Told you that Carlsen would do absolutely nothing to popularize chess.

Also to be fair at the top level in football plenty of games end nil - nil.  Few suggest bigger goals.

Kind like watching paint dry.  Or golf....  Both having commentaries like being in a mourge.  He just moved his Knight to f6, what do you think his opponent will do Boris.  I think his opponent will assess the situation for the next 45 minutes and then come out with his knight or maybe a pawn Curtis.  We will just have to wait and see what brillant move he makes.  The tension is growing here, now a word from our sponsor.....   It's just not like hearing,  he broke through the blocks, and is at the 40 yard line, to the 30, the 20, the 10 , Touchdown!  Or he hit a ddep one to left field, runners advancing to 3rd and second, the the ball bounces picked up by matthews and thown to 3rd, he's out, thrown to 2nd by gaston, he's out, thown to first, he's out, triple play!  The crowd goes wild as the home team hold on to a 3 to nothing lead.    What a game....   

At the end of a chess game, Black resigns, they stand and shake hands. we look forward to tomorrows match of this 7 game series.....  

To be fair blitz is probably more entertaining for a spectator.

At least it over quicker.  

If it weren't for blitz, there would be even fewer chess players.

true, few play "classical" chess i.e. more than 30 mins, let alone watch it live.  But is there much point trying to make chess popular?  

Maybe, but it's a forgone conclusion that he will win the the matches at chess.com.  It wont make the newspapers, but everyone will have the chance to say, Carlsen, yeah I had a match against him.  I lost but was fun to play him...

It is like choosing the best way to die.

A few years ago, ESPN did a study that shows people attention spans are getting shorter.  So they tailor there news in shorter clips, because people cant pay attanetion long enough.  And we wonder why chess isnt popular, in a "I want it now" society.

To popularize Chess I think FIDE should make a documentary and have Grischuk and/or Gelfand host it, maybe Dvoretsky and Yusupov instead.  It would be a chess history version of Cosmos, with the big popular episode being on Botvinnik and the 1953 Zurich Candidates' tournament.  Also mentioning that Bronstein and Najdorf wrote great books on the grand event, though perhaps since Smyslov won it would be better off in the Smyslov episode (also a big one, for his endgame technique continues to impress even to this day!)

That will be watched by only those who play chess and know what they saying when they talk about different offenses and defenses or,vairiants.  The rest of the world will be watching paint dry somewhere, or football  ( both types), or, baseball, or, basketball, while eating hotdogs, drinking beer, and, cheering for their favorite team..... 

watching the chess championship would be like watching the world-wide sedoku finals. Why would you even want to?

I've heard that he's helped popularize it to some degree in Norway.  I wouldn't expect Carlsen to popularize chess in the USA (or elsewhere).  The last time chess was really popular in the USA was when Fischer was dominating.  If we have an American win (or even play in) a World Chess Championship, that might popularize it here again.  I doubt anyone could popularize it world-wide, though.

You do know that at one time prisoners were forced to watch nonstop chess games on TV and on Video's  as a punishment for the crimes they commited.  It was stoped when the world court made a ruling that it was cruel and unusual.  They siad tourture was not allowed any longer as a means of punisment.....

Chess is doomed.

People just like to complain. Chess is doing fine, it is shown in movies,shows, books and other entertaiment fields.

Kinda funny that people think that the FIDE geriatrics have the responsibility to popularise a game they basically troll.

Hahahaha! Hahahahaha! Muhahahahaha!

Sorry guys, just havin a laff.

So has war, pestilence, diseases, disasters, they are doing well also.  The list just goes on and on.....lololol

Don't act stupid

What you pointed out were problems, Chess is a game. A game that is not dead as it still shown in the entertainment field

I think while Carlsen may not be the most exiting champion ever, a lot of how chess is being received by the public has to do with how it's being presented. 

I really loved the comments By Peter Svidler and Sopiko Guramishvili in that regard, and that got me thinking. After a while it hit me, they did their own analysis of the moves without resorting to engines.

Pretty oldschool these days, but it helped me follow the match a lot better to get the thinking explained by someone who actually understands how the mind of a Super GM works instead of hearing "that move would have been better because engine said so" or "position got better by 0.21 points, so his move must have been good".

If we can get back to that style of commenting I believe chess will become more popular again, and there will hopefully better matches as well than Anand vs Carlsen. Maybe Caruana vs Carlsen will exite us more in the future.