I would watch Natalia Pogonina v. Scarlett Johansson. That would be a ratings bonanza!
Chess Popularity in North America
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I don't even know who those chicks are
You need a player in North America who is realistically threatening for the world championship every cycle. Otherwise, Americans (at least) lose interest. Can't speak for Mexicans or Canadians, but we Americans are very insistent about being THE BEST at everything we do. If it's not an activity we can dominate at, it's boring. We'll label it as a mere mildly interesting foreign game (like soccer).
Chess was leaps and bounds more popular here in the 70s because of the success of Bobby Fischer. Fischer was the best, no question, and he was ours. Scholastic events, USCF membership, and chess fever in general exploded. Feeling like we had the greatest, and were the greatest in the world at chess, that inspired more Americans at least to get involved and be a part of winning.
in America the best things are usaully underground.
FlowerFlowers wrote:
in America the best things are usaully underground.
Rule number 1 of chess club...
the little club I play in typically does one swiss per month with around 20 participants. I think that only 3-4 of us (myself included) are between the age of 16-60. Otherwise, its the same dozen old patzers and 4-5 schoolkids.
There is a lot of scholastic chess, but of the 30+ kids I teach chess to every summer, I doubt if more than one will play a single game after they get their drivers license . . . until they decide to teach kids of there own someday. This is why the US has not had a homegrown player reach the top 100 in two generations.
Apr 13, 2011
0
#48
Archaic71 wrote:
I doubt if more than one will play a single game after they get their drivers license . . . until they decide to teach kids of there own someday. This is why the US has not had a homegrown player reach the top 100 in two generations.
If only chess could get you laid.
echecs06 wrote:
smaller and smaller. We need a new Bobby.
Actually that's part of the problem. For Americans to be interested in chess they need an American chess superstar. When it turned out he was an insane racists ranting anti semite tax-dodge it didn't turn out so well. Even if we get a new superstar, say Nakamura makes it to 2800 and contends for the world title, it still wouldn't have the same impact that Bobby did. Bobby was part of the Cold War, he was fighting the Russians for us. Now that is over, the typical American doesn't have the attention span or the gray matter to follow chess.
I also don't buy the idea that scholastic chess will turn America into a chess playing nation. It hasn't worked for soccer. More American kids play youth soccer than little league baseball. Baseball is still a major pro sport, and pro soccer little more than a sideshow.
The fundamental problem is that chess simply does not appeal to most Americans. Its a slow game that you do sitting down, inside, being quite, and which takes a great deal of effort. There is almost no money in it and virtually no naked women. That disqualifies 99.875660097% of Americans from being able to focus on it. Its sad to say but its true. For Americans, chess is a niche hobby, a sort of competitive stamp collecting, certainly no cooler, and not much more popular.
Mordecai_Esquire wrote:
I don't even know who those chicks are
Gasp!! Natalia is easily the best looking dominant female chess player on the planet. Okay that's subjective but its true. 
Scarlett is the best looking actress in Hollywood. Yes, that is subjective too.
Natlalia has a profile on this site. As for Scarlett....
Apr 14, 2011
0
#52
You could try looking up the membership of USCF for the past several years, that would be one good indicator of whether or not chess is gaining or losing popularity in the US. Or you could just settle for a bunch of opinions, 99% of which will probably be fact-free. I imagine you could check out the membership numbers for Canada's chess federation and/or Mexico's as well via a search engine.
http://www.uschess.org/images/splash-homepage/splash.php
I still think whether or not the game's popularity is growing, everybody respects chess. So I would imagine if PBS or something would do some coverage it would spark a small interest among some people and potentially begin to spread. If it could air for laymens to watch at their convenience I think many would be inclined to check it out; join an online community; and have some interest in learning some openings and GM tournaments.
Magnus Carlsen, Zhu Chen, Nakamaru, Vishny Anand, and Levon Aronian all pull my attention.