rocco wrote:
> On Jan 19, 8:21 am, richardhut...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>> I have asked this before on here I believe. Well, the death of
>> Fischer begs the question once more. I also posted this on Boardgame
>> geek:http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/278704
>>
>> Bobby Fischer's death is in the news, and causes people to remember
>> the 1970s, when chess was king, and people tuned into PBS to watch
>> chess. Chess was a culturally iconic back then. I remember reading
>> Mad Magazine when I was a kid, and they actually did a spoof with a
>> chess based superhero. Fischer made all the magazine covers, and it
>> was WWIII on the board. It wasn't just the Cold War either. When
>> America beat Russia in the Winter Olympics at hockey, and played
>> them, there wasn't an outbreak of hockey all over, like there was
>> with Chess. I remember when I was a kid in the 1970s, there was a
>> chess store that opened up near where I lived.
>>
>> So, what has happened here? There is no chess on TV now. Rock, Paper,
>> Scissors made it to ESPN. Hot dog eating made ESPN. Poker is all over
>> TV. Scrabble is on TV also. But, there isn't chess. As far as I know,
>> no one has even bothered to pick up the rights to the World Mind
>> S****t Games in China either for western broadcast. The event has
>> Chess, Checkers, Go, Chinese Chess, and Bridge also, and is pretty
>> big event (first of its kind, and an offshoot of the Olympics).
>> There was a chess champion****p for over $1.5 million in Mexico last
>> year, and no one even knew of it, outside of the chess world.
>>
>> So, again I ask, why is there no chess on TV? Also, any ideas what
>> can be done to get it on TV? Chess could open the doorway for a lot
>> of boardgames ending up on TV, if it could be on TV and remain
>> there. My take is the pacing of the moves, plus excessive amount of
>> draws where players score equally for the draw, are two major
>> factors why not.
>>
>> Please don't get me started about American Gladiator being back, or
>> the fact that guys fixing motorcycles has a TV show. I can close by
>> saying a program about people have dirty jobs actually is on TV now.
>> Come on! All this and no chess?
>>
>> - Rich
>
> I think the answer is because true chess enthusiasts don't watch much
> TV.
>
> I think the Internet or traditional publi****ng is a much better
> medium. I would love to download the game records of the Mexcian
> chess tournament you mentioned, especially the top games (i.e.
> longest) off of an Internet site and I would pay for that.
>
> R
I remember watching chess on TV years before the Fischer Spassky match and
for a couple years after. It disappeared about the time Fischer started
to
refuse to defend the title and I think that may've been a contributing
factor to chess being removed from TV. Fischer was viewed in the US as an
American cold war hero. How could TV get people to watch when the hero
wouldn't participate anymore? The general public wasn't interested in
most
matches, but many would tune in for a title match. Well they already had
the finale, they had nothing to follow it up with.
Best,
Bill
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