A man repeatedly insulted chess player and popular streamer Nemo Zhou after losing to her in a casual exhibition game at a convention.
The incident took place during a meet-and-greet session hosted by Canadian-born Chinese player Nemo Zhou (Zhou Qiyu). Nemo holds the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title and is a chess streamer with hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitch and YouTube.
According to a video that spread widely on Reddit, the man waited in line for about 30 minutes to play against Nemo. During the game, he repeatedly made elementary mistakes. He lost his queen simply because he forgot Nemo’s knight could jump backward to capture it. After losing the queen, he blurted out: “Oh, I forgot that piece could do that.”
He then struggled with time management, repeatedly letting his clock run before eventually losing on time.
But the defeat on the board was only the beginning.
A man refuses to shake hands with Nemo Zhou, grabs a microphone, then insults her during an exhibition game at a U.S. chess convention in late April 2026. Photo: Screenshot
As soon as the game ended, the man refused to shake hands and began complaining that Nemo had wasted his time. He appeared especially irritated after hearing the female player mention plans to have dinner with a male opponent she already knew.
In the video, Nemo repeatedly apologized in a calm voice, explaining that the convention was about to close and she needed to clean up the playing area. Even so, the man continued grumbling.
In an attempt to defuse the situation, Nemo even gave him three Chess.com Diamond membership codes worth about $60 in total. She told him to take a screenshot so he could use them later.
However, after receiving the gifts, the man waited until he was out of frame before flipping her off twice and cursing at the chess player.
The video quickly went viral on Reddit, attracting millions of views and thousands of comments. Most users sided with Nemo Zhou and criticized the man’s behavior.
User Outside_Region_55 wrote briefly but received thousands of upvotes: “She was way too nice to him. What a sore loser.”
Meanwhile, Damage-Classic argued that the most infuriating detail was the timing of the man’s outburst: “The funniest part is that he waited until after he got the gifts before he started insulting her.”
One of the most widely shared comments came from user BustahWuhlf, who analyzed the psychology of the loser.
“Acting badly in the first place is one thing. But you have to be on another level of awful to keep acting like that after someone just gave you gifts,” the user wrote. “A normal person would realize they got heated because they lost and say something like: ‘Sorry for my behavior. Thanks for the game.’ But this guy didn’t.”
Many people believed the man had not actually attended the convention because of chess.
User patrickhenrysaidso offered a theory that gained strong support:
“My guess is she was friendlier and more talkative with another player while he was waiting in line. He expected to get that same kind of ‘girlfriend experience’ when it was his turn. But once she started packing up and getting ready to leave, that fantasy shattered. He felt his time had been ‘wasted’ because the thing he wanted was never real to begin with.”
Another Reddit user, Intrepid-Message698, commented:
“He’s angry because he didn’t get more time with her to flirt or ask her out. That’s why he kept bringing up dinner. ‘You wasted my time’ is an extremely common complaint from men who feel rejected.”
User Rhodie114 agreed with that interpretation:
“He didn’t know who she was, and he clearly didn’t know how to play chess either. So why was he there? Probably because he saw an opportunity to get attention from an attractive woman and felt entitled to it.”
Sequence of events in the incident.
Besides the outrage directed at the man, the community also debated Nemo Zhou’s reaction. In the video, the chess player repeatedly apologized and tried to remain gentle despite being the one insulted.
User Indepti8 wrote: “My reading of the situation is that Nemo felt threatened by someone unstable. She needed to stay calm and neutral to get him to leave.”
Meanwhile, thatgirlnicola commented:
“I hate that this is still the best option women have when dealing with men like this. You have to be nice, reward bad behavior, and hope they go away.”
Another user, Ok_Cartographer4626, added:
“The worst part of moments like this is that you have to prioritize your own safety first. That often means staying polite and tolerating verbal abuse to avoid physical danger.”
The incident also reignited debate over sexism within the chess community.
“He only dared to act like that because she’s a woman,” user boredinbabylon wrote. “There’s no way he would behave like that toward a man.”
Another female player, mistberries, shared her own experience:
“Sadly, this is the reality with many men in chess. I changed my username and profile picture on Chess.com so nobody would know I’m female. The amount of abuse immediately dropped.”
After the video spread online, many users called on Chess.com to trace the membership codes Nemo gave away in order to identify the man’s account. Some argued that tournaments and chess conventions should take a harder stance against harassment targeting female players.
User DesireeThymes wrote:
“Tournament organizers have very little tolerance for this kind of behavior. If he’s identified, he could absolutely be banned from similar events.”
For many viewers, Nemo Zhou’s story reflected a darker side that has long existed within competitive intellectual sports, where women often face pressure beyond the game itself.
As for Nemo, the online community believed she won not only on the chessboard, but also in the way she handled an intensely uncomfortable situation.
I’m a passionate board game enthusiast and a skilled player in chess, xiangqi and Go. Words for Attacking Chess since 2023. Ping me at Lichess for a game or chat.