Chess is continuing to grow very strong in America and around the world. However, our sport is still not accepted by the mainstream media even though we have the numbers to justify it. What do you think are the problems and what should be done to fix them? What should the role of our national federation as well as FIDE be? Certainly politics as usual is not the answer. 
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Selling chess is hard. Wouldn’t hurt to have a world champion from the US. Getting a gold medal in an obscure sport in the Olympics may popularize a sport. I am not sure the brainy image of chess is good for chess. You might attract brainy people but then you might alienate yourself from others. For television I think blitz chess is best. I am not sure if a celebrity chess match would do well. Maybe if you get two celebrities whose hatred is well known for each other and they challenge each other to a chess match for the public to see. Or pair a chess professional and a celebrity like they do in those golf tournaments. These are all probably bad ideas but selling chess is hard.
To quote famous General George Patton, “America loves a winner, Americans won’t tolerate a loser”. When Bobby Fischer was playing for The World Title in 1972 local saloons in America, where not the most sophisticated gather, were demanding to watch reports from the match as opposed to America’s “so called” national pastime, baseball. You give America a legitimate contender and/or Champion, chess will skyrocket in popularity and media coverage. The USCF has to do a much greater effort than what they have (there online play chess site is a failure!), and FIDE is in my mind only supportive of European chess. As for televison I think blitz matches between chess playing celebrities might become popular ala celebrity poker has become on ESPN and other stations. Maybe you could have famous chess celebrities like yourself to inform, enlighten, and comment on the games televised. Who knows if Nakamura could capture a Title we could have a chess boom in The United States.
the above our my comments as usual Susan I forgot my byline LOL.
TFK
Television! There are so many channels now, with the most arcane of subjects. Poker is very popular on TV, and “celebrities” have been created by exposure on TV. There needs to be an effort by the U.S. chess community to create an exciting format — with appropriate commentary — to make chess a watchable TV “sport”. I have many ideas on how this might work, if you’d like to hear them … some think chess would not work/sell on TV. I think it could if done properly.
Mike D.
Make all the corrupt chess politicians resign. Let the people who care do good things.
Hi Susan-
The Chess community in the U.S. needs to follow your lead. Of all the people I contacted last year to set up our North Country Chess festival, you and Paul were the most helpful. Many other folks like Frank Brady never even bothered to respond. When students and parents see grandmasters supporting a program it generates lots of interest. It seems as though many people of accomplishment in Chess can not be troubled to help aspiring programs. You have my sincere thanks for all you have done for Sci-Tech Chess.
Best…John Kunz
I agree with anonymous. The most important thing is having a world champion from America.
Consider what Anand has done for Indian chess, you and your sisters have done for Hungary and Topalov has done for Bulgaria.
But this can’t be controlled. The best everyone can do is popularize chess in schools with decent prizes and a champion will follow. With the level of resources available to american students this should be just a matter of time.
There are a number of things that can be done to increase awareness of chess in the US.
The first thing is unity among organizers and chess companies across the US. Unity and helping each other out is greatly missing. Only a small subset of people work together.
The next thing is that the USCF needs to be more involved in the chess community and the ‘buddy network’ that is built within the USCF that locks people out or uses power to squash what they don’t like needs to go away. The value of the USCF is near nil at this point. While things have improved under the new administration it couldn’t have gotten much worse (and no – bankruptcy would not have been that bad of an option).
We need more organizations like the Susan Polgar Foundation that cares about chess and not about chess politics or making money hand over fist.
I’m not sure why a reputable PR firm has never been hired by the USCF to help polish the image of chess. The USCF expends a great deal of funds for other purposes but why not for a long term fix like the image of chess? I would guess that the most likely reason is that since this is a long term fix and not a quick win no one wants to do it because it won’t be done during their administration and they won’t be able to take credit for it. Of course also if the USCF went out and got a PR firm it would be one of their buddy firms.
Everybody keeps saying that we need a world champion. Show me a person that plays at that level that has been developed out of the US? And what support to they get? And of course any fame they get goes to their head and they think they are the second coming.
Other national federations do support up and coming players. We don’t. Yes we have things like the Samford Fellowship but not enough instruments like that. Yes some universities offer 4 or more year scholarships for chess youths but a lot of chess gets ignored then when they are doing their academic studies. I am not saying to ignore their academic studies but there is a natural conflict between chess, academic studies, and also growing up.
We need to support the professional players and the upcoming youths in order to make an impact on the international scene. Until we do so we are not going to produce a world championship contender here. We won’t have a fluke like a Fischer again that can hang with the European players.
How many American born GM’s have we crowned in the past decade? We can say Nakamura is one, but who else? I think maybe Alex Sherzer? Ben Finegold is on his way there as well. So potentially 3 in the last decade? That’s what some European countries do in 1 month!
Also how many American players actually get invitations to play in European tournaments? It seems like, outside of a couple of players like Nakamura and Kamsky, other US players at at European events only as a matter of accident or because US representation was required like at the World Cup. Why doesn’t USCF make a stink that we are not getting invited? Oh that’s right because USCF doesn’t want to subsidize any part of the costs like other foreign federations do for their players when playing in a foreign country.
