How to make chess more popular?
2 July 2010, 12.37 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
A round table conference took place in Odessa on May 29th on the theme “Popularisation of the game of chess: experience, perspectives, plan of action”. Both famous chess players (Ivanchuk, Eljanov, Gashimov, among others) and top-level managers of the chess world (including FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov) participated. We received a report on the round table, and our visitors are invited to join the discussion.
The report below was written and sent to us by WIM Olena Boytsun, who is General Secretary of the International Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and working in marketing and PR for chess. Since June 2010 she is full time employed as Marketing Director of the Ukrainian Chess Federation.
After the findings of the round table were published earlier this week by Chessbase, Olena also sent us the material, adding
…it would be very interesting to gather any comments, suggestions, ideas on the subject – I usually follow the comments after ChessVibes articles with interest, although never participated. It is always great to brainstorm, and chess community is such a creative and wise community.
We gladly publish the report, and invite our readers to join the discussion below in the comments section.
By Olena Boytsun
The main aim of the round table was to estimate already existing ways of chess game promotion and to develop plan of actions both for Ukraine and the international chess community. The questions of the target audience for chess projects, building the personal brand of a chess player, ways to improve the effectiveness of the implemented marketing decisions were reviewed.
The participants defined the following factors as having a positive influence on the popularization of chess:
- Support from a government, national state programs for chess development;
- Inclusion of the game of chess into the programm of the Olympic games, work with the International Olympic Committee (is among the current priorities of FIDE);
- Support from a sport manager, who may help chess players to concentrate on the game and on other chess promotion activities. A manager assists in administrative questions as well as in questions of negotiations with sponsors and contract signing; however currently there is a lack of professional chess managers in the chess world;
- Stable event calendar and the clarity in the cycle of the World Chess Championship, the clear definition of the beginning and the end of the cycle;
- Targeted actions toward the audience (currently most of the event on chess popularisation are not planned, but are spontaneously organized);
- Informational materials on media relations (the absence of permanent and systematic communication among press, federations and players was noticed);
- Perception of the chess popularization as the project-oriented activity, reputation management;
Social-corporate responsibility of business community; - Widening “the base of pyramid” (increase of the number of amateurs);
- Efficiency of the project management etc.
The importance of the control under the situation and the effective allocation of resources and contacts (including contacts with press) while providing the policy of development was also emphasized.
The main result of the round table is that participants developed propositions of practical application. The following propositions were supported:
- To suggest tournament organizers to include in players’ contracts a paragraph stating that these players would take part in special promotion events (seminars, simuls, blindfold games, commenting on games, communication with the audience, special actions etc) during the tournament at a convenient time for them;
- To develop a detailed description of the possible event package for chess promotion (simuls, blindfold games, seminars, informal meetings with a chess player etc);
- To develop a separate rating list for rapid chess;
- To organize a team of professional managers who wouldn’t deal with the promotion of certain tournaments, but would promote the game of chess in general. In case the international manager structure is not possible to create so far, to use the connection chess player – trainer and to organize the manager courses for trainers;
- To develop and to publish an informational handbook containing the Public Relations information for chess professionals, managers, national federations as well as for mainstream media journalists and wide audience with an interest in chess. The publication of the informational handbook is to be annual with constant information update, including press contacts in every country that is a member of FIDE. The ACP suggested developing the media handbook for FIDE.
On the invitation of FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Olena Boytsun will present the results of the round table at the FIDE Presidential Board meeting in July 2010 in Norway.
FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov identified several priority target groups to develop projects to promote chess. The first step is to focus the attention on the increasing number of fans and the development of children’s chess. In addition, Ilyumzhinov said that the recognition of chess an Olympic sport is one of the major challenges for FIDE.
Vadim Morohovsky, ACP President and Chairman of the Bank PIVDENNY, noted that the main purpose of the ACP is to protect the rights of professional players, but at the same time, the ACP also includes the development and chess and organizing special activities for children.
International grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, among other things, noted that the knock-out system helps to promote chess, because inherent in such a system, an element of entertainment and wrestling helps to attract additional interest from the audience. Ivanchuk also suggested to add more activities in tournaments (seminars, lectures, simultaneous games and more) with the involvement of players.
Journalist and International Grandmaster Mikhail Golubev encouraged, in chess development policies, not to forget about existing resources and contacts, “not to alienate those who can help”. In particular, Golubev mentioned the situation with the chess representative of the news agency Associated Press. As a result of the fact that the date of the big chess events are postponed several times, the leading information agency was unable to plan their chess media coverage with their correspndent and therefore abolished their coverage. Golubev expressed the opinion that at this stage the popularization of chess depends on FIDE incomparably more than on the ACP, and referred to the transfer of a number of major events in 2008-2009, and urged “not to create a negative image of chess by making decisions that were not necessary.”
Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergei Movsesian and Pavel Eljanov emphasized the desirability of introducing a separate rating list for rapid chess, because it is rapid chess that has great television potential. The clarity of the world championship cycle was also named among the necessary conditions for the successful promotion of the game of chess, because it is fighting for the world title that attracts the most attention from the media and the general public.
International Grandmaster Vugar Gashimov raised the suggestion of organizing a team of professional chess managers, whose main task would be to ensure sponsorship and promotion of chess.
International Grandmaster Ernesto Inarkiev supported the idea of special events in general, highlighting the interaction with kids as a priority. Among the reasons that in chess it is difficult to work with a personal manager, is primarily a financial issue, said Inarkiev.
Paul Tregubov made a proposal to develop and distribute a special handbook for journalists and national federations with useful information for all interested groups.
Ali Nihat Yazici, President of Turkish Chess Federation, shared the secrets of the “Turkish miracle”: in five years the popularity of chess in Turkey has increased by several times. Yazici emphasized the need for interaction between the national federation of state bodies, as government support is essential to the success of projects such as chess in schools. According to Yazici, the efficiency of the national federation is the key to a successful promotion of chess in each country.
Photos © Boris Bukhman
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For chess to be followed by non-experts, I think we need to change to a football-like system, whereby checkmates are equivalent to goals, and that after say a three hours session the score might be 4-2 to someone or other – and the winner gets three points, etc. I think non-experts would be quite happy to follow along cluelessly provided they could following the excitement of scoring like that.
Chucky way of wearing cap might popularize chess among yought
)
Fide needs a detailed study of the number of new chess clubs opening and the number of chess clubs closing. If more local clubs are closing chess will not sustain itself.
A resource like google maps or google earth showing where all the world’s club are and where your local chess club(s) is would be useful to study this (over a period of time). It would also help those who have a passing interest in chess find a club and develop their interest.
There is no point to a discussion on this subject that includes Kirsan. He’s had ample time to address it and all he’s done is manage to alienate sponsers from FIDE…
Where is the “plan of action”? Is there a website where I can follow the progress of the things getting done?
Popularization of chess will only come through take at school level. It needs to become part of the curriculum, to be seen as cool and the financial rewards need to increase via sponsorship to attract young talent.
Some of the of the most exciting stuff I have seen was in the recent Amber Chess Tournament from Carlsen and others. Rapid and street chess will help attract younger players much more than special events or chess managers.
How about Carlsen vs a Central Park nobody. This may spark enough media interest to avoid Google Insights graph crashing through the floor for the word chess http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=chess&cmpt=q searches dropped by over 60% in 6 years!
Good idea such a handbook about promoting chess.
Could be a good idea to translate all the wise ideas and good intentions in to very practical advises and best practices on a local level. Most of us are the basis of the piramide, most of us organize chess in a village or town. With it we can use some help.
IM Merijn van Delft and I wrote a book with a chapter about communication in chess: Developing Chess Talent.
Completely for free at our site http://www.chesstalent.com you can find a very extented content list of related topics. You can buy our book but also take for free our list of topics and combine it with your own experiences and phantasy.
Good luck! Gens Una Sumus
Karel van Delft
What made chess popular is not just the game, but also the myth of geniallity and madness that surrounds it: the best minds that fought it out, the strangest characters that had to face eachother. East against West in Fischer-Spasski. Capablanca as the miracle child, learning chess at the age of four.
Think of Kasparov, who fought the computer and was paranoid about it: ot was on the front pages. Think of the Polagr sisters, considered a miracle when they appeared, disproving theories about women and chess. Think of Carlsen, or nowadays Anish Giri: children that fight like lions.
I remember well a chess article on Morosovich, which said: “The giant awakes”. It sketched a man that could outplay anyone, if only he awoke. I found that mystical and have been following him ever since, even though I am not a strong player and probably have no way of understanding the complexities of his best games.
To promote chess, one has to promote its players. Their dedication, their curiossity, their love of the game, their freakishness, their intelligence, their jokes, their rows. There could have been done more to promote the world championship games of Anand and Topalov in terms of the story: the tough, flegmatic Indian against the flamboyant Topalov and his mean manager. Or the energetic Topalov against the calm Anand. These are the stories that can speak to people outside the game.
It has no use to change the score line or to introduce a new rating for rapid games. Who cares, if you have no clue who is playing?
To summarize: use the mythology around chess, the characters, the intelligence, the madness.
I think if we make a cartoon about chess ( like the basketball cartoon Slam Dunk ) it will be very great way for the popularization of chess among childrens
Thank you all for the great ideas! One can also always contact me at olena@marketingchess.com
@Michael This is a good idea indeed. I am currently trying to create such a “chess map” for Ukraine. If it works, than step by step it will be possible to gather information for the world.
@Bartleby Actually, I beleive, such a website should be fide.com
@Karel van Delft Thank you for the material! I got all emails, will study it.
I agree with Hatsekidosie. The popularity of chess was at its height when there was controversy and colour.
