Why American chess sucks

Sorry to say this about my country, but it seems within 1-2 generations of landing on these shores, people over here drift into America's anti intellectual culture and develop a bunch of moronic habits (remember, this is the country that spawned the Kardashians!) In looking through the top players, most are either European or Russian imports, a few asians, and a small group of old baby boomers from the Fischer era.

JMHO - Old world cultures are better cultures!

http://www.uschess.org/component/option,com_top_players/Itemid,371?op=list&month=1803&f=usa&l=R:Top%20Overall.&h=Overall

Face it. American entertainment is high tech now and chess is low tech. Sure there are computers, but they are not going to let you beat them to advance to the next level, they are just going to convince you that you are no good at chess. No shooting, no action, no explosions, just thinking and pieces of wood or plastic. Hungry, Hungry Hippos might be more popular. Might just be proving your point, but everyone else will catch up eventually.

Originally posted by @buzz-meeks
Face it. American entertainment is high tech now and chess is low tech. Sure there are computers, but they are not going to let you beat them to advance to the next level, they are just going to convince you that you are no good at chess. No shooting, no action, no explosions, just thinking and pieces of wood or plastic. Hungry, Hungry Hippos might be more popular. Might just be proving your point, but everyone else will catch up eventually.

Computers can be set to lower levels. Computers taught me to play decent chess. Computers are incredibly useful, in general, for chess development.

Originally posted by @mchill
Sorry to say this about my country, but it seems within 1-2 generations of landing on these shores, people over here drift into America's anti intellectual culture and develop a bunch of moronic habits (remember, this is the country that spawned the Kardashians!) In looking through the top players, most are either European or Russian imports, a few asians, a ...[text shortened]... omponent/option,com_top_players/Itemid,371?op=list&month=1803&f=usa&l=R:Top%20Overall.&h=Overall

An American is about to play for the world championship.

Perhaps things aren't as bad as you think.

Originally posted by @buzz-meeks
No shooting, no action, no explosions, just thinking and pieces of wood or plastic. Hungry, Hungry Hippos might be more popular. Might just be proving your point, but everyone else will catch up eventually.

I gave your post a thumbs up..My grand-daughter is 27 months old and can use the TV remote controller.. Exclusively, since she doesn't want to share it..

I seem to have wandered into the grumpy old men thread by mistake. My bad.

Originally posted by @bigdoggproblem
An American is about to play for the world championship.

Perhaps things aren't as bad as you think.

That's encouraging.

I don't think Carlsen will lose unless he's just lost interest. I've seen a photo of him playing Anand where he was dozing at the board.

Originally posted by @buzz-meeks
I don't think Carlsen will lose unless he's just lost interest. I've seen a photo of him playing Anand where he was dozing at the board.

Nah, that's just his Norse face.

Originally posted by @mchill
Sorry to say this about my country, but it seems within 1-2 generations of landing on these shores, people over here drift into America's anti intellectual culture and develop a bunch of moronic habits (remember, this is the country that spawned the Kardashians!) In looking through the top players, most are either European or Russian imports, a few asians, a ...[text shortened]... omponent/option,com_top_players/Itemid,371?op=list&month=1803&f=usa&l=R:Top%20Overall.&h=Overall

Outside of aboriginal Americans, we are all imports here. It might be worthwhile to check where some of our players were born before simply labeling them as "Asians". Even Nakamura, who was born in Japan (his Mom is an American citizen), spent all his formative years here. And I have known Ray Robson personally since he was a kid, and I 'd say having two teachers as parents mattered the most. And they don't really play- Ray just liked the game and had an aptitude at an early age, and they supported him.

As for Europeans, Caruana was born in Miami and grew up in Brooklyn (like another player- is there a "Brooklyn School of Chess"?), and went to Italy basically for financial reasons. He seems to follow the $$, and I don't blame him, as we all have to eat!

Nowadays, the St Louis Chess Club has almost single-handedly placed the US back on the Chess map.

In terms of culture, the more free a country is, the more opportunities for entertainment and personal development there are, so the competition among activities is much more fierce.

Strong foreign chess players don't always come to the US for chess. They come here because there is more to life than chess.

They come here because there is more to life than chess.[/b]

I think that says it all.

The same could be said for
Belgian
Uruguayan
Luxembourgian
Polish
Pakistanian
etc. ...chess.

Most countries other than USA suck in cricket and baseball and curling.
I don't know the rules of cricket and baseball and I know I will never bother to do so.

All you need is another chess fever. But first you've got t have a talented player. Add rock'n'roll to it and piece of exotic and here is fever.

Originally posted by @vandervelde
Most countries other than USA suck in cricket

Erm...

I daresay even the Dutch team could beat the Yanks at cricket. After all, we even beat the Limeys at 20/20 - twice.

Originally posted by @shallow-blue
Erm...

I daresay even the Dutch team could beat the Yanks at cricket. After all, we even beat the Limeys at 20/20 - twice.

We in the US generally don't play or like Cricket. That's India.

I should have written UK. 😀