The collaboration will see the music company develop a Lofi Girl playlist with around 20 tunes. The original lo-fi sounds have been characterized as ‘chess-inspired,’ and a YouTube movie dubbed ‘cool beats to play chess to’ has been created to accompany them.
Lofi Girl is well known for her long-running ‘lofi hip hop radio – sounds to relax/study to’ 24/7 livestream, which has 13.6 million subscribers on YouTube.
Along with the playlist, which is accessible on a variety of streaming services, the video shows Logi Girl’s figure playing chess while holding a promotional poster for the Chess Champions Tour Finals 2023. Fans will also be able to purchase vinyl copies of the playlist, with signed copies handed free throughout the partnership.
Further specifics on the collaboration have yet to be revealed, although Chess.com’s release indicated that Lofi Girl would play a role in the official tournament broadcast.
The 2023 Champions Chess Tour Finals will be held December 9th-16th, with players competing for $500,000 (£400,000) in prize money. All tournaments are held on the Chess.com website.
Chess.com’s CEO Erik Allebest said: “We’ve known for a long time now how good Lofi Girl is to work, study, and play chess too. In fact, I love it myself.
“So this partnership is the perfect gift to the chess community and beyond. We hope this unique playlist helps you focus even better when you play and find more of those brilliant moves on Chess.com.”
Chess, which straddles the boundary between esports and traditional sport, has nonetheless attracted a number of significant sponsors seen in esports. Displate and noblechairs are examples of this.
This isn’t the first time Lofi has been utilized to reach out to younger audiences, even in the esports industry. Fnatic, a European esports organization, even released its own Lofi record last year.
