why is it every other sport is on tv but no chess. more people play chess then any other sport come on lets all try and do something about this and get it on tv.

We don't need it, the Internet is way better for chess than TV could ever be. TV is outdated.

Perhaps it is because most professional-level chess games consume at least five hours; nobody has the patience to watch that!

Maybe blitz chess would work on TV

BBC4 showed this programme last week: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p8lhp - so thanks BBC for giving chess some airtime 

It's a difficult balancing act for sure.  5-hour games would obviously need to be edited to remove all of the wait time, and blitz games usually go so fast that the common man has no idea what's going on.  I've got some ideas that I'm working on that might be fun to watch for both chess players and non-chess players alike.  Hopefully I can get it going and hopefully it will work.  Wish me luck!!!

Just like 7 hours of poker can be edited down to the most important 30minutes, why couldn't the same be done in chess? Where there are moves that doesn't need as much commenting, just show them, make a quick comment about the move if possible, and then spend more time on the critical positions.

 

With that said, I hardly believe it will get some mainstream time coverage anytime soon.

Simple. People watch sports on TV because they want to see something horrible. They want to see someone break an ankle, or two players get in a fight. They don't really care about teams or scoring, it's all a front. Chess doesn't have that. Maybe if more people hit famous players on the head with chess boards, there would be more interest. Or maybe we could change the pieces so that they look like people, and bleed when captured. Otherwise, I really don't see any future for chess in television.

I think part of the big push for poker on tv has to do with casino's marketing.  Las Vegas, Atlantic City and to a lesser extent other cities really depend on people chucking away their money in casinos, so there are built in advertisers for poker.  I see it as part of the same continuum that put the phrase "what happens in Vegas says in Vegas" not just in commercials but on TV shows, had like every show do a "we're going to Vegas" episode.

 

Kumon needs to advertise on ESPN! Then we'll get some chess, maybe on the Ocho.

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I think you're on to something!  They could make it so that when one player hits the clock it spits some kind of snake venom at the other player.  or some kind of acid.  It would be chess but mixed with dodgeball, but with acid.  with cheerleaders.  But keep the acid away from them.

i used to be a tv star.  then i pitched a idea for a chess show and i was blackballed from hollywood.  now what am i gonna do?

Watching chess on tv would be about as interesting as watching poker on tv.  Yawn.

But it's got to be better than golf.  And they have a whole channel dedicated to that.

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chess-is-not-a-sport.

There is only one way for chess to survive on TV and that's if it's in 3D. People will be flinching and ducking every time someone moves a piece or hits their clock. Like Ilikeflags, I also used to be a TV star but after pitching this to the networks, I have met a similar fate and have been living a blackballed existence.

we're brothers now

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wot about cricket

or wwe

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Maybe they ought to use real people for the chess pieces, on a huge chess board. People on death row, perhaps. When they get captured they're slaughtered for all to see.  

people wouldnt watch it, they would be bored

:)

I've always wanted to watch chess on TV to. They would talk about opening, middlegame, endgame, history, player, news, and famous games. It would AWESOME! Imagine just sitting on the couch and there is chess.