Why an American will NEVER be a World Champion

WARNING. TRUTHFULNESS AHEAD. NOT FOR THE EASILY OFFENDED!!!

As an American myself, it pains me to write such an editorial, but what follows is entirely true. There has been only ONE American (Robert Fischer) as World Champion since 1862 -- that's right 1862. The first reason is that we Americans are LAZY. Overweight and obese people abound here in America. HEY, chess is a mind game, it doesn't matter how FAT the person is, is what you're saying. True to a degree. But obesity equals lack of discipline, lack of self control, lack of focus. When is the last time a person with no discipline, self control, or focus became the world champ of ANYTHING?

Secondly, we Americans have a sense of ENTITLEMENT about us (BLAME OUR PARENTS). We don't want to work for anything. We expect things handed to us on a silver platter. That's why the Lottery/Gambling generates BILLIONS of dollars per year. That's why you can sue and win 1.5 million if your car gets wrongly painted at the repair shop, or you too can get 6 million dollars from a bicycle company because they fail to mention that reflectors dont PREVENT accidents-- so he turns off his bike lights and gets hit, no permant injuries but 6 million $$ richer.  We want the quick fix--free money--free anything--instant success.

Thirdly, YOUNG Americans are not smart, as a whole, compared to other countries. BLAME THE PARENTS and the EDUCATION SYSTEM.  Most parents of preschool kids shuffle them off to daycare at 7:00 AM and pick them up at 5:00 PM. They're in bed by 8:00 PM--3 whole hours with their parents--WOW!!! These types of SELFISH parents will never be up for parent of the year, and if I had my way I'd arrest them for NEGLECT. Why even have kids if both parents have to work to support them? The formative young years are the MOST important to a young child--BE THERE FOR THEM. School aged Americans are routinely in the lower percentile in Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic and that's where the school system FAILS. I was just at a store the other day and the cashier (a 16 or 17 year old) had to use a calculator to subtract 12 from 44. CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!!!??? If a 16 year old cant subtract 12 from 44 and get 32, then what is wrong with Americans??? Kids graduate from school and enter college and dont even know the difference from to, two, and too--then or than--lose or loose. WHAT??? I have seen college aged ADULTS spell with the accuracy of 9 year olds. How did they get through the system? How did they pass? Well, the USA Education system pushed them through. Below average was more than enough to graduate them. Grades were inflated to make both the system look good and make the teachers look good. Look how "smart" my students are--90% of them got A's. HA!!! Remember, this is America looked at as a whole. The BIG picture.

Fourth, we put more emphasis on throwing a ball through a hoop or hitting a ball out of the ballpark than being smart. Listen to any U.S. Pro sports athlete speak and you'll wonder if their IQ is the same as their age. Who cares if he sounds like a MORON, he didnt even have to graduate college and got drafted into the NFL, now he makes 15 million a year by catching an oblong ball and trying to run to the other end of the field without falling down for 16 games a year. THE AMERICAN DREAM.

We Americans have a strong points, but Chess will never be one of them. We will produce great chess players, no doubt, but we will never see another Bobby Fischer again.

SCHOLARLY Links to Factual Statistics:

http://www.obesityinamerica.org/bythenumbers.html

http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1

http://www.assetprotectioncorp.com/stupidlawsuits.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/fortunate50/2008/

cheater_1 is a troll, before people start whining, there, I said it.

But this article, most of the claims are substantially backed up.  To the people that see cheater_1 and scoff, try reading this article fully once or twice, its very interesting.

What do u think people gave as a chance of a world champion coming out of America before Fischer came on the scene? statistically i mean? After all as u said about 100 yrs of no champions, is along time indeed.

Aye, I've got a beef with the education system also. It's all about processing folk. You don't actually have to learn anything, just jump through the correct hoop at the correct time. Education is all about getting a bit of paper that allows you to attend certain interviews. Whatever happened to education and learning being a noble pursuit. When somebody is at uni, all people ask is what job that will get them, how much money?

Tal and Alekhine were massive boozers I'm told. So, the discipline of the body correlating towards being a world champion may not add up. Although maybe they could not get away with their boozy habits amongst today's chess elite.

Amen!  This forum post is probably the best ever made by cheater_1.  I agree with everything he says.  I can get straight A's without even trying.  I've already pretty much aced the ACT as an 8th grader.  And the American government is considering taking out the ACT because it is too hard?  Puhleeze...  Our generation is too fat and lazy to do anything smart.  Heck, all they care about it text messaging their friends and spending 50 hour workweeks on facebook.  American society is going down hill.  And if Obama gets elected, watch out!  An american will never win a WCC unless they are like a supergenius.

Obesity

If anyone in America thinks we don't have an obesity problem, they need to travel abroad and look at the people in other countries. There are elevators in London that some Americans literally would not fit in.

That being said, cheater's comments about obese people having a "lack of discipline, lack of self control, lack of focus" are only partially true. I have very close family members who are obese. Very obese. My sister-in-law is disciplined, controlled and focused... on her career and other persuits that interest her. Just not at the dinner table or at the all-you-can-eat buffet. Same goes for her parents. Implying that an inability to avoid "comfort food" would effect someone's discipline to achieve world-class chess status is not accurate.

Entitlement

Cheater is correct. Period. If you don't think people are out to earn quick money by suing other people, try owning your own business.

Education

Cheater is more correct than he could ever know. It's the dumbing down of America. We have to bring everything down to the lowest common denominator because God forbid we actually give little Johnny and F.

"Oh no! Johnny got an F! The school system must be doing something wrong! We need to change the curriculum so Johnny can pass!"

