Who is akaNemsko?

akaNemsko is Nemo Zhou (Qiyu Zhou), a Chinese-Canadian chess player and Twitch streamer who holds the Woman Grandmaster title. She streams on Twitch as a Partner, mostly IRL, Just Chatting, League of Legends and chess, to about 380,000 followers as of October 2026.

Nemo was born on January 6, 2000, in Jingzhou, China, and was a competitive chess player years before she streamed. She won the under-14 girls World Youth Championship in 2014, and these days her Twitch bio introduces her as a Woman Grandmaster with a former World Youth gold who is on a competitive poker and gaming side arc.

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How did Nemo get into streaming?

Nemo learned chess at age three in Antibes, France. Her family moved to Finland when she was four, where her father had a research job, and then to Ottawa, Canada, around 2011. She earned the FIDE Master title in 2016 and the Woman Grandmaster title in 2017, the first Canadian woman to hold either one, and played for Canada at four Chess Olympiads between 2014 and 2020.

She was studying economics and mathematics at the University of Toronto when the pandemic hit. In March 2020 she started streaming on the Botez sisters' BotezLive channel with Alexandra and Andrea Botez, and in June 2020 she launched her own Twitch channel, akaNemsko. She took a leave from university in January 2021 to stream full time.

In a PokerGO profile, Nemo explained that playing competitive chess alone could not support a career, which is part of why she turned to streaming.

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The first chess player signed by an esports organization

In August 2020, Counter Logic Gaming signed Nemo, and she was described as the first chess player to sign with an esports organization. The CLG Chess Arena followed on September 8, 2020, a two-hour, five-minute-blitz tournament on Chess.com with a $2,100 prize pool, broadcast on both her Twitch channel and CLG's.

She also became a regular on Chess.com's PogChamps events, where she coached and commentated for streamers learning the game.

On September 29, 2025, the League of Legends organization FlyQuest announced Nemo as a creator on its roster. FlyQuest described her as a Woman Grandmaster, a poker player and an Irelia main in League, and said she would make chess, gaming, travel, poker and lifestyle content with the team.

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From chess to poker

Nemo made her World Series of Poker debut in 2021, playing the $1,000 Ladies Championship. PokerGO covered the trip, and noted that she had already played a televised World Poker Tour cash game with Maria Konnikova and Alexandra Botez, and was working with a poker coach.

Poker has stayed in her streams since, and her Instagram bio points to a separate poker account alongside her chess account, @nemochess, which sits at about one million followers.

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Fun facts about Nemo

  • She started playing chess at age three in Antibes, France, and later lived in Finland before moving to Canada around age 11.
  • She won the World Youth Championship in the under-14 girls section in 2014.
  • She represented Canada at four Chess Olympiads: 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
  • She was the first chess player signed by an esports organization when she joined Counter Logic Gaming in August 2020.
  • She is an Irelia main in League of Legends, according to FlyQuest.
  • Her Instagram bio lists Toronto and Los Angeles as her bases.
  • She majored in economics and mathematics at the University of Toronto before leaving in January 2021 to stream full time.

Where to watch Nemo

Nemo streams live on Twitch as akaNemsko, and posts chess, travel and lifestyle videos on YouTube. She is also on TikTok and Instagram.

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StreamableRun and Nemo

StreamableRun is supporting Nemo's streams, including the IRL travel broadcasts she runs in between chess and poker. We are glad to back a streamer who has built a following across chess, esports and travel.