Bursts of popularity an odd trait of game
Saturday November 3, 2012 8:06 AM
Shelby Lyman
At age 9, I witnessed a curious phenomenon.
As a summer camper bunking with 40 other boys, only one of whom initially played chess, I explained the rules to one or two of the others. Within several days, a basic knowledge of chess had spread like wildfire. Virtually every other camper had picked up the game and was playing it.
It was strange but probably unique, I thought for many years.
But what had happened in a microcosm as a kid happened at large in 1972.
A Harris poll at the onset of the Bobby Fischer-Boris Spassky world title match found that only 20 percent of Americans older than 18 knew the rules of the game.
But soon it seemed everyone was playing or watching the five-hour-per-game, seven-week coverage on PBS with intense interest if not passion.
Buying a chess set or book in Manhattan was almost impossible, according to reports. Passersby lined up in front of department-store windows to watch Fischer and Spassky’s moves on television.
It was of great personal significance for many, with children and parents often watching together, I’ve frequently been told.
I encountered a similar contagion in at least a couple of school programs I inaugurated during the next decade.
To this day, I have difficulty explaining the curious phenomenon.
Source: http://www.dispatch.com
Nakamura is clearly better than Fischer. He can beat Fischer 8-2 in a 10 game match.
Crap! Are you Nakamura’s relative?
the phenomenon is actually pretty simple. Height of the cold war, an american was able to challenge someone from the USSR at their own game. It’s too bad that the US player was such a bad role model. Perhaps if Fischer wasn’t so unstable, the popularity would have continued. Today there is a new revival in the game, but it is fueled by cheap/easy internet access. Chess is still strong, just log in online to one of the many servers.