Qiyu “Nemo” Zhou’s has gone toe-to-toe with some of the best chess players in the world, and now the grandmaster is setting her sights on the poker world.
Better known as @akaNemsko, or Nemo, she’s putting it all on the line in Team Ignition’s new series, All in or Else. After years developing her reputation and skill as one of chess’ most feared opponents, Nemo’s focus has shifted to poker, where a single hand can decide her fate.
A Chess Prodigy Before She Could Read
Nemo Zhou was born on January 6, 2000, in Jingzhou, China. She picked up chess at the age of three while living in France. Her family later settled in Finland. There, she became a national phenomenon before most kids finish elementary school. She won the Finnish under-10 open chess championship at just five years old, and then was runner-up in the under-8 girls’ division at the 2008 World Youth Chess Championships.
Her family moved to Canada in 2011, settling in Ottawa and later Toronto, and Nemo kept climbing. At 16, she earned her FIDE Master title. A year later, she became a Woman Grandmaster. She is the first Canadian woman to hold either title. She has represented Canada at the Women’s Chess Olympiad since 2014, and hit a peak FIDE rating of 2367, which made her one of the top 100 women in the entire world.
Even champions have their struggles, though. After a tough loss at the World Championship at 17, Nemo stepped away from competitive play and enrolled at the University of Toronto to study economics and statistics. The elite chess grind took a bit of a backseat.
Streaming, Chess, and a Crossover No One Saw Coming
In June 2020, Nemo launched the Twitch channel “akaNemsko,” streaming chess during lockdown, when the whole world was hungry to see anything outside their own four walls. Two months later, she made history again, becoming the first chess player ever signed to an esports organization. She joined Counter Logic Gaming, and her digital empire has since grown into one of the more substantial operations in the chess world, spanning Twitch, YouTube, and TikTok.
Around the same time, Nemo also started dabbling in a different kind of game. She made her live poker debut at the 2021 WSOP $1,000 Ladies Championship. Her pocket aces were cracked twice, but the poker bug had bit her good. The hobby quickly transformed into a second career. She’s since become a fixture of the Celebrity Poker Tour, and in August 2023 she won the first-ever CPT Invitational in Las Vegas, topping a 70-player field for a $20,000 payday. It was her first tournament title. She came close to a second the following year, finishing runner-up at the 2024 CPT Invitational.
Her love of chess hasn’t died, of course. Recently, she was spotted teaching chess lessons to CNN’s reporters, and she’s still as sharp as ever.
All In or Else – Wild Wagers With Unexpected Consequences
Team Ignition’s All In or Else series takes Nemo’s two obsessions and turns them into a weekly dare. The premise is simple and brutal: one quick round of all-in-or-fold poker against a different opponent each episode. No advanced strategies are needed here. Win, and Nemo banks points toward a season-long goal of 50. Lose, and she pays up immediately.
The season kicked off at Dilo, one of Toronto’s top restaurants, where Nemo challenged the general manager and another team member to a hand with her dignity on the line. She lost, and had to spend a day working on their staff. Viewers watched her set tables, bus dishes, and clean up a very unglamorous kitchen mess (and worse) in a designer outfit.
The stakes only escalated from there. In Paris, Nemo squared off against a chess rival for the right to three days of luxury versus three days surviving on just €100. She lost that one too (unlucky), and ended up in a hostel bunk bed with three strangers, rationing crepes and hydrating at public water fountains until she tapped out.
A lighter episode paired Nemo against her friend Luna, with the stakes simple: the loser had to walk up to five strangers around Toronto and get their numbers using nothing but cringe pickup lines from the winner. Nemo took the hand, and spent the rest of the episode feeding Luna lines through an earpiece as she worked the park (e.g. “”Are you pocket aces? Because there’s no way I’m folding you.”)
Nemo’s a good sport, and we can’t wait to see what’s in the cards for her as she plays along this season.
Fun Facts You Might Not Know About Nemo Zhou
- Nemo is a nickname given to her by her parents when she was a kid.
- Beyond chess and poker, she’s also streamed League of Legends and appeared in poker ads.
- She isn’t always trying to destroy opponents in chess. When she plays and makes content, she’s said she wants to make the game feel approachable rather than intimidating.
All-In, With a Twist
Whether she’s staring down a chess rival across a board or across a felt table, Nemo Zhou has built a career on thriving in pressure-packed moments. Now she’s sharing the fun side of things with fans online. Does All In or Else up the ante? It makes it more fun, that’s for sure.
Follow along with Team Ignition to see what she risks next, and whether she can hit 50 points before the season’s final punishment comes due.
