Popularity of Chess

Compared to most other sports, Chess is second-banana in terms of popularity. 

So, I thought about why Chess is less popular, and felt I should spread my opinion on the matter across the chess.com community.

Firstly, lets consider money. In Chess, I think there are only 4ish people that come up to one million dollar salaries. Now, payment given to other professionals for their service in a sport reach between 5 to 30 thousand dollars (in many cases).

Going back into my childhood I had an idol, I think most people do to some degree. Most of whom would feature on TV. We try and imitate our idols characteristics to some degree and their contribution to their profession (football, acting, politics).  We want to be as 'cool' and as powerful and famous.

As a personal example,I believe I have various similarities to 'Bilbo Baggins', my own childhood hero. To this day, I still have a grubby old ring I found under the table of a restaurant. My career involves the writing of events deemed important to others (much like Bilbo would do after his adventures). Finally, I am of course, very chatty. Talking of which, I am getting away from myself here...

If we are influenced by those we come to know when we are young, the chances are our idols shall be from media such as magazines and the tellybox. Who do we see here? The stars of course, but NOT Chess stars. Or at least, very rarely. 

I believe this has a huge impact on the popularity of chess.

Now, I could not work out weather to put this in my Blog, or throw it to you in the Forums. I decided to shove it in the forums, as I would be interested in what others think about the lack of popularity in chess.

You may disagree entirely, I sometimes find it hard to imagine a lack of popularity when surrounded by so many chess lovers on this site.

You may feel there is a different factor to consider or more to add.

I throw this tantalizing topic to you, fantastic chess community. 

Give a child the choice between an Xbox and a chess board, most will take the video games.

Can you name any famous video game players?

I never though of that, that is a good point.

In an attempt to keep debate going however, I can name many video game characters, and they are the ones you will see in the media (films, advertisements etc) and thus become the idols.

They will influence more to play video games. Many can play a video game with like-skilled people and so play them rather than spectate them which I think makes the phenomenon more popular to play than to spectate. 

You see the same with chess, i would think more play the sport with others than spectate. This is unlike football or basketball, as it is harder to get a group together or play with others at an on-par level of skill. 

I cant name any famous hockey players either, and I am sure many will take that over chess.

I think it's popularity will remain esoteric in comparison with other sports, because it is a board game, and a free chess engine can beat the best player in the world. I can see chess becoming even less popular. I can see serious chess players becoming more stereotyped as "eccentric" or "quirky", rather than what they had been thought of, which was "intelligent" and "patient".

I don't mind though, myself. The more popular a thing(or endeavor) is, the more suspicious I become about it's value.

the are also more popular as a sport the chess is.  video game competitions often have very large prices and aire on cable television.

A sport is just a competitive game with a set of rules. Or at least that is how I see it. I dont think of sports just being about physical excursion. 

Its wierd thinking of chess as 'just  a boardgame', but I suppose it is at the end of the day.

This leads me to further question its lack of popularity. It is far more accessible than football is (in my location at least) as it is far easyer to get out a board game and find one person to play it with than it is to find a whole two teams to play a proper game of football. Yet football is huge in this country and supported by many who may not play the game at all.

I don't belive that the fact chess is a boardgame effects its popularity in a negative movement. 

It's not like "monopoly". It's a board game that takes years and years of playing and studying, just so you can be called a "patzer".

That is VERY true.

But other games/sports require years of practice to become efficient and do not suffer from popularity. They are however Easter for people to watch and understand the tactics and technique behind the madness.

But chess again, is easier to play.

The difference in popularity must have something to do with people preferring to spectate and talk about a sport than to play?

Perhaps this is in addition to the OP about idolisam and media?

This is an interesting topic. :)

I imagine that scrabble has a fairly large following as well though I am not sure how much the top players can make.

Chess can put off new players because you either win or lose and  losing can be very painful and frustrating since chess is a very confrontational game.

Certainly chess does have many more competing avenues for entertainment than existed previously, but it is the only game I can come back to time and again and never feel I have exhausted what I can learn.  There really is no final cut scene and credits rolling...

I think chess will find its natural point of interest within our culture as these newer forms of entertainment become less novel but chess was probably not as popular in the past as it can seem now.  Even though they filmed Spassky vs Fischer, did 90% of the viewers know what was happening or care much?  That seems natural since it is only a boardgame and people have busy lives.  Still I doubt anyone who plays here stops being amazed at the complexity of this most ancient game.

It's easy to follow football or tennis for anyone and understand what is good or bad. "Pass that guy, he's unmarked!", "Save the penalty!", "Shoot and score!", or "Play that backhand lob so it lands on the baseline!", "An ace now!" etc. One doesn't even have to have played the game at all and can still know what is right or wrong to do in certain situations. The moments are easily understandable, and you can quickly see if a certain move was successful or not.

Of course. You don't get to smash people up in chess like you do in many sports.

This is very much the opinion I have shared in a post. I think this has a large impact as well as the media influence.

It appears from these views the community has shown so far (unless I have missed something), that the biggest factor that cripples the popularity of chess is its accessability to your regular Joe. 

The media coverage surely impacts a persons knowledge and understanding of a game.

Idols may lead the majority away from chess as people follow them.

Both these area's provide the public with information on a topic. If Chess were to be covered more, it would feel less 'alien' to the majority.

From this, I suppose one can say the popularity of chess is hostage to the general knowledge of those capable to play it.

You want to make chess super popular? You have to get Network TV interested in televising Important games, get analysts who have good TV presence, market it with a big Ad Agency. Promotion is everything with a product whether it's chess or anything else.

The other crazy idea is "Chess Tournament of the Stars" (sort of like dancing with the stars). You have a group of 8 celebrities pairing off each week against each other. There are many people in the limelight out there who play chess. If people saw celebrities palying then they would get interested. If Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga were playing, don't you think kids would follow?

For most people chess is not an activity it's rather an anomaly.Period.
Eventually a lot of work for PR agencies and other marketing managers.

Chess takes effort to play well. Most people want simple and won't put forth the effort.

Elona, if there were more players like you at tournaments, chess would be much  more popular.

 In the entire history of television (in America) we have not had a single chess championship game televised. Not Botvinnik, Smyslov, Tal, spassky, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov have been televised.  TV executives know people will not sit around and watch people think.

"If Justin Bieber or Lady Gaga were playing, don't you think kids would follow?"  No

I thought the Fischer match was televised on PBS?

trysts

Yes, Shelby Lyman was the host, and Deep Blue-Kasparov was on ESPN.