Americans suck at chess...why?

No. but them movie buff's sure do like to get into fiscal policy every now and again.. 

I would agree with the person who blamed it on our "education system".  The U.S. does not teach chess in public schools.  Most schools do not have a Chess Club, and if they do it is rather expensive. And even an affluent public school district, which has a Chess Club, would likely not attract many girls and it would most often only attract smarter boys who don't care if others made fun of them. If your Chess Club as an after school activity it is directly competing with sports.  If parents realized how children's test scores can be rasied by their invlovemnt in chess, many more parents would introduce their children to it.

I don't know why my fellow Americans suck at chess--I am still trying to figure out why I suck at chess.

I  think another reason that we americans are not so chess savy has to do with good ole fashonied prejudice. It seems that whatever culture was dominating the chess scence that was our boog man. The french- was'nt that the country where dirty peasants killed the good nobles, then started to kill each other? then comes Aldoff Anderson - a prussian, didn't they fight with the British? then comes the Jews- Lasker, Alhekine, the servants class- Capablanco, more Jews..then communists, then our Jewish commie killer Amerca's boon and bane - Robert James Fischer- then more commmunists- you get the point. America has always disliked intellectuals, people from little countries- either in our hemisphere or from Eastern Europe, and until recently - Jews.

You would think,too, that chess would be the quintensenstial game- the ulitmate individual mental challenge, but ahhhh....chess is a game where who you father was, or what fortune you have matters not....its all right there for the world to see...there is justice in chess and that rankles our American conscience a little we like to think we can control anything with brute force ( hence our love of contact sports or sports with lots of mechanical things-  i like those sports) but chess...ahhhh...your are not able to hide behind your pedigree, your college degree, or your friends..its you and only you....very telling, no?

Oy

Or because it's just a game?

You lost me right after, "I think..."

Yes and true but to say Americans suck at chess is not completely accurate.

Wow you are pretty pissed off I stomped you in blitz....Pathetic, truly pathetic is @slouch

I hate those sad losers, it's really a shame. Take you're beatings and move on. Fact is I beat you, and you declined a rematch...therefore you are spineless and a sore loser.

Maybe in a perfect world pal....after I beat this guy he began berating me and Americans as a whole. Then he proceeded to leave nasty comments on my profile, and resorted to posting another BS comment on this page. Sometimes chess players baffle me when it comes to poor sportsmanship, honor, and integrity...this guy " slouch" has non of the above obviously a sad insolent child who breaks the computer monitor and begin sobbing in anger/humiliation when they lose.

Furthermore, I offered a rematch after all the vitral that he spewed...he declines and that makes him spineless. So @firebrandX before you express you're ridiculous opinions perhaps you should get the story first.

We're a Nation of immigrants.  And you are anything but a modest mouse.

Did you sit on that phone before taking your photo?

Fix that avatar, please.

   As NimzoRoy so thoroughly addressed; Americans obviously don't suck at chess.  But the question remains...why don't we dominate the way we do in many other activities.  As someone earlier mentioned, it's only a very trivial part of our culture.  It's a game people learn as children usually very casually from friends or family.  It's not a formal part of the educational system the way it is in other countries. (although it seems to be catching on and being implimented as part of the curriculum in some schools).  Here's my example growing up in the states... When my father taught me (age 8)...he had learned from another guy who had a rule or two confused.  I played a few games with him (my father) and a few games with my brother and didn't play again until high school.  We played checkers, various card games, monopoly, backgammen...chess was just one passtime amoung many.  I wasn't even aware that there were tournaments and professional players until age 14 or 15 years old. (this was pre-internet) Contrast this with growing up in a country where chess is a strong part of the culture, where it's in the educational system, where there are ample opportunities to play in tournaments and get good instruction.

   Another thing about America is we are notoriously lacking in vacation time.  The standard is zero to two weeks per year. (unlike our president who takes multiple vacations per year, 17 days long currently)  So with almost no vacation time, tournaments have to be organized for weekend play.  This has many negative consequences to the quality of play.  Two long games per day is the norm.  So imagine traveling a good distance to play.  Then you have to play two 5 or 6 hour games for 3 days.  Concentrating for 10 to 12 hours per day usually through normal mealtimes and often into the wee hours of the night must have a negative affect on play.

   That's my two cents.

That's a sucky 750 words+ two cents without paragraphs! :)

A political statement from one who is ill-informed and votes against his own economic self-interest. It is typically American, but it subtracts the currency in the conversation.

Can an average American vote in his own economic self-interest?

Only if he "throws his vote away"?

    I think you may have misconstrued that I vote republican, "against my economic self interest" as you put it because I dared to point out obama's vacations.  That's typical of many Americans who think in black and white and in dem. vs rep. or conservative vs libral terms.  For the record I'm well informed that that piece of trash bush jr took more vacation time than that piece of garbage obama.  I was merely pointing out that the politicians on the government payroll get ample vacation time while the majority of working class Americans, which is the majority of Americans get a modicum of vacation time if any at all.  I hate both the democratic party and the republican party with equal venom.  

   As for me being ill-informed. I've been in the USAF, the private sector, the local government, and been self employed.  I've seen with my own eyes (and wallet) who gets vacation time, who gets raises, benefits etc.  But if you don't want to take my word for it, here's a chart of average vacation time by country.  Notice USA is all the way to the right at ZERO. 

Perhaps. But, the real issue is what vacation means for the President. Does he find the time to play in a chess tournament, should he desire?

The whole notion that POTUS takes too many vacations (whether he be Bush or Obama) strangely distracts from the amount of work that is performed during these holidays.

Why do you suppose Americans get so few paid holidays and annual days off? 

White Americans can't win at anything that's fair!