lol... not to be the cynic.... (ok... well maybe...) but just the way that article was written made me laugh-- it says "Crowds gathered to watch people play on the large chess set, which was placed at the park's entrance." and then 2 paragraphs later, it continues, "In all, about 20 people participated in Saturday's events." the first thought that came to my mind was that they were describing the 20 people not just as a crowd, but crowds.
now i know that the 20 people they were referring to were the people who actually played, and the crowds were not included in that figure, but it still made me chuckle.
Here is an article about a chess event which was held in a local park with an oversized chess board at the entrance:
http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070927/NEWS01/709270394
The organizers said that the oversized chess board really helped to draw a crowd and a lot of interest throughout the day. Is this the wave of the future? Maybe bigger is better!