Samay Raina Biography – The standup comedian from Kashmir who revolutionized chess in India!
Family Background of Samay Raina:
Samay Raina was born on October 26, 1997, in Jammu, India. His father’s name is Rajesh Raina, who is a Journalist. He has worked with media broadcasters like Doordarshan. His mother’s name is Sweeti Raina. She left her job in order to raise their only child.
He is a Kashmiri Hindu, and like other Kashmiri Pandits, his family also left their home during the exodus to save their lives, shifted to Delhi, and settled in Hyderabad later.
Education:
He did his primary education at Ramadevi Public School. Then, he completed his schooling at Hyderabad Public School.
Later, he graduated in Printing Engineering from the famous Pune Vidhyarthi Griha’s College Of Engineering And Technology.
Biography of Samay Raina:
| Samay Raina’s Profile Profile | |
|---|---|
| Personal Life | |
| Full Name | Samay Raina |
| Nickname | Rishabh |
| Date of Birth | October 26, 1997 |
| Age | 27 years 1 months (in December, 2024) |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Zodiac/Sun Sign | Scorpio |
| Birth Place | Jammu, India |
| School | Ramadevi Public School. Hyderabad Public School. |
| College | Pune Vidhyarthi Griha’s College Of Engineering And Technology. |
| Physical Stats | |
| Height (approx) | 5ft. 11″ (180 cm) (1.85 m) |
| Weight (approx) | 90 Kgs |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Eye Color | Dark Brown |
| Family & Relationships | |
| Father | Rajesh Raina |
| Mother | Sweeti Raina |
| Siblings | None |
| Marital Status | Unmarried |
| Girlfriend | Not known |
| Career | |
| Profession | Comedian and YouTuber |
| Famous for | Comedy and Chess streamer |
Samay Raina’s Comedy Career:
He first wanted to be a musician (specifically a guitarist), but things didn’t go his way. He then tried more stuff like writing, blogging, etc., but things didn’t work out for him again.
Later, while he was persuading his engineering, he started doing stand-ups, although not professionally. He used to perform at college fests.
In 2017, one of his friends asked him to participate in a standup competition where the winner will get the chance to perform at the Pune Comedy Festival. He finished second in the contest and lost his opportunity to perform with comedians like Biswa Kalyan Rath, Kanan Gill, Abhishek Upmanyu, and others.
However, a good thing that happened to him was that he started doing open-mics regularly at different venues after that. Soon, Samay started performing opening acts for other comedians too.
The Joint winner of Comicstaan:
Later, he participated in Comicstaan season 2; a standup comedy series aired on Amazon Prime. Comedians like Biswa, Kanan, Kaneez, Kenny, Neeti, Sumukhi, and Zakir mentored and judged the contestants.
There were ten participants in the show including, Rohan, Shreeja, Joel, and others. However, none of the mentioned participants were able to reach the finals.
Aakash Gupta and Samay were the combined winners of the show. Raunaq and Sumit Saurav finished in the second and the third position, respectively.
So far, he has uploaded only two three of his standup bits on his YouTube channel. The first one is to tell that videos are “coming soon,” and the other is to justify his first video’s title. It took him around 11 months to release his third bit, it was pretty “relaxing,” though.
Samay – The Chess Boomer in India:
Samay Raina started streaming on YouTube after Tanmay Bhat (YouTuber, writer, and co-founder of AIB) asked him to run his own channel.
He followed the instructions, and when most of the Indian Youtubers were streaming different online games, he started streaming chess which was quite rare till 2020.
His first chess stream came on March 23, 2020. His initial streams didn’t get a lot of views, obviously because of fewer subscribers. Also, it’s pretty hard for an average person to understand the sport very quickly.
Comedians on Board:
Soon after some chess steams, the standup comic organized an online chess tournament for comedians. Akash Mehta won the tournament, but guess who the real winner was? It was Samay Raina for sure, as more people started watching his streams and slowly getting the hang of the game.
He then started streaming chess quite regularly along with comedians including Vaibhav Sethia, Biswa, and Upmanyu.
He would get chess personalities on his streams and play chess with them. His initial guests were with the likes of Agadmator (YouTube chess streamer), GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Nihal Sarin, and cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal.
Chess for Charity:
But the turning point for him as a chess streamer was his first charity stream, which many professional chess players applauded. During the lockdown, he did a charity stream for the waste pickers’ community.
The first Indian Grand Master and Five times world champion Viswanathan Anand also joined the stream along with Vidit, Nihal, IM Tania Sachdev, and Samay’s comedian friends. He raised around nine lakhs INR through his four-hour-long stream and donated it for the welfare of the waste pickers living in Delhi.
