Chess worlds teaches us a lesson

[oren]

The largest, mostly soccer-focused newspaper in Spain has live commentary on the matches online. I doubt the US can be worse, given that chess is way bigger there than here.

I'n guessing it is worse.

[emeraldemon]

Let's find out!

1) New York Times has nothing about it. if you search for chess on their website you get this page:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference ... index.html

Which has no articles since october and no mention of the championship.

2) The Wall Street Journal ran one article at the start of the match:
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/11/0 ... ORDS=chess
a few paragraphs, no game records or updates.

3) My local paper never (Denver Post) never ran anything about chess, nor can I find anything about the match on CNN.com, fox news, USA today, the huffington post, or the LA times.

Searches on these sites usually link to NFL articles or cold war comparisons (e.g. articles about Putin and Ukraine). So chess is a metaphor for strategic thinking, but not a spectator sport in the United States.

[RBerenguel]

Let's find out!

1) New York Times has nothing about it. if you search for chess on their website you get this page:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference ... index.html

Which has no articles since october and no mention of the championship.

2) The Wall Street Journal ran one article at the start of the match:
http://blogs.wsj.com/dailyfix/2014/11/0 ... ORDS=chess
a few paragraphs, no game records or updates.

3) My local paper never (Denver Post) never ran anything about chess, nor can I find anything about the match on CNN.com, fox news, USA today, the huffington post, or the LA times.

Searches on these sites usually link to NFL articles or cold war comparisons (e.g. articles about Putin and Ukraine). So chess is a metaphor for strategic thinking, but not a spectator sport in the United States.

Surprising Spanish media is much, much better.

Marca.com (the sports newspaper I told about) has as I said live comments. elpais.es (largest general online newspaper, one of the biggest in paper) has a section for the tag "chess" with updates after the games. Lavanguardia.com (largest paper newspaper in Catalonia, close to elperiodico, one of the big two online in Catalonia) also has match updates. They probably come all from the same place, the EFE news agency, so this feeds easily all Spanish newspapers at once. But worth noting, most of the bigs talk about the match.

I checked a random foreign (European) newspaper (Le monde) and it has only generic articles when it started. The Frankfuter Allgemeine has match reports, though. Bbc.co.uk has nothing. All in all, weird mixing of news and no-news over the world.

[yoyoma]

I found out the Chess WC was going when I logged onto twitch.tv and happened to notice Chess was like the #8ish game or so. It was one of the chess streamers following the match with live commentary (Jerry? not the official FIDE Sochi stream).

I think the Lee Sedol - Gu Li match got pretty good exposure within the Go community, but probably didn't draw in new people. Maybe it's more of a keep existing people and maybe get them energized again thing.

[Knotwilg]

You cannot say sports like American Football or Baseball are badly marketed (in the US). Yet in Europe nobody cares about them. Marketing is not everything.

[Uberdude]

You cannot say sports like American Football or Baseball are badly marketed (in the US). Yet in Europe nobody cares about them. Marketing is not everything.

Though perhaps they are growing a little: there were some NFL (American Football) games in Wembley (England's national football stadium) recently. I heard about it because there were concerns about them damaging the pitch for football games a few days later.

[RBerenguel]

You cannot say sports like American Football or Baseball are badly marketed (in the US). Yet in Europe nobody cares about them. Marketing is not everything.

Though perhaps they are growing a little: there were some NFL (American Football) games in Wembley (England's national football stadium) recently. I heard about it because there were concerns about them damaging the pitch for football games a few days later.

It's like big soccer teams going to the US for summer training matches: it's widening market(s) and market share.

[virre]

Carlsen makes a big splash in Norway and splashes on to Sweden even. The Norweigan broadcasting hade live games (don't know if on TV or online, they where also webbroadcast on Swedish state televisions play site) with commentary, analysis, twitter contact with viewers (If I was Carlsen I would have played like this etc)

But I think the impact is mostly because good results, have chess in Norway become more popular due to Carlsen?


(And no I understand hardly nothing of chess. I am even worse at that then I am at Go)

[sybob]

I agree with Pippen, although I think it is not 'just' a matter of the world championship.
Carlssen is not only very good at chess, but he also has appeal (to the ladies and youngsters) and for years FIDE marketed and promoted chess and Carlssen as Mr Chess Face. He is even sponsored by a fashion company. People (that is: Westerners) can relate to him.
The go community misses such a person, such a face, such an icon to which the public can relate, and it misses the worldwide organisation to support and promote him.

[Abyssinica]

I agree with Pippen, although I think it is not 'just' a matter of the world championship.
Carlssen is not only very good at chess, but he also has appeal (to the ladies and youngsters) and for years FIDE marketed and promoted chess and Carlssen as Mr Chess Face. He is even sponsored by a fashion company. People (that is: Westerners) can relate to him.
The go community misses such a person, such a face, such an icon to which the public can relate, and it misses the worldwide organisation to support and promote him.

How can you say no to this face?

[sybob]

Abyssinica! That you?

[gowan]

We missed our chance if you want a go master who would attract the general Western people. The late Japanese master Fujisawa Hideyuki (Shuko) would fill the bill. He was a charismatic great champion, a drinker, a gambler and he made a lot of money in real estate. Unfortunately he died.

[DrStraw]

We missed our chance if you want a go master who would attract the general Western people. The late Japanese master Fujisawa Hideyuki (Shuko) would fill the bill. He was a charasmatic great champion, a drinker, a gambler and he made a lot of money in real estate. Unfortunately he died.

That's why I chose him in that other thread about which pro you would want to play a casual game against.

[gowan]

We missed our chance if you want a go master who would attract the general Western people. The late Japanese master Fujisawa Hideyuki (Shuko) would fill the bill. He was a charismatic great champion, a drinker, a gambler and he made a lot of money in real estate. Unfortunately he died.

P.S. I forgot to add womanizer to the list.

[RBerenguel]

Probably worth pointing out that Carlsen has retained its title, after defeating Anand in the 11th game. I need to get better at chess someday