Most people cannot play or cannot play well enough to understand the game. However, the general public do understand that its about a struggle of two individuals. If that struggle can be made to seem relevant to them then the popularity will increase.
For example chess was most popular (in the general media) when you could identify with one of the participants in their struggle. e.g. Spassky v Fischer you could identify with the struggle of Fischer against the mighty Soviet machine. Kasparov v Deep Blue, you wanted the man to beat the machine.
I think the simplest suggestion that would add a bit of colour and cause immediate rise in popularity would be to allow the World Champion to accept direct challenges for the title as was the case prior to FIDE. (I think that Fischer originally suggested returning to this).
If a challenger can raise sufficient funds, and the champion agrees to the challenge a match should go ahead. The ranking of the challenger should be largely irrelevant.
It would have several benefits. Somebody like Magnus Carlsen would be able to look for sponsorship to mount a challenge immediately. The act of looking for that sponsorship alone would generate lots of publicity. New kid on the block, wunderkind, etc. etc. I’m sure that there would be many Norwegian companies that would be eager to be involved in sponsoring a match like this.
You might even be able to tempt Kasparov out of retirement if he didn’t have to go through the qualifying cycle. Rocky comes out of retirement etc.
The amount of sponsorship for an event like this would be a lot larger than available for the current FIDE cycle. The champion could accept the challenge and the chance to make a lot of (easy in come cases ?) money or decline.
The strongest players might no be able to attract the most sponsorship and not be able to mount a challenge. Indeed the champion could refuse challenges from the very best. In order to protect their interests I’d suggest that direct challenges can only be made in years when the match FIDE match is not being played and that the world champion is still obliged to meet the FIDE challenger through the normal cycle.
What is the image of chess players among non-chess-players?
Usually answers like: intelligent, ability to sit and concentrate long, understand complicated things, deep thinking ability, etc.
I like this image and if we do not want to change this, I think they should not do:
- rapid rating
- knock out tournaments
- speed up time controls
I think this image is completely different to a lot of popular other games/sports, but this difference could be used (and we will never be that fast as 1 poker hand). I think the most important steps are (supported by FIDE and country chess organisations with a bit of money):
- chess for children (school, after school care, clubs, etc.) these are the future people interested in chess – i.e. worldwide FIDE price for the 10 best youth chess clubs yearly (few houndred EUR are enough) –> important to evaluate the number and not the quality of children in the club as major factor
- support activities for mass chess – i.e. simuls, my club provides a tournament on the danube island festival (music festival in vienna) – everybody can join and come and go and play a game and at the evening the person with the most points out of 7 games get a cup (not fair system like swiss, because always available people play each other, but this not important for non chess players) –> 10 best chess clubs with mass chess activities get yearly fide price
- FIDE should support activities to get to the Guiness book of world records (usually even shortly mentioned in TV) – i.e price for the best yearly activity
- promote chess as a possibility to relax for peoples with stress jobs (i.e. managers) –> no mobile, silence, slow down, do something for your brain, etc. – they also decide often about sponsor money (for sure not easy at the beginning and there need to work marketing experts on this)
- promote super chess tournaments with activities for children and the mass (simuls, tournaments, see also next topic internet – some things can be provided live at the tournament place) in parallel
I think the best mass medium for chess is the internet. In TV it will not be easy to have success at the start. The internet can be used in the following way for the most important tournament/matches:
- guess the right move during top tournaments (small price fund for most correct moves)
- Computer evaluation during games only for the current position on board (not so many different moves – not understandable for non chess players) and change due to the last move (everybody can see if the last move was ok – it is not important for the mass if it is really correct and chess players will use their own programs anyway)
- live comentary by local ims/gms including possibility to suggest moves and discuss with the comentator – provide this for different chess levels (i.e. no tournament player, 1200 – 1800, 1800+)
- provide videos with short press conference after games (5 sentences of each participant are enough + 1 sentence about the next game, if not possible in a better way)
- short promotion video of every participant with biggest success, mention nick name, best game ever, etc.
- Have a list for each big tournament with tournament records (i.e.: highest avg. rating ever, longest game by moves/time ever, shortest white/black win ever, oldest/youngest participant ever, etc.) –> promote new records
- possiblity to vote best game of the tournament – will be analysed by the winner and provided on the page (important to keep in touch after tournament)
- more tournaments in the western world (well known places), because there are the big sponsors
- At the start this must be for free in the internet to attract people – only necessary to log in with e-mail and e-mail is used to promote next chess events – the costs should be covered by the sponsor of the tournaments, if possible (or FIDE at the beginning) and FIDE can support it with price for the best promoted tournament every year.
- Maybe also offer internet tournaments around these big chess events for active internet participants (in cooperation with provider like: chessbase, ICC, etc.)
Moreover it is very important to have a clear rule, how to become world champion (if I want to start playing chess tomorrow, what do I have to do to become world champion) and a list of all the major tournaments which are promoted in that way at the beginning of every year.