Qiyu Zhou

Her chess career began at age three in France, where she joined a club and quickly showed talent. In Finland, coached by Jouni Tolonen at the Shakki-77 chess club, she became the youngest Finnish national chess champion at age five, winning the under-10 open division in 2005. She repeated as under-10 champion from 2007 to 2010 and won the Finnish Women's National Chess Championship in 2010 at age 10. After switching to represent Canada in 2011, she won Canadian girls' national titles at under-12 (2012) and under-14 (2013) levels and the Canadian women's championship in 2016. Her biggest junior achievement was winning the under-14 girls' World Youth Chess Championship in 2014. She earned the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and FIDE Master (FM) titles in 2016, the first Canadian woman to do so, with a peak FIDE rating of 2367 and a career-best world ranking of No. 100 among women. She has represented Canada at the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2014. Her best-rated victory was against International Master Toms Kantāns (2496) in 2016.

Zhou began playing poker in 2021 after German poker player Fedor Holz offered to swap chess lessons for poker lessons during a stream. She made her live tournament debut at the 2021 World Series of Poker (WSOP) $1,000 Ladies Championship and won a $12,000 WPT World Championship package in 2022. She secured first place at the Celebrity Poker Tour (CPT) Invitational in August 2023 ($20,000) and finished runner-up in the CPT Invitational IV in August 2024 ($10,000). She continues to train with a poker coach to improve her skills.

Her online presence spans many platforms. On Twitch (@akaNemsko), launched in 2020, she streams chess, poker, and variety games like League of Legends. She signed with Counter Logic Gaming in August 2020, becoming the first chess player to join an esports organization. Her YouTube channel (@Nemo) features chess tutorials, poker content, and lifestyle vlogs. On TikTok (@akanemsko), she posts chess tips, poker highlights, and fashion content. Her Instagram accounts include a lifestyle page (@akanemsko) and a chess-focused page (@akanemskochess), showcasing her glamorous style and gaming achievements. She collaborates with Chess.com streamers like Alexandra Botez, Andrea Botez, and Hikaru Nakamura and has appeared in WPT Global advertisements.

Physically, Zhou is 5'4" with a slim build, long dark hair, and brown eyes. She has no reported surgeries or visible tattoos. Her fashion sense is often highlighted, blending bold and elegant styles. She is active on subscription sites, including Passes, where fans can access exclusive modeling content. She has kept the door open on making an OnlyFans, though she has not confirmed one. Her Twitch and YouTube also offer subscription tiers for premium content.

Her relationship status is not publicly confirmed, but in December 2022, she faced controversy when she awarded a $12,000 WPT World Championship package to her boyfriend in a YouTube giveaway, prompting accusations of unfairness on poker Twitter. She did not publicly address the specifics of the relationship or the controversy beyond the initial announcement, and her content seems to say she is single.

Her income is estimated at $500,000-$1 million annually, derived from Twitch subscriptions, YouTube ad revenue, TikTok sponsorships, Instagram brand deals, poker winnings ($30,000 documented from CPT events), and Patreon subscriptions. Her net worth is speculated to be $5 million, though this is an estimate without financial disclosures.

Controversies include the 2022 poker giveaway incident, which sparked debate but subsided without further escalation. In 2021, a Reddit thread questioned the legitimacy of her WGM and FM titles, citing her rapid rating gains in specific tournaments, but no evidence of wrongdoing was confirmed, and the claims were not widely substantiated. Zhou did not respond to inquiries about the allegations.

As of May 2025, Qiyu Zhou, now 25, remains active as a content creator, streaming on Twitch (@akaNemsko) and posting on YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. She continues to compete in poker, aiming to improve with her coach's guidance, and occasionally plays chess, though she has shifted focus from competitive play to streaming. Recent YouTube videos include poker vlogs and fashion hauls, reflecting her ongoing engagement with fans across gaming and lifestyle content. She has now announced plans to pursue being a supermodel.