On The Move with Maxim
For nearly fifteen years, Grandmaster Maxim Dlugy has kept busy building a successful business career. Along with partner Mark Lisnyansky, Maxim currently manages Diversified Property Fund, an investment fund with holdings throughout the world.
But Maxim’s original passion is chess, and in 2006, he decided it was time to get back into chess in a big way. Maxim is co-founder and Chair of a new North American entity, International Chess Management Inc. which was founded with the mandate of establishing elite chess as a successful international broadcast/sponsorship property.
Chess organization at the top is nothing new to Maxim. At 23 years of age he became the youngest President in United States Chess Federation history and had one of the most successful tenures as President.
International Chess Management Inc. is currently preparing for the launch of a new international chess league which will reinforce the viability of chess as an attractive international sport.
According to Maxim, “Chess is one of the biggest sports in the world and there’s absolutely no question about its commercial value. That there has never been an ongoing successful commercial league is remarkable. In order to do it right, you have to involve individuals who really know what they are doing and you have to allow plenty of lead time.” In the months ahead we’ll be providing a lot more information about the new league.
Here is the official website of Max Dlugy.
On a semi-related idea (at least we’ve discussed this ad infinitum with regard to promoting chess in the US… television coverage!!):
Chess on TV works with a slightly modified approach as the games/tournaments are taped LIVE, and then rebroadcast using color commentators to explain moves. IOW, you’ll be watching Kramnik-Topalov, but instead of watching two players sitting and thinking for unlimited time periods (thus losing your fickle, channel-surfing audience), you’ll see Kramnik puzzling over the last move very briefly, then Yasser will pipe in that Vladimir thought for 12 minutes then made the his next move, 22 …Ng6 (as we watch Kramnik physically make the move… a brief pause for the viewer to think and look at the board, then Maurice Ashley pipes in using his well-scripted, viewer accessible analysis, explaining the position, the options, then the typical color commentator schtick; “Vladimir hails from Russia, and professer a passing interest in hang-gliding, etc”).
I would love to see big tournament events broadcast the way horseyman described. Sitting in front of my computer screen for hours on end watching pieces move on the screen I(that may or may not reflect the actual moves made, depending on software glitches!) is not my cup of tea. Give me a half-hour action-packed review of the highlights with live action shots and voiced-over analysis – that would be great. But I’m not going to hold my breath we’ll see that any time soon. I wish IM Dlugy much luck in his enterprise. Perhaps he can persuade big business and/or big money contributors to back some large purse events that will attract top players from all over the world and get lots of publicity. I wonder, though, if he will get any cooperation from FIDE – which has entered into yet another venture to attempt to commercialize chess.
Janet Newton
That’s a very nice web site Max has!