Writing from England/UK I think I can safely say that, unfortunately chess is perceived as the pastime of middle-aged men in sweaters and cords or spotty nerdish youths. How this is changed is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's ignorance of the game and/or the lackof 'celebrities' who play. Some schools make valiant efforts to introduce it to pupils, and rid the game of the 'sad' tag, but I believe that is more organised in the USA.
there is a definite youth effort in U.S.A. Chess, of course, is and probably will always be considered the domain of elderly men and young nerds. What the chess world needs in general is personalities. Fischer inaugurated a tremendous boom in non-Soviet chess. Here was a young, healthy looking guy beating the pants off everyone around him. Kasparov had a different kind of, but still powerful image. Sad to say, the "personalities" left after his retirement are hardly inspiring. Having been the coach of a chess club in a secondary (high school), I can say that the kids take naturally to the game. Unfortunately, we always had to compete with football or basketball or baseball or some other kind of ball. Invariably, we would come off as second best, as the young chessplayer would always have to attend the neverending practises of these games.
here in Ireland a similar perception exists but it is changing
the school scene is getting very active at primary school level.
the esb(electricity supplier here) sponsored chess for a few years paying for boards in primary schools and creating an all-ireland comp for them
about 50,000 kids in primary level took part every year.
I know a few kids under 12 who would be 1800 here maybe more.
an 11 year old beat a WGM at a recent tourney in cork.
I think with all the parents seeing their kids playing and these kids growing up with a basic knowledge and the stonger chess players that this country is beginning to produce that the perceptions are slowly changing and we are about to move up the rankings on the world stage
(Ireland around 50th at the moment)
I have to say, as a player who has just left school, and was an active player at my school, this image was held by most of my peers. My view was that most of the chess players of the lower end were 'nerds' who had no social life and played against some primitive chess software or against patzers on yahoo whilst being almost married to their computers. It appeared to me that most of the weaker players were 'nerds' whereas the higher ability level was a variety of types, as you would find from all walks of life. I don't know why this is, but this was the general impression I got.
Originally posted by Tinmart69What was poker before a few years ago? Another card game. Another way for the house to take your money. What was poker? 5 card draw! What the hell is Texas Hold'em?? Well it's now the biggest card game played around the country (world?).
Writing from England/UK I think I can safely say that, unfortunately chess is perceived as the pastime of middle-aged men in sweaters and cords or spotty nerdish youths. How this is changed is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's ignorance of the game and/or the lackof 'celebrities' who play. Some schools make valiant efforts to introduce it to pupils, and rid the game of the 'sad' tag, but I believe that is more organised in the USA.
We just need ESPN and the Travel Channel to televise the championships.
Originally posted by Tinmart69I'd have to agree with most of the posts here. In the US, chess is usually seen as a game for old men or young nerds. Yes, it does need a "personality" to help give it more popularity. I've heard that a lot of celebrities like to play, but none have been particularly vocal about it. The main problem though, is that most people (at least in the US) seem far too lazy to pursue anything even mildly cerebral. It's all about TV, shopping and McDonalds. It's really quite a shame. Most people don't even speak proper english anymore. Worst of all, they don't care.
Writing from England/UK I think I can safely say that, unfortunately chess is perceived as the pastime of middle-aged men in sweaters and cords or spotty nerdish youths. How this is changed is anyone's guess. Perhaps it's ignorance of the game and/or the lackof 'celebrities' who play. Some schools make valiant efforts to introduce it to pupils, and rid the game of the 'sad' tag, but I believe that is more organised in the USA.
Weadley, there's chess in the N.J. curriculum? I retired from t eaching a couple of years back and there was no chess in the curriculum. We had to struggle to get financing for the after school club. When did chess become part of N.J. curriculum? (not that there's anything wrong with that).
My sixth grade math teacher MADE everyone in all 5 of his classes learn how to play chess... and we had about three class-wide tournaments during the year... The kids that knew how to play taught the other kids, and it was great fun... This was back in the 1971-72 school year...
I was in the Chess Club in H.S. for two years...I was actually the only athlete in the club...the rest of the guys would definitely be described as nerds... but they were phenomenal chess players, every one of them...
I think that ESPN has done one or two chess events...seems like they had Susan Polgar and Maurice Ashley doing the commentary/analysis... didn't they televise one of the Kasparov - Deep matches? Or at least, they showed the moves from the games, with analysis from the GMs...
I can't imagine ESPN targeting an audience of chess players... ESPN doesn't think it's core audience has more than about a 20 second attention span... hard to imagine them spending much time on a game which can take 4 hours to complete...