This is the cover of the beautiful program book from the Presseball which I attended in Dresden on my birthday. As you know, I was born and raised in Europe, in addition to experiencing the first 20 years of my chess career over there. I am used to seeing chess events being well publicized and highly regarded. Professional players are truly respected in many other parts of the world just as doctors or college professors to name a few.
Unfortunately, the culture is very different here in America. This is one of the areas which I have worked very hard to try to improve for my colleagues. As an organizer, I do my best to show respect to professional players by holding events at nice and professional playing venues with good conditions. In addition, only highest quality chess equipments are being used in such events. This makes a big difference in the eyes of the fans and the media.
In addition, a nice program book was created for each of the major events I organized, such as the Mayor’s Cup in NY, SPICE Cup in Lubbock, Texas, and even the Women’s Olympiad Training Program. Little things like this can go a long way in enhancing the image of chess.
I agree and good luck with changing this mentality.
GMs in Europe are paid money to participate in good tournaments. GMs in America bring their own sets and boards to the World Open, Foxwoods and pay their own ways. Is that a good description?
I don’t know about the GMs having to bring their own pieces and boards to tournaments (I kinda doubt it), but the US is still not a very permissive environment for a strong player to make his way from tourney to tourney, supporting himself with the possibility of profit. The result is a much richer chess environment in Europe, and nobody can be surprised.
On a slightly off-topic note: I don’t see any equivalence between the profession of Doctor and that of Chess Player. What doctors do everyday is important to essentially everyone; what chessplayers do is quite trivial in comparison. As for lawyers…we got plenty and could do with fewer (law school grad here).
Susan is correct. Here’s a story to illustrate how the difference in culture goes all the way down. In 1980 a late evening train I was taking from Brussels to The Hague unexpectedly ended in Rotterdam. A group of 5 English club soccer players and 6 SAS stewardesses in my train car were as surprised as I was, and we had to huddle on the street while the Rotterdam station’s doors were closed from 2am to 5am. Along came a 40-something guy who had evidently come from a bar, and he started hassling the women. I took out my board and pieces, and to my great surprise, he was captivated by the challenge to play. He was just the right level of strength, about 1000-1200, for me to execute one of my most brilliant plans ever: I kept control and extended the game past 100 moves, always holding his interest. I finally gave checkmate just before 5am, and he thanked me for the game—as did those who snuggled in peace!
I don’t think that happens in New York City… 🙂
This post in the blog is one of my favorites. I loved reading it. I guess I loved it because of its frankness and that it made a very important simple and true point clear.
Many, many thanks Zsuzsanna Polgár for your indefatigable efforts to bring “chess awareness” to the United States.