Chess grows in popularity
Posted: Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010
Charlotte Observer
Chess has attracted an increasing number of adherents in its 1,500 years or so of existence. Virtually every country in the world has chess players and a chess federation.
Electronic games come and go, but chess continues to gain in popularity.
As a camper of nine years, I learned to my surprise that the game was contagious.
When I arrived at a New Hampshire summer camp in early July, only two among 40 boys knew how to play the game. Within two weeks, everyone was playing despite no special effort of my own.
It spread like wildfire, almost of its own accord.
I witnessed a similar phenomenon when I conducted chess programs in Long Island, N.Y., elementary and middle schools in the late ’70s. Shortly after we started, everyone it seemed – especially the boys – wanted to play.
The poet-writer and philosopher Goethe called chess the “touchstone of the intellect,” while his more down-to-earth countryman Siegbert Tarrasch, a physician and superb player, said: “Chess, like love, like music, has the power to make men happy.”
Source: http://www.charlotteobserver.com
Chess in my town doubled in the last year. He had 6 players last year. Now we have 12.