At 9 pm EST this evening, Ethereum co-founder and figurehead Vitalik Buterin will face off against chess streamer National Canadian Team player Alexandra Botez in an match event live-streamed on Twitch.

The event came about post-obit a series of matches and conversations held by members of the Ethereum-focused Bankless podcast and newsletter. After Vitalik participated in a handful of matches, Botez threw downward the gauntlet:

Fans of the chess personality take warned Vitalik to watch out for her namesake "Botez Gambit" — a playful term for when she accidentally loses her queen. Jokes bated, the Canadian sports some serious accolades: she currently holds the championship of Woman FIDE Principal, and is a five time Canadian National Girls Champion.

Non all are counting out the 26 year-old Ethereum co-founder, however. Some have speculated that between pondering Derek Parfit and solving scalability, Vitalik might be hiding some genuine chess chops:

Additionally, aside from helping build the world'south largest smart contract platform, Vitalik might be about notable as the inventor of a chess variant. In 2019 he debuted "1.58 dimensional chess," played on a pyramidal plane.

And what would an Ethereum mindsport prizefight be without on-chain prediction markets where viewers could bet on the effect? Gamified prediction marketplace Yieldwars is offer a market for the match, with winner-take-all options for either side, while Omen Prediction Markets is offering weighted payouts.

So far, the market believes that Vitalik is going to accept a rough evening. Pitched equally "Male monarch versus Queen," the Yieldwars market currently has totaled just $500 in bets, with bettors healthily favoring Botez. Omen, meanwhile, has attracted over $650 in bets, once over again heavily skewing towards the chess streamer.

1 possible option for the overmatched founder? An irregular opening. The Cointelegraph weekend editorial team humbly suggests the Orangutan.