Nemo Zhou | |
|---|---|
 Zhou at the 2014 World Youth Chess Championships in Durban, South Africa | |
| Born | January 6, 2000 Jingzhou, China |
| Chess career | |
| Country | Finland (until 2011) Canada (since 2011) |
| Title | Woman Grandmaster (2017) FIDE Master (2016) |
| FIDE rating | 2172 (September 2024) |
| Peak rating | 2367 (September 2016) |
Twitch information | |
| Channel | |
| Years active | 2020–present |
| Genre | Gaming |
| Games | |
| Followers | 334,000 |
| Associated acts | |
Last updated: 28 January 2024 | |
YouTube information | |
| Channel | |
| Subscribers | 124,000[1] |
| Total views | 21,000,000[1] |
Last updated: 28 January 2024 | |
Qiyu Zhou (Chinese: 周齐宇; born January 6, 2000), also known as Nemo Zhou and her online alias akaNemsko, is a Chinese-born Canadian chess player who holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and FIDE Master (FM), and is a live streamer on Twitch. She has been an under-14 girls' World Youth Champion, a Canadian women's national champion, and a Finnish women's national champion. Zhou has a peak FIDE rating of 2367 and a career-best ranking of No. 100 in the world among women. She is the first Canadian woman to earn the Woman Grandmaster or FIDE Master titles, and has represented Canada at the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2014.
Zhou began playing chess in France at age three before growing up primarily in Finland and Canada. She gained national fame in Finland by becoming the youngest-ever Finnish national chess champion, winning the under-10 open division at just five years old. While playing for Finland, she also finished runner-up in the under-8 girls' division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2008 at age eight and won the women's division of the Finnish Chess Championship in 2010 at age 10. Zhou switched federations to Canada in 2011. She became a Canadian girls' national chess champion at the under-12 and under-14 levels in 2012 and 2013 respectively, before winning the women's national championship in 2016. Her biggest triumph as a junior was winning the under-14 girls' division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2014. Zhou qualified for the Woman Grandmaster title in 2016 with norms at three consecutive tournaments, two of which were in Kecskemét, Hungary, where she had also gained 300 rating points from two tournaments a year earlier. Her best victory in a game by rating was against Toms Kantāns, an International Master (IM) rated 2496 at the time they played.
Zhou started a Twitch channel, called akaNemsko, in 2020, streaming chess in collaboration with other Chess.com streamers and also streaming other games as a variety streamer. In August 2020 she signed with Counter Logic Gaming, the first chess player to sign with an esports organization.
- ^ a b "About akaNemsko". YouTube.