Chess Popularity in North America

I think it was King and Ashley who gave dramatic explanations to the live Anand-Kasparov WC games.

Easy to understand and fun to observe, at least for a chess player.

I wonder if that will always be the problem for us in the US.

Hello there.

chess tournaments - silent and stoic = bad TV.   More entertaing would be guys talking trash and playing blitz in the park for beer money, I'm not sure where you put the commentators.

Don't you think that if somebody really enjoyed chess or anything else, they would play it whether some big star played it or not? 

What does that have to do with the subject of popularizing chess in NA?????

Must be a take on the addictive nature of chess, like cigarettes or opiates.  It doesn't matter what big star does them or berates them, if you get hooked = $$$profit$$$.    

Some data that I gleaned from the USCF site.

47,000 members played in at least one tournament in the last 12 months.

Of the 47,000, 1400 were seniors (over 65), and 35,000 were juniors (under 15).

I don't know how these data would compare with data from other games (people lose interest in most games fairly quickly), but there's not much interest in chess beyond adolescence.

I didn't realize I was in such exclusive company.

>>Of the 47,000, 1400 were seniors (over 65), and 35,000 were juniors (under 15).<<

I can relate to this. I played a lot when I was young. Now I'm back at it while I'm old. If the pay was better, maybe I would have continued during the intervening years...but I didn't see how I could support a family working for nothing.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
Chapter 13, verse 11

That many juniors???

I would've thought that most young children would play at a school-level, and that the majority of the OTB tournament players would be between 15 and 30 years old.

I didn't realize there were neary 100 times more chess players in North America than there are people on the planet.  Must be all those chess playing cockroaches.

I would think a match of say 5min +2sec increment would be a good pace.  Add a decent commentator and I think a few hundred thousand would watch.  Obviosly I would play it on the cpu for a nice top-down view, and as people become acquainted with the players an audience would develop I think.  Plus what if they did somethin like posting recaps in Newspapers with the notation or some brief recaps on major television; I think it would be doable.

>> Chess is "too complex" for them.<<

That's why there is "Dancing with the Stars".

I recall chess being televised in the 80s.

Even so, I wonder about this:

Who here, among those of us who are clearly already interested in and presumably understand chess, would watch it if it were televised?  I know the commentators would have to do a pretty impressive job to retain my interest.

It wouldn't be that hard to commentate, just someone who isn't corny (lol) and knows most of the openings well enough to help usher audience into comprehension.  Also he/she would need to be learned on chess history to add some backstory to how the players have played in the past.

Also for sponsors wouldn't you think that bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Title Wave would pay for this.  They could advertise their e-reader the Nook especially.  Also Starbucks I imagine has some potential to work with this.

Would you watch?

Definately yes.  I watch a bunch or high level games on here as it is, and i have to actively seek them out.  I would prefer they put chess on TV than football/baseball/basketball; loved playing football but hate watching it (because its boring to me).  Chess on the other hand is exciting, In the sense that its thought provoking to both play and watch. 

Quick demographic: 22yo white male college student.  

*edit* a quick comparison: playing football is to watching football, as lifting is to watching someone lift (wieghts obviously).

The physical element isn't transmiteed through TV, but you can "PLAY" a gm's next move in your head (ie what would i do here kinda thing).

Heck yeah I would watch!  I really don't think it is fanciful to accomplish a decently run chess program.  Even online I think it could generate several hundred thousand viewers.  Major League Gaming gets over 600k people watching their professional Halo and StarCraft tournaments with online broadcasts.  Even people who don't actively practice chess respect it.  And once a lot of novice people found out about the events, got to know a handful of GMs I think they would be eager to learn a few openings and see how the GMs do in the future.

If they brought back...say Fischer and Capablanca (other such combinations OK, too) from the dead, to play...yes, I would watch. Otherwise, no.