Hanging Pawns

Hanging Pawns is a chess education YouTube channel run by Croatian player Stjepan Tomic. What makes this channel special is its origin story: Stjepan only started playing chess in 2016 and launched the channel in 2018, documenting his improvement journey in real time. That perspective resonates deeply with the adult improver community.

The channel is best known for its opening repertoire series, which walks viewers through complete systems move by move. Stjepan also produces book reviews, middlegame and endgame lessons, and his popular Road to GM series where he replays and analyzes every rated game he plays. With nearly 400 videos, the channel has become a go-to resource for intermediate players.

Beyond YouTube, Stjepan created ChessReads.com, a free crowdsourced platform for chess book reviews. The site helps players at every level find the right books through community recommendations and detailed writeups. He also maintains an active Patreon community that supports his ongoing content creation.