No, Johnny needs to get off his ass and do homework instead of playing World of Warcraft.

Priorities (Sports, etc. vs. Education, etc.)

Cheater is correct again. It always pains me to hear the sportscaster interview the player after the game. Some of those people can't form sentences, I swear. Just think: your kids may be looking UP to those people. Scary.

Chess Champion

But does any of this have anything to do with America's ability to produce a chess champion? I think not.

While I agree on some points, you generalize to much to even consider your point valid. Oh wait, I think my statement might be to dumb, perhaps I should pull out the thesaurus and see if I can make myself sound smarter, being an American and all.

Cheater1 just happens to be correct about the American Public Education System. I spent 18 years teaching my daughter at home at night as she attended public school.I had to do re-teaching a lot. That is correct so many things the teachers taught that were WRONG! Now I will have to do it all again with my son when he starts school..

Thanks to the democrats and teacher's union we have extremely poor education system..--TZS

At the very least, the title of the post should have been "Why there will only ever be one (or two) American World Champions." After all, we've already had Bobby and Morphy. I guess he could have titled it "Why there will NEVER again be an American World Champion". But cheater_1's number 1 skill is inflammatory remarks and neither of these titles would have the same bite.

There are also plenty of logical flaws in the argument. For example, if you believe the obesity argument, then why are there American champions at anything? There are plenty of American champions in sports, so this arguments seems to be wrong simply by counter example. The reason it's wrong, is that it only takes 1 out of 300,000,000 to be a champion. So even if most people are lazy and fat, there are still plenty who aren't and one of them may become a champion some day.

The rest of the arguments are similarly flawed. They are generalizations to the entire population for which there are plenty of exceptions -- and it only takes 1 exception to find a champion.

I happen to believe that it's extremely unlikely that we will see an American as World Chess Champion. But I don't think it's impossible.

Kamsky is an American, and "only" needs to win 2 more matches to become world champion. Remember, America is a land of immigrants.

Seems to me that you only need one person to be gifted in order to overcome systemic disadvantages. Look at Fischer and Anand for this. Systemic disadvantages make a non-level playing field, but the cream will always rise to the top.

It doesn't manner where you come from. If you're meant to be than it's going to happen no manner where you live. If you want something then work hard for it period.

I don't think that the point about athletes is unique to America. David Beckham being just one example that jumps to mind. The adoration of Brazilians for Ayrton Senna was probably much greater than anything I've seen by Americans for any sports figure in my life. If this phenomenon is a harbinger of doom, then I'd say there are no safe countries.

The other points are well taken, but you have to be careful about assuming that everyone is equally bad.

My complaint about this post is its pettiness. When one imagines the calamities that will befall the world as the United States becomes weaker and weaker is not producing an American world chess champion even in the top 150? When you think about America's dwindling influence in Asia and China's surging power, does Tianmen Square come to mind, or just that a Chinese player no doubt will be world champion before an American. In light of the recent Russian military action against democratic -- and non-corrupt -- Georgia, is the US's inability to constrain Putin's empire really less important than America's inability to field a champion contender the likes of Kramnik?

I'm a pretty pessimistic guy, but I try to keep my pessimism in perspective. If we want to gnash our teeth and wail, and we should, lets do it for things that really matter.

Does Kamsky have dual citizenship? He was not born in the USA and moved there as a teen I believe. How often is fide gonna make Anand play to defend his title? He won the world championship in Mexico City in 2008 with Kramnik participating, a few months later he must play Kramnik a match and now in less than another year he must play the winner of the Kamsky/Topalov match ?  It seems unfair to Anand to me .

William Lombardy was world junior champion in 1957, Mark Diesen in 1976, Yasser Seirawan in 1979, Maxim Dlugy in 1985, Ilya Gurevich in 1990 and Tal Shaked in 1997.  Hans Berliner was world correspondence chess champion from 1965-8 and Victor Palciauskas from 1978-84.  Susan Polgar was women's world champion from 1996-1999.  The U.S has produced quite a few world champions apart from Fischer.  A more pertinent question might be why the U.S. has produced (or attracted) so many really strong players.

Ok, let me ask you this: what really makes a world champion ?

I could study chess 12 hours a day for the rest of my life and never get there.

I think true chess champions are born, they are gifted, their brain works differently than most, I compare them to geniuses like Beethoven or Thomas Edison for example.

Therefore, the US or even Canada could produce a world champion at any time, it has nothing to do with politics or the education system, the next Bobby Fischer could pop up from anywhere at any time.

I agree with everything that Cheater_1 says except for the 4th paragraph. "Listen to any U.S. Pro sports athlete speak and you'll wonder if their IQ is the same as their age." This is definitely not true. There are plenty of athletes out there with a college education. Think about it, no football athlete is drafted out of high school and only the elite high school players in basketball get drafted. Baseball has more drafted out of high school, but there are many college baseball players that get drafted after their senior year. So to say that you have to just listen to any sports athlete and wonder about their IQ is not a fair statement at all. Though, I will agree there are some very unintelligent athletes out there, but to say "any" is not fair.

Not precise argument. Today Kamsky is an American, but not America made the chess master Kamsky. This nuance is important regarding the currently commented article of troll cheater_1.

"Just" needs to beat Topalov and then Anand.Easy....

regardless of the facts, or how true, partially true, or untrue, one holds them to be it still doesnt mean that america could not produce a chess champion.

Its really unnecessary to make generalizations about all athletes, some are just as intelligent you. I think the main reason America hasn't produced more chess champions is due to the fact that chess really isn't a part of our culture, if it where, there would be a much better chance. 

Also, what's stopping that rare genius being born in America? It could happen, though it is improbable.