25 September 2022
The Great Carlini has a US Chess blitz rating of 2124, a Regular rating of 2009, and a Quick rating of 2080, showcasing that he is a highly skilled chess player.
You can check his rating at the United States Chess Federation website by inputting his member ID “10438896”.
Who Is the Great Carlini?
The Great Carlini’s real name is Carl Hyne and is well-known for his participation in the YouTube channel Coffee Chess. He probably got his nickname “Carlini” because of his name “Carl”.
Carlini became infamous due to his aggressive trash-talking, singing, taunting, and goading of his opponents, often in a disrespectful manner to get a reaction out of the opponent and create dramatic Youtube videos. Sometimes he even uses grabs the opponent’s pieces and fiddles them in the most obnoxious manner possible to provoke his opponents.
His specialty is blitz chess, and he often plays a risky, high-risk high reward style. His positional play is of particular notice.
While his ability to distract and annoy opponents can be obnoxious to some, it is undoubtful that it helps in destabilizing opponents and keeping them on their toes. And there have been multiple times where his bravado helped him pull a comeback and win from behind.
And despite his fiery exterior, his internal mindset is surprisingly strong, and he’s good at not getting tilted or frustrated by losing pieces or making mistakes. When he’d be on the back foot or lose a piece he would tell himself “Ok, you lose the piece. You accept it and move on”. No point struggling over what’s already happened.
He has a Paypal account you can use to send him a few bucks if you’re a fan.
The Great Carlini & The Coffee Chess Channel
The Coffee Chess is a YouTube chess channel for people who love trash-talking and fun banter chess matches. And as their name implies – they do it over a cup of coffee!
And it’s on the Coffee Chess channel where the Great Carlini has gained recognition by showcasing his provoking skills. Though one has to keep in mind that he almost certainly exaggerates these features for the camera to produce more engaging videos, and not necessarily because he is like that all the time or that he would have the same attitude in a serious tournament.
The Coffee Chess guys have been uploading videos for many years now and gained a solid following amongst chess content creators, and for good reason – their videos are highly entertaining and full of banter, and the Great Carlini is a big contributor to their success because of his attitude.
They even have a Patreon you can use to support their work by paying $1, $5, $25, or $50, and gaining increasingly bigger benefits depending on how much you’ve invested, including access to interviews with their players (including The Great Carlini) and their stories, blitz chess tips, and sneak peeks of future content before they’re released.
And despite the Great Carlini’s antics during the videos, he does generally provide important critical commentary analyzing the games during the last portion of the videos. And as mentioned at the start, the Great Carlini is without a doubt a seriously skilled player.
