Life In 19x19

We know some Chinese pros are upset about the economic state of the game there, but there is an obvious explanation: covid lockdowns. But is there anyone here plugged into the chess scene who can explain why chess appears to be in the doldrums. Covid must be a factor, but I suspect there's more to it.

At any rate, some of what I see is this. The site that shows Elo ratings of top players live has shown zero changes almost totally for the past couple of months. This applies across the classical, rapid and blitz ratings. In other words, most players are inactive.

The London Chess Classic, once a premier world event, has been cancelled this year. The implication of the announcement was lack of sponsorship, which in turn is a big blow to schools chess in Britain as it piggy-backed on this event.

The British Chess Championship, once also worthy of headlines, is barely mentioned now. The fact that the first prize is just £5,000 - not enough to buy a passable second-hand car - may be the explanation, but at least it is going ahead.

On the international scene, there are some upcoming events but some are team events where it seems to be more about prestige than prize money, some other events seem to have reduced sponsorship, and some are in far-away places like Uzbekistan and Calcutta. Judging by the recent book "Chess Queens" by Jennifer Shahade, players may have to pay their own way to such locations and, once there, they may have inferior food and/or accommodation (e.g. sharing rooms, or hotels located miles from the playing centre). [Shahade's book, incidentally, an update of her "Chess Bitch," is a very good read for those who follow the Amazon Army thread here.]

Clearly, chess has suffered from covid and consequent travel problems, but I can't help but observe that the recent stagnation in rating movements (implying lack of major events) also coincides with Carlsen's outbursts over cheating, and of course not long before that he rocked the boat by saying he wouldn't expect to defend his world championship. Surely such statements translate into "chess is full of cheaters" or "chess is boring" in the minds of the general public, and so in turn they translate into "don't touch chess with a barge pole" for potential sponsors.

Or have I completely misjudged the contemporary chess scene?

John Fairbairn wrote:At any rate, some of what I see is this. The site that shows Elo ratings of top players live has shown zero changes almost totally for the past couple of months. This applies across the classical, rapid and blitz ratings. In other words, most players are inactive.

There are plenty of online tournaments, which do not count for FIDE ratings, which can give the misleading impression that nothing is going on. At the moment, the world champion is playing in something called the "Mr Dodgy Invitational". At the end of the year the rapid and blitz world championship is coming up, and I think Wijk aan zee as usual in January.

It does seem that there is less activity lately. I, too, assumed that a decline in activity might be due to Covid issues. Perhaps sponsorship is also down just due to general malaise. I haven't followed the chess cheating scandal in any detail but it must have had an effect on support, not just on corporate sponsors but also on amateur fans. It seems to me that cheating is more likely in on-line events than in in-person events. As for Magnus Carlsen's withdrawal from the world championship show, I could easily imagine burn-out happening. For me the world championship in chess lost some prestige when it became a carnival show by polluting championship chess through introducing speed chess into the process for determining the champion. In the USA chess is not a major activity of the general public, though it is vastly more popular that go. I have an impression that here on L19 the most active topics are related to katago and similar programs, not as much about the top human players. How would chess (or go) be marketed to potential sponsors>? What would make a company pay to be seen supporting a game that reaches a small proportion of the public?

> some [upcoming events] are in far-away places like ... Calcutta.

Currently, eight of the hundred top rated chess players are Indians, forming the most represented nationality in that band besides Russians, Ukrainians and Americans.