He later did another charity stream for helping out the dancers’ community and stray dogs during the pandemic.
Samay Streaming Official Chess Tournaments:
The comedian then continued his chess streaming by introducing more chess players like GM Adhiban Baskaran and IM Sagar Shah (co-founder of Chessbase India) to his audience. Later, he live-streamed the World Online Chess Cup in May 2020.
India finished fifth in the tournament. It was definitely high-level chess for his audience, but the commentary done by his then-new friend Sagar made it slightly easier for the viewers.
The Olympiad:
The combo of Sagar Shah and Samay Raina certainly helped people understand chess more interestingly. Then, the Online Chess Olympiad happened in August 2020.
Both Samay and Sagar streamed the online tournament on their respective Youtube channels. The Indian chess team played with Vishy Anand, P Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Divya Deshmukh, Nihal Sarin, etc.
Vidit Gujrathi led the team, and the vice-captain of the group was GM Srinath Narayanan.
India and Russia played the final of the tournament. And more than 70,000 people viewed the final match live on Samay’s YouTube channel who just started streaming chess a few months back. He’s not even a professional chess player.
Who would have thought that? No one. Not even IM Sagar Shah, who himself has been covering tournaments like this for many years.
Both India and Russia were declared the joint winners due to a server outage across the country. It was India’s first-ever gold at the Olympiad. The interesting fact is that the result of the final match was first announced by a FIDE official on his channel only.
Chess with Grandmasters:
He has done chess streams with great chess players, including many Grandmasters (GM) and International Masters (IM). Not just with Indian players, but Samay has shared the screen with top chess players from around the world like Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Judit Polgar, Daniel King, Cemil Can, and Robert Hess.
Again, not just that, but he has streamed with some of the current top chess players in the world, including Magnus Carlsen (five-time World Chess Champion from Norway), Anish Giri (Dutch No. 1), and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan).
India’s Got Latent:
After numerous streams and stand-up comedy shows, Samay Raina introduced a live show called “India’s Got Latent” in 2024. Although the name is inspired by the “Got Talent” franchise, the format is quite different.
The show features four judges, no host, minimal space, a modest budget, and a lot of fun. It highlights unexpected latent talent and sometimes genuine talent. Unlike the traditional format, there are no disqualifications here.
Contestants write their score (out of 10) on a piece of paper before their performance. They must perform their act (literally anything that can be streamed on YouTube) within a certain time frame. After the performance, the judges score them. If the average score of the four judges matches the score the contestant gave themselves, the contestant wins.
The prize is the total revenue earned from ticket sales for that show. If there are two winners, the prize money is divided equally between them.
It’s a hilarious show that everyone is enjoying. Not just the live audience, but also the contestants and the people watching online. The unique format and spontaneous fun are making it a hit with everyone. I just hope this time no one comes up with something like, “Don’t do this in the name of talent.”
Facts about Samay Raina:
- He is a big fan of Eminem.
- Samay Raina is by far the only person in this world who has an ‘M’ title (Master, I guess) on Chess.com.
- The stand-up comedian is quite popular as Blunder Master; however, his chess skills do not justify the tag he gave to himself.
- He
also streamsused to stream other fun games like Pokémon, Devour, Fall Guys, Propnight etc. - His favorite standup comics are Abhishek Upmanyu and Norm MacDonald.
- The stand-up comic makes donations every month with the help of his YouTube members.
- Apart from streaming and all, he occasionally uploads vlogs on his channel.
- He is the winner of the 2021 COB All-Stars.
- Also, in 2021, he won the Botez Bullet Invitational and donated the prize money for charity.
- Samay and Sagar Shah organized and hosted a chess league titled Chess Super League in 2021.
How did the comedian get into Chess?
Samay used to play chess with his grandfather when he was in his school. Later, he even participated in some chess tournaments where he discovered his new skills regarding the sport.
Apart from that, he learned Chess at his school as an extracurricular activity.
Frequently asked questions on Google:
Who are the siblings of Samay Raina?
He has no siblings.
What is the height of Samay Raina?
Approx 5ft. 11″ (1.80 m or 185 cm)
What is the age of Samay Raina?
27 years 1 months (in December, 2024
Who is the girlfriend of Samay Raina?
‘Girlfriend reveal’ of stand-up comedian Samay Raina is yet to happen. Either his own dares to himself or his friends will definitely leak this information. Stay tuned with us.
Social Media Accounts:
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Bhai Samay Raina ka weight update karo koi!! 110 kilo ka honewala hai abhi