It also wouldn’t hurt if organizers here in the US tried to bid on FIDE championship events and such. Why is it that we don’t see the USCF or an organizer bring any form of a championship here? I believe that the SPF is trying to do this. But why isn’t USCF? I think the answer is simple – USCF doesn’t care about the professional players, they don’t care about international events, and they don’t really care about what is in the best interest of chess, only what is in the best interest of their own politics and power.
Does it really need to be mainstream? I always thought chess was popular. It’s been around over a millenia and has spread throughout the world. The same cannot be said about baseball or NFL football which have been around for a hundred years or so and only played in the US and very few other countries. In the U.S. and many modern societies, everything needs to get done yesterday. These societies enjoy fast action movies, fast food and extreme sports. But to appreciate the game of chess takes time. The knowledge and appreciation for the game needs to be nurtured and cultivated. People just simply don’t have the patience. I guess chess is not for everyone. This may change, but at the present time chess aficionados are in an exclusive club, and perhaps that is best.
Oh My My
I suggest you contact Duif. She has the best ideas I have read. She really understands the issues and brings new perspectives to the issues.
I joined USCF in 1972. still a member. when I joined everyone said that USCF did nothing for chess in usa. well it is the same today. over 30 years later. nothing has changed at uscf. probably gotten worse. I dont understand a national organization that does not know how to do things properly. they seem to be tied up in detail and never take care of the big picture.
Back in 1972 everyone said that USCF needed to hire people to raise money from corporations and support chess. but it still has not been done.
AF4C is the first one to come along and organize tournaments properly. We need to nurture AF4C and get more organizations to do the same.
By a long shot since I have been around since 1972, two things have been bright stars out there. the 2 really best things I have seen are
1) Susan Polgar working so hard with the children and schools across america.
2) AF4C working so hard on the US Championships and bringing in corporate sponsorship.
I give both equal status. they are different parts of the same effort to increase chess in america.
We must not sit around waiting for another bobby fischer to light up american chess. it will not work.
let us look to what is happening in Turkey. that is the example we can follow. they are putting chess into every school. they intend to grow a World Champion in a few years time.
Everyone expects USCF to show the leadership and light the way. but it never happens. it is time for individuals to just go and do what needs to be done.
Tommy
Tommy, I too became interested in chess in 72. I saw Fischer play a blitz game (can’t remember his opponent, may have been Evans) on a segment of the David Frost show and was hooked, bitten by the bug, whatever you want to call it. I guess that makes us long in the tooth.
I definately share your opinions about the USCF and what it hasn’t done for chess over the years. Susan’s work with the youth may pay off in the future, I hope it does.
I know this is going to sound cynical, but chess just isn’t a spectator sport, and in this country that is paramont. Poker has skyrocketed because of the amount of money that can be won not only by professional’s, but amateur’s as well. Also in chess an amateur isn’t going to beat a pro as can and does happen in poker. And poker has a longer history and greater legacy in this country.
In many foreign country’s, corporate sponsorship is done for publicity; in this country it’s bottom line economic’s period, and we all know what happened with HB Global last year. I think newportnexus may have some good idea’s, but like I’ve mentioned to him in the past, I just can’t see corporate “buying” into it. All you young and ambitious people out there, please prove me wrong.
Is it really so important to have the attention of mass media? Intellectual activities rarely attract mass media, and for a good reason. They are not sexy or visually thrilling. Can’t imagine an average viewer get too excited about Botvinnik games. Chess is not a visual sport, and should not try to follow tennis and soccer in its campaign to attract sponsors. Maybe more original thinking is necessary to develop a new and different strategy.
The draw needs to come from the intellectual businesses that exist such as the high-tech industry, the pharma/med industry, and the consulting industry. But they don’t which is the problem.
For a short time big tech firms were sponsoring but only for the super events like Man vs Machine, etc.
And again no one has yet to professionally lay out the value proposition to corporate sponsors. Until that happens we won’t see much along the ways of corporate sponsorship, only fragmented groups able to draw up funding from connections they have.
A problem with chess is the frequency of draws in top level play. People don’t like draws. You can have draws in football and hockey but those are very rare. If draws put off chess players who like the game, think of what draws will do to the average competitive Joe who is considering whether to push pawns?
Also in chess if you make a mistake from the opening you are screwed up. Whereas in most sports you mess up early then you are down points but everything is reset. If your opponent scores against you in football, then you get the ball back with all your men on the field. In chess if your opponent takes 5 of your pieces, you are stuck with 11 pieces for the rest of the game. A game like bughouse could compensate.
Chess is different from other sports, and it will take work for ordinary people to accept something that they are not used to. A world champion from the US would help. But otherwise I think the easiest work can be concentrating on scholastics rather than the general public, and when the scholastics grow up then they will become the general public.
I try to ask this whenever I see that question posed but never get it in on time. What do you and Paul think we can do to change this?
I just now ran into this discussion which is basically the same issue. hope you find some good ideas here.
http://www.chessninja.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=000071
I have not read the entire thread. I had to come here and share my find. now back to finish reading the thread.