TOPALOV: professional chess will end within 50 years - interview

Chess is safe, and not even close to being solved.  Considering a study from a year or two ago showed that humans now have the shortest attention spans on the planet, i would say chess is safe.  

Why do you think bullet and blitz is so popular?

Im 52 so i can relate :-)

I noticed youre from Seattle.  Do you still go to the Seattle chess club?  

Do you know Kerry Van Veen, and August Piper?  Do you come down to the Reno tournament with them?

Yep!  August is a great guy!  I see him twice a year in Reno.  Always pleasant, always take times time to come over and say Hi.

I might know them by site, but the names arent familiar.  Kerry and August are the ones i know by name and site.

Never met Yasser but always heard nothing but good things about him.  

What tends to happen though is both players go down a particular line played before and then one of them plays a computer move that deviates.  Then the other has to work out what move to play.

Just an UP on this thread.

Read the 1st post and see what Topalov said.

No, they were just too small.

We already have machines that pitch baseballs better than human pitchers, boats that travel huge multiples of how fast humans can swim, etc. and that doesn't stop up from enjoying the human thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.  I think chess will go on, though electronic games may indeed limit the number of people who are skilled and who care about the game.

Machines can go faster, last longer, lift beavier loads, and perform calculations faster than a human, they will only get better. So what? There will always be the desire to pit mind against mind, human against human, master against master. Checkers has been solved, yet millions of sets are still sold, millions still play. We have driverless cars now, do you think NASCAR is worried? Right now I can play against the computer, but I prefer going against a live opponate...chess isn't going anywhere.

I disagree. Nobody plays chess just to become world championship. And even if it's 'solved,' what will that mean. Sure, engines will draw, but humans can still play.

Boy, this is the worst English translation/redaction of an interview that I have ever seen in Chess.com  Can someone decipher some of these statements? Even Google translate can do better. Chess.com where are your proofreaders.  "No motivation to beat no longer have."  Is this YODA speaking?

^^ Since when did chess.com become some stranger posting something on an internet forum? You read the post properly right? You know the part where the op says that it's an error ridden translation from Google Translate? I think there might be a clue in there.

     Professional chess will not die as long as chess itself  keeps going. Most people play chess because they enjoy it, and are willing to pay big entry fees to play in big tournaments where GMs walk off with the lions' share of the prize fund. They also buy chess books and pay for chess lessons. The videos by GMs you see on chess.com and other web sites are not provided for free. Simuls, demos and other public appearances make money. As long as large corporations like Tata Steel want publicity and can get tax breaks for supporting cultural activities there will be tournaments with good prize funds and expenses paid to top players. Rich individuals like Louis Statham (Lone Pine) and Gregor Piatigorsky (Piatigorsky Cup) sponsored such tournaments for years just because they were chess fans--if some billionaire became interested in chess this will happen again.

     As others have noted here, chess won't go away just because computers are better than humans, or have solved chess. Fifty years ago Fischer predicted the imminent death of chess because top players already knew everything there was to learn about the game. Fifty years earlier, Capablanca said the same thing, but chess survives and will live on because it is a fascinating and enjoyable pastime.

     Topalov's main complaint is that elite players don't make nearly as much money as elite players in other sports. Big-money sports are mainly financially supported by TV money, as millions of fans want to watch the best players perform. There are not as many chess fans, and chess doesn't make for interesting TV. And there are quite a few billionaires in the world today, and none of them are sports stars, so Topalov and anyone who is primarily interested in $$$ should look for greener pastures elsewhere.