Playing with online chess bots is fun. To some people playing online chess may not sound ‘real’, but the truth is, it is very real and sometimes more competitive than playing chess with ‘real’ people.

On March 2, Levy Rozman, in a pink sweater and round glasses, was streaming his Chess.com matches to 12,000 viewers over Twitch. “All right, this looks like a cheater,” he said without pause, as he ...