THE MORTAL ENEMY OF CHESS

I believe, and rightfully so, that track practice (running) is essentially the intangible yet very dangerous enemy of chess, particularly with kids chess. Numerous occasions I have encouraged kids to go play chess and they say "I can't. I have track practice."

The problem is, I know that the coaches will make it very difficult for someone to be absent. Aside from an emergency or illness, no one can miss practice. Kids will have to miss work, family, and other obligations so they can run in circles. And yes, chess is an "Unexcused Absence", in their eyes.

I can assure people that, without track, the chess world will have far greater participants. Opinions on this, please.

And lunch breaks

Coaches can only continue to do this as long as we allow them to. Chess pieces make very effective melee weapons. If they are simply running, they are unarmed. We have the power. We have the numbers.

The revolution begins now.

We need more great middle distance runners in the USA. Now that Bernard Lagat is too old,who will be the next great standard bearer?

Video games are the true enemies of chess. Video games arcades have bigger crowds than chess clubs and chess tournaments. And PCs, tablets and smartphones are used rarely for chess with so many games available.

Obviously, you'll just have to break their legs and then they'll have an excuse to not go to track practice.

Best make it look like an accident. Parents can be so litigious.

Teach more advanced math so that students can't cope. Elsewhere in the forums we learn that only students bad in math play chess. Chess.com the educational channel.

hmmmmm you all have good points