Chess Was Never "Mainstream"
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Elsewhere it was falsely assumed that the game of chess was once mainstream and somehow has loss this imaginary status. Chess was never mainstream and likely will never be so. Chess, if anything, is more elitist, than popularist and I hope it stays that way, it has a certain mysterious, intellectual, above the general populace aura about it that would be loss forever if it ever became mainstream. Your thoughts?
This has been discussed brilliantly by @kingofshedinjas
See here: https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-should-be-an-elitist-game
Not quite, one aspect maybe. Chess was never mainstream and most likely will never be and I'm fine with that.
Mar 15, 2017
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#4
During the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match there was so much excitement that fisticuffs broke out between people arguing about it. People who didn't know a Kings Indian from a hole in the ground.
urk wrote:
Was that because it was chess or because it was against the Russians?
During the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match there was so much excitement that fisticuffs broke out between people arguing about it. People who didn't know a Kings Indian from a hole in the ground.
It will never be mainstream for the simple reason that physical activity is way more entertaining to watch than intellectual activity.
Watching two people sitting in front of a board for 5 hours is as fun as watching paint dry.
And another thing is that chess is very very hard.
A casual person will watch a GM game and he will not understand anything at all, he won't understand why this or that move was played. He will feel absolutely bored and will have no desire to watch another game.
Good points, well put.
Mar 15, 2017
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#8
Chess is definitely one of the more elitist "sports", but only intellectually. If you talk about money, a lot of players spend a lot of money to try and get better, but all you really need is a chess set and clock, and these days a computer to start playing chess. You don't need to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars on equipment alone.
Bonsai_Dragon wrote:
Not quite, one aspect maybe. Chess was never mainstream and most likely will never be and I'm fine with that.
+1
Wether "chess" was mainstream or no not. I played with my father and lost many a brutal game. Fighting back and winning one game out of twenty was more outstanding than winning than any physical fight I had! Thinking three moves ahead in life will serve you more than thinking one step ahead with irrational thinking
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-real-reason-why-chess-is-no-longer-mainstream Are we doing "parallel threads" now? That's an excellent idea.
actually, way back in its peak popularity back before the queen moved like a crazy women. it STILL was an Elite past times and was considered a mark of civility and intelligence.
in some ways I think it retains this ideal.
meaning that while lesser players play it; few have the interest and patience to try to understand the full complexity of the game at the highest level.
RonaldJosephCote wrote:
Just a rebuttal thread to the idea put forth in the thread you linked to that chess was, at some time, mainstream.
https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/the-real-reason-why-chess-is-no-longer-mainstream Are we doing "parallel threads" now? That's an excellent idea.
Mar 15, 2017
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#14
macer75 wrote:
Bonsai_Dragon wrote:
Not quite, one aspect maybe. Chess was never mainstream and most likely will never be and I'm fine with that.
+1
+1
lol @ bade
It can be a culture thing. When I was seventeen I was on holiday in an eastern European country.
I was hanging out in the hotel with a chess book and a pocket set. This guy came over and in broken English indicated did I want to play. Well sure. Now he was good, Eventually about twenty people were crowding around watching the games. The chess player was a well known local talent and was certainly not getting it all his own way.
Chess is a game rather than a sport. You have to play to get it. Soccer/tennis for example, you do not have to play to get it and admire the talent.
Mainstream no chance. Popular possible.
Mar 16, 2017
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#18
Bonsai_Dragon wrote:
urk wrote:
During the 1972 Fischer-Spassky match there was so much excitement that fisticuffs broke out between people arguing about it. People who didn't know a Kings Indian from a hole in the ground.
Was that because it was chess or because it was against the Russians?
Certainly because it was against the Russians! Four years later the same kind of emotions came out when Dorothy Hamill beat the Russians in World and Olympic Figure Skating and the same happened four years after that, when an underdog-bunch of American college kids beat the Russian pros in Olympic ice Hockey.
The Korean war, Air raid drills when we were kids, the Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam: hating the Soviet Union and trying to beat them no matter how important or trivial was ingrained in our souls. A good example is the dark-comedy movie, Dr. Strangelove, starring Peter Sellers. I won't spoil the entire ending, but the movie ends with a U.S. Air Force pilot trying to give up his life just to get at the Russians - for the wrong reasons!