Ideas for Making Chess More Popular as a Sport?

I've wondered sometimes if chess could ever get so popular that it would be shown on:

1.)  a major nationa, non-cable TV network like NBC, ABC, or CBS on a regular basis (say, every Sunday morning)

2.)  ESPN regularly

and also:

3.)  Get a live audience size that would fill a 5,000+ seat venue.

4.)  Have the top 15-20 players in the world all make seven figures and the top 50 players all make six-figures.

Is it possible?

If you had it so that the top 500-1000 players could make a survivable wage playing it would help a lot so I agree with you o.p. on that. Also why in gods name is Yasser Seirawan a commentator? Don't get me wrong the guy is a chess genius but his voice is just terrible for a 7 HOUR live event! Are they purposely trying to put people to sleep? Maurice Ashley sounds like a real sports commentator and having Jen there is nice to help get a younger/female demographic plus shes easy on the eye. Yasser is just an awful choice if you are trying to get people interested in a game stereotypically described as slow and boring. Several times while attempting to watch the entirety of the Sinquefield cup I would notice that Jen or Maurice would say something, mostly modern references/ anecdotes/memes/sayings and Yasser just totally had no idea what they were talking about. Just my 2 cents I know there are a lot of people that like Yasser as a commentator too.

Here's an idea go call abc to feature only chess done, now u have the second chess center and u could always go to chess center, it's in vids of chess.com

I like when Yaz speaks slowly and points things out in a way that beginners can understand (good for a BROAD chess audience), but you're right that he can be a bit boring.  

I think I heard someone say that his voice is perfect for therapy or going to a psychologist.  It's very calming.  

There are probably pros/cons to his style.  I think Maurice is DEFINITELY a more exciting commentator!!  No doubt whatsoever.  He's lively, speaks clearly, and makes things dramatic and entertaining.

Yaz probably has more analysis skill than Maurice though.  Mo has to use the computer for his super insights.  

I don't know...lots of trade-offs to consider.  If you think about golf, which is popular enough to put on TV, their commentators practically whisper.  That could be a Yaz style that fits golf perfectly.  

I like Yaz/Jen/Mo the way they are.  But, I understand the strengths/weaknesses they bring.  It still works for me personally.   

That's a good point about golf commentators actually. And yes Yasser would be a great psychologist. : )

Or if there was a hostage situation LOL.  You could bring Yaz out there and talk to the perpetrator.  He'd calm the situation down!

They expect the online audience of the world chess championship to approach a billion worldwide.  Where that ad money goes... who knows man??

Rings girls might help too like in boxing. : p

Then you might enjoy chess-boxing.  They do have ring girls.

Ring girls.

Weigh-ins.

More adspace.

Chess stadiums.

More clubs for kids.

And forcing the other player to build a giant wall in front of your pawns!!

#MakeChessGreatAgain

*Goes to every single other hot topic forum to spread the word* #MakeChessGreatAgain

I agree with the people who say it is not a sport. If chess is a sport then so should competitive video games be considered "sports".

 

That said, why would you care whether chess is categorized as a "sport". I don't think categorization of sport would make chess any more or less reputable. There are some official "sports" you may have seen in the Olympics which are absolutely ridiculous and which don't get improved reputation from being a "sport". Have you seen the ridiculously team sport called "hero ball", "indoor hockey", or lacrosse. In winter sports there is curling. 

 

Even if if chess were made a sport, I guarantee no sports channel like ESPN would be making shows about it or suddenly give it more coverage. My point is that you cannot make something like chess popular by artificial means of media coverage. Actually famous chess promoters and chess organizations do constantly think of method to make chess popular. These promoters are many famous grandmasters including Kasparov and Karpov. They get invites to world chess events, make appearances, sign books and boards, they give lectures. In US people like Maurice Ashley and Yasser Seirwan AND pretty much all masters who work for chess.com always think of ways to make chess popular. 

 

Things is is you can't just make chess popular out of nowhere. Poker became popular when it became playable for money online. Depending on your age you may or may not remember the poker boom of 2000s. I remember many of my friends would play on biggest poker sites and some of them would actually win money. Big casinos of Las Vegas also liked that spike in popularity because many more people suddenly wanted to play poker in Las Vegas. They put a lot of money in. But they didn't do it for the sake of poker itself becoming popular. They invested and promoted it (and still do) because there was money to be made in it as middle men. The poker sites are still the same way. Then, as far as United States is concerned, poker was banned by government for play on US territories. Even though people still play online for money everywhere outside of the United States, overall poker popularity has declined unfortunately. 

 

Chess is is a fun game but it ha much less unpredictability than poker and less glamour associated with it. Even fewer prospects for making money from it. Today also many kids have other choices for fun activities that aren't athletic. Think whatever you will about video games as a whole but many of them are as educational and as smart as chess. In fact video games can be a good introductory way for many people into the business of making video games because video games will always be made and technology is always becoming more advanced. Chess stays the same.

 

Basically you should just keep playing as long as you enjoy it. Enjoy the fact that it is very accessible to people all over the world through Internet. This wasn't as available even ten years ago. Now that many people carry a touch screen internet phones with them many more people can play it anywhere. So that is something to be happy about it.

@OP, Well it should be added to the olympics and world championships events to begin with.

ESPN 2 used to play magic the gathering tournaments just saying.

Chess is game for players.......not observers. Flamboyant/ controversial players like Fischer are few and far between.

It's not a sport and people who don't play chess would never watch it. It could be more popular if more people played

who'll watch?

So true... Chess is not like football where you find die hard fans that don't even play...  Besides, chess is considered boring by most non chess players... 

You guys are right.  No one would ever want to watch football on TV.  It's such a brutal and unpopular sport.  No one would ever want to watch basketball on TV.  It's mostly for people who are tall and athletic and no one can relate to it.  No one would ever want to watch golf or Nascar.  They are so booooooring.  One is just hitting a ball in a hole - no atheticism needed.  The other is just cars going around and around and aorund and around the same track in a circle or ellipse.  Who would watch that?

Chess is just another one of these boring sports/games that no one plays, can relate to, or would want to ever watch.

OKAY:  In all seriousness, I think a rapid game would make for watchable TV.  No five or six hour games would likely work.  But a three hour game with good commentary (breaking the game down in simple ways for a broad audience, narrating the match in a tense and exciting way, giving analysis of a computer vs. human thinking, etc.) and good aesthetics (having a good production design or facility, etc. to have the match - maybe in moderately sized stadium or room with state-of-the-art technology.....GIANT screens showing the action, glassed in playing area in the center of the room and the audience circling them outside).  

The point is to use our imagination to see how chess could be made to be more appealing to a general audience for possible regular TV viewing!   

In the UK chess has been shown on national TV (BBC), but it was a long time ago.  In the 1970's we had "The Master Game". It was a half hour long program where a game between two IMS or GMs (they had players like Vlastimil Hort and Tony Miles) and the players would give a "Stream of Consciousness" of their thoughts.

 

Later there was decent coverage of the Kasparov-Short World Championship match.

 

Problem with chess is that, unlike such games as football, tennis, rugby, ... there is not much to interst or entertain anyone that does not play the game themselves.