing on recent games during big tournaments such as Grand Chess Tour events and focusing on historical games at other times. His channel has been credited with helping spark a boom in interest in chess among young players.[3]

Agadmator
Antonio Radić
Personal information
BornAntonio Radić
(1987-06-16) June 16, 1987
Croatia
OccupationYouTuber
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2017–present
Subscribers724,000
Total views287 million
Updated 14 July 2020

Radić's peak FIDE rating of 2010 was achieved in July 2010 (current rating 1949).[4] Although he does not participate in many international chess tournaments, he is active on various online chess platforms, including Lichess and chess.com.[1][5] The videos on Radić's channel have over 275 million views in total.[2]

Background

Radić was introduced to chess at the age of four by his grandfather Anto Krnjić, a FIDE Master; however, he later stopped playing and did not return to chess until he was 16 years old.[1] He resides in Križevci, Croatia.[6]

YouTube channel

Radić originally began his YouTube channel in 2017, while he was working with his father who had a job as a wedding videographer. He posted wedding videos to promote their business. He later began posting chess videos. When his YouTube channel became popular enough for his YouTube income to exceed his regular income in 2017, Radić quit his regular job as an assistant to his father's wedding photography business to focus on the channel full-time.[7][1] Colonel David A. Hater, a writer for US Chess, has called him "one of YouTube’s leading chess streamers".[8]

Almost all of Radić's videos follow the same format – a review of one chess game.[2] He typically posts new videos on a daily basis, and consistently reviews games from big tournaments within 24 hours.[1] Many of his reviews of historical games are organized into series, such as the World Chess Championship 1921 match.[9]

His most popular video is titled "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in History" and has 4.5 million views as of July 2020, he analyzes a game between Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Oleg Chernikov from 1962.[10]

Aside from his chess reviewing, Radić is known for various quips that are common in his videos. If a player executes a brilliant combination, he may award that player a 'Morphy head', and overlay their onscreen portrait with a picture of 19th century American chess master Paul Morphy. He has a running joke that, whenever the position permits, White is about to play the Evans Gambit, a well-known aggressive but risky idea rarely seen in modern high-level chess.[2]

Radić started a podcast called the agadmator Podcast[11], which is hosted on his YouTube channel.[12]

gollark: The political system being as it is does not help.
gollark: People are predisposed to pay more attention to obvious immediate problems than abstract ones.
gollark: Air pollution is not an obvious problem. A few nuclear power plants doing moderately bad things is.
gollark: Unfortunately, apiobees.
gollark: Yes. We should IMMEDIATELY cease making more coal plants.

References
  1. Shah, Sagar. "Agadmator - the man who has 290,000+ followers on YouTube". Chessbase India. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  2. "agadmator's Chess Channel". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  3. Hill, David (11 December 2018). "The Next Great Chess Boom Is Here". The Ringer. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  4. "Radic, Antonio". FIDE. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  5. "Agadmator". Lichess. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  6. Belani, Hrvoje (21 February 2018). "Antonio Radić: 'Svojim YouTube kanalom mogu svakoga zainteresirati za šah'" (in Croatian). Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  7. Johnson, Ben (14 January 2020). "The Perpetual Chess Podcast Ep.160". The Perpetual Chess Podcast. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  8. Hater, Colonel David A. (19 March 2019). "Tani Wins at NYS Scholastic Championships". United States Chess Federation. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  9. "Capablanca vs. Lasker - World Championship Match 1921". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  10. "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in Chess History - Nezhmetdinov vs Chernikov (1962)". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  11. "agadmator Podcast". Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  12. "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-06-28.


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