why not chess in the 2020 Olympics Games ?

Short games , best of three and let's have a chess OLYMPIC CHAMPION !

Why wait until 2020?  There was a World Mindsports Olympiad in Beijing in 2008, and they promised to have one in London as well.

The only problem is that no one really watched, and I'm pretty sure it lost money, and they group that put it on hasn't updated their web site in a couple of years.

It turns out that most people do want to watch athletic young people put forth great effort as they perform great physical feats and push their bodies to the limit.  However, the appeal of watching great minds in a battle of concentration and calculation is.....not quite as interesting.

The World Mindsports Olympiad did get a brief segment on the Stephen Colbert show, which means it did not go completely unnoticed.  While any publicity is better than no publicity, being featured on The Colbert Report does not exactly indicate that your activity has achieved popular acclaim.  Indeed, it might suggest the opposite.  Despite the association that IMSA tried to establish with the Olympics, Chess somehow failed to draw the sort of audience that might make the Olympic Committee consider changing its rules, which currently specify that only athletic competitions can be included in the games.

ETA:  It seems that there is at least some effort to keep this sort of competition alive.  There will be an International Mind Games in Beijing in 2011.  Chess will have to share the spotlight once again with Go, Xiangqi, Draughts (Checkers), and Bridge.

http://www.sportaccord.com/en/multi-sports-games/index.php?idIndex=35&idContent=658

I've followed my own link and read about the upcoming World Mind Games.  It seems like a fantastic idea, but I'm not sure it will get any publicity whatsoever.  It won't be the top venue for competition in any of its five disciplines, so it will probably attract a big yawn from the Chess world, and if you can't get the Chessies interested in it, it's hard to see how the rest of the world gets enthused.  In  googling, only the Checkers federation seems to make any significant comment on it.

Meanwhile, from the link I posted to the World Mind Games, I could follow a different link to the World Beach Games.  If you compare the publicity photos of the two sets of games, it isn't hard to see why one of them gets more attention than the other.

Too many sports want to become part of the Olympics. The IOC is afraid that if they accept chess, then ALL the other board federations are going to apply as well. Therefore, it is not likely to happen any time soon.

As to the Mind Sports Games: I did play in Bejing in 2008, but didn't notice any hype around this event in either chess or regular media. Of course, there were some reports, but nothing extraordinary.

WGM Pogonina makes a good point.

Chess isn't the only popular board game around (contrary to what some of us might think!)--if the Olympics accept chess as an official event, then how could they avoid being forced to accept all of the other widely played board games like Shogi, Xiangqi, Go or Checkers?

That looks like GOLD !! could you clarify ?

Chess is a special sport. It should not be associated like just another sport.

 Do you happen to know what's up in 2012?

All I've got is google.  There are rumors posted, but I'm not sure IMSA really exists anymore.  Their web site hasn't been updated for a while.

Either way, thanks for supporting it.  I really like the concept of such an event.  I just don't know how to turn it into something more interesting for spectators.

ETA:  After writing the above, I did check the IMSA site, which I hadn't done for a month or two.  It seems they do exist, and they are planning something for August 2012, presumably in England.

Gold in blitz & bronze in rapid

 Hosting is.

You've got a metro area of over 100,000 people, and none of them know how to play Chess?

That seems rather unlikely.

ETA:  Wait.  Are you really in Saint George, Utah?  If so, how about the Saint George Chess Center?

 You rock Natalia ! This exactly the point, champions like you deserves a better exposure and Chess for me is one of the only universal game.Maybe there is more Go players than Chess players but they must come from the same area of the world when actually chess had even be played in space by astronauts ! I really beleive it could be possible but it looks terribly political when i read the comments !