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 February 2021, his channel is the most popular chess channel on YouTube, with approximately 991,000 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 the general population.[3][4]

Agadmator
Antonio Radić
Personal information
BornAntonio Radić
(1987-06-16) June 16, 1987
Križevci, Socialist Republic of Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia
OccupationYouTuber
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2017–present
Subscribers991,000
Total views389 million
Updated: 1 February 2021
Antonio Radić
CountryCroatia
Peak rating2010 (September 2010)

Radić's peak FIDE rating of 2010 was achieved in July 2010 (current rating 1949).[5] Although he does not participate in many international chess tournaments, he is active on various online chess platforms, including Lichess and chess.com.[1][6] The videos on Radić's channel have over 389 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 17 years old.[1] He resides in Križevci, Croatia.[7]

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. His YouTube channel became popular enough for his YouTube income to exceed his regular income in 2017 with around 20,000 subscribers.[4] Radić quit his regular job as an assistant to his father's wedding photography business to focus on the channel full-time.[8][1] Colonel David A. Hater, a writer for US Chess, has called him "one of YouTube’s leading chess streamers".[9]

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 games from the World Chess Championship 1921 match.[10]

His most popular video is titled "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in Chess History" and has 5.5 million views as of February 2021. In the video, he analyzes a game between Rashid Nezhmetdinov and Oleg Chernikov from 1962.[11]

Aside from his chess reviews, Radić's videos follow a theme of various quips he has attained over his YouTube career. The most prevalent is when a player executes a brilliant combination, whereby Radić may award that player a 'Morphy head', and overlay his or her onscreen portrait with a picture of 19th-century American chess master Paul Morphy. In the videos, Radić is noted for various catchphrases such as the opening "Hello, everyone", "Captures, captures, captures" and "Sorry about that".[2]

Radić has also started a podcast called the agadmator Podcast,[12] which is hosted on his YouTube channel.[13] He also has another channel, on which he posts videos of him playing video games.[14]

On September 28, 2020, Radić announced he would be taking a brief hiatus from uploading videos, as he was undergoing heart valve surgery.[15] After the announcement, he remained active on Twitter, posting updates from the hospital. [16] On October 13, 2020, he posted his first video after announcing his hiatus. [17]

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. Ninan, Susan (2020-08-03). "Agadmator: From smalltown Croatia, an unlikely chess phenomenon". ESPN. ESPN. Retrieved 2020-09-04.
  5. "Radic, Antonio". FIDE. Retrieved August 12, 2020.
  6. "Agadmator". Lichess. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  7. Belani, Hrvoje (21 February 2018). "Antonio Radić: 'Svojim YouTube kanalom mogu svakoga zainteresirati za šah'" (in Croatian). Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  8. Johnson, Ben (14 January 2020). "The Perpetual Chess Podcast Ep.160". The Perpetual Chess Podcast. Retrieved 1 May 2020.
  9. Hater, Colonel David A. (19 March 2019). "Tani Wins at NYS Scholastic Championships". United States Chess Federation. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  10. "Capablanca vs. Lasker - World Championship Match 1921". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  11. "The Greatest Queen Sacrifice in Chess History - Nezhmetdinov vs Chernikov (1962)". YouTube. Retrieved 1 September 2019.
  12. "agadmator Podcast". Retrieved June 13, 2020.
  13. "YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-06-28.
  14. "agadmator's Other Channel - YouTube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-10-21.
  15. "I'm Taking a Break from Youtube - See You Soon :)". YouTube. Retrieved 12 October 2020.
  16. "Agadmator on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-10-12.
  17. "Youtube". www.youtube.com. Retrieved 2020-10-13.
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