Why chess is losing popularity in schools?
If you come to the back of the library in Frost Middle School, at the three o' clock on a Wednesday you will see a chess club. If you can call it that. Four 8th graders are gathered around a board, analyzing the present position in the game. Its game one of a four person tournament with 4 rounds. The kids manage the tournament because their club has no teacher, no guide, and the closest adult is a librarian who doesn't care at all about chess. The kids play their tournament with one chess clock; which is just one of the kids phones. They have a couple of boards, but most of them are missing pieces so they just keep the games on one board and only two kids can play at a time.
While numbers say that the popularity of the game is increasing, this shows quite the contrary. Last year, this chess club had ten sometimes eleven people. This school isn't the only example of the decline in chess. Across the US it is being abandoned and what was once a game of class. Clashing wits, both sides are trying to deliver a dramatic checkmate, and astound the crowd. Now chess is just a bunch of "nerds" who are shoved into the back of a library with no care or even a second thought.
There are many different levels of chess. From the absolute beginner to a Grandmaster, with everyone striving to get better to one day become a chess master. Now, I must give tons of credit to the chess community, because the resources and encouragement for many chess players is great for all trying to sharpen their play. But, what about the beginners? A large portion of the world will say that they have either never played chess or just know how the pieces move. That's why chess is dying. Thousands of "could be Grandmasters" are pushed away because they don't know how to play. Kids in schools just like Frost Middle School don't want to play that "boring, old person game". The Chess community is a great place for people from all around the world to connect and play the great game of chess, but less people are playing chess.
The chess world as well as Chess.com are great at helping you go from to a 1,000 rating to 2,000 rating, but what about those how don't know how to play? We as a chess community need to change the idea that chess is a "boring game for nerds" and let people know that chess is a fun, competitive, and exciting sport that they should play.
