Popular chess streamer GMHikaru banned on Twitch

Popular chess streamer GMHikaru has been banned from Twitch with no official reason stated at this time, leaving fans to speculate as to why.

In 2003, Hikaru "GMHikaru" Nakamura was crowned the youngest Grand Master in the history of the United States Chess Federation, cementing him as one of the most skilled chess players in the world. Utilizing his unique skills, he began streaming himself playing chess on Twitch, which eventually led him to run a platform-wide Twitch match with some of the biggest streamers participating.

However, it seems like he'll have to take a break from streaming since he has now been temporarily banned from Twitch, with the news being announced by the automated Twitter account Streamerbans. The news shocked some fans, prompting them to leave messages asking if anyone had the context for the ban.

Fans speculate why GMHikaru was banned

Many fans seemed to all point to one possible reason as to why he could have been banned, which was a moment 6 days ago where Hikaru watched Dr DisRespect's chess match against DrLupo. While watching a chess match isn't against Twitch's terms of service, watching Dr Disrespect who is banned from Twitch might be.

While this isn't confirmed, the ban comes only hours after the popular Spanish-speaking streamer TheGrefg was banned, which fans claim was because the stream featured a banned Twitch streamer.

With these two events happening so close to each other, it's hard not to assume that both of the bans were for similar reasons. However, until fans get a solid answer, they will keep guessing and trying to figure out any other possible reasons.

Without a solid answer from GMHikaru as of now, the best assumption we can go with is him watching Dr DisRespect play chess. If that is the case, then it certainly answers the question of whether Twitch streamers can collaborate with the Doc, since he recently settled his legal battle with the platform.