h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A lovely article, thank you. But I disagree with the observation that "Chess is seen as a useless waste of time by many...a boring and slow game reserved only for old men sitting at fireplaces in nursing homes dotted all over the country." Actually chess is played enthusiastically worldwide by many millions of people, of many social groups, cultures, and ages, and has achieved this wide-ranging appeal with little or no help from the mainstream media. Proof of this is offered by the explosion of chess-related material on the Internet. There are now innumerable sites on which one can play chess against people of all levels from beginner to grandmaster, or study the game, or simply discuss it with other enthusiasts. Actually, I think chess is one of the 'coolest' things on the Web, and doesn't really seem to suffer from an image problem there at all...

In my opinion, the people who "do not want to know" about chess are the ones who run the mainstream media - they are the ones who see the game as something which is boring, too intellectual, and far too complicated for ordinary people to get their heads around. Chess presence, as you rightly point out, has a minimal to non-existent media presence. But who cares? Meanwhile, at the grass roots, people are finding ways of circumventing this narrow-mindedness and finding other outlets for their enthusiasm for the noble game.

Once again - a lovely piece of work, thanks.

Thanks for the compliments.

However; I completely understand what you are talking about; what with chess not having any image problems on the Internet. Kasparovchess.com has a daily turn over of thousands and thousand of visitors. And so do many other prestigious chess web sites.

However, when I was referring to the old men playing it in nursing homes I was speaking about an image which has been conceived in the minds of those who "do not want to know".

Although many play chess enthusiastically, there are still many who do not see the sense in it: and this is tragic.

I live in Great Britain and for the last twenty years, the BBC has aired coverage of the world chess championships. However, the year 2000 which hailed the clash of two great players, Kasparov and Kramnik, brought with it no chess coverage whatsoever. Except perhaps for a quick spot on the six o'clock news.

BBC Head Greg Dyke just does not want to know.

And it annoys me.

Best Regards,
Rhys

PS - Nice to see someone's reading my entry!

I agree, it's a crying shame about the lack of chess coverage. I'm a UK resident as well, and I followed the Kasparov-Kramnik clash with interest on Braingames.net and Kasparov's own site (which I also use sometimes as a player, albeit a rather poor one ). However, as for mainstream media I spotted only two stories about the tournament in The Guardian, and one of those was merely a sensationalist "Kasparov loses his cool" kind of story - ie, any mention of the chess itself was purely incidental.

But the thing I was getting at is this... Who needs Greg Dyke and all the other media moguls? As I say, in spite of the poor coverage, yet there are thousands of people playing the game daily over the Web and so forth. So I think the 'grass roots' appeal is such that it doesn't matter too much whether the media idiots like the game or not - it will continue to survive under its own steam and with the support of enthusiasts who genuinely care about the game.

I hope so anyway. If it's really true, as you say, that there are more possible moves than atoms in the universe, I suppose we'd all better get a move on...

See ya, Lear

Yeah,

You are too right there my friend,

It is a crying shame.

But what the hey - there a millions of people right now playing chess throughout the world enthusiastically, and there are more publications on chess and all the other sports put together (apparently); so chess certainly isn;t dying!

I personally enjoy playing at Kasparovchess.com as RhysTranter and at the worldchessnetwork.com which is an excellent, free site as rhystranter.

Maybe we shall meet one day and have a game?

Best Regards,
Rhys

Sure, I'll keep an eye open. I'm afraid I'm not all that good - my rating currently hovers around the 1400 mark. But if you ever come across Lear2000 on kasparovchess.com, drop by and challenge me to a game. I also play as tourducalame on Yahoo Chess sometimes. I haven't used worldchessnetwork.com - maybe I'll drop by that site sometime soon and try it out.

Cheers, Lear.

Superb: I shall keep my eye open.

No worries: I am no Grandmaster myself.

Yahoo Chess: gm_mikhail_tal_uk
WorldChessNet: RhysTranter
KasparovChess:RhysTranter

Best Regards,
Rhys

Cool. Seeyaround.

Anyone fancy a game of chess?

I don't mind setting up the game, if I can be white.

I presume you are speaking of a correspondence game?

If so, I would be happy to play! Just send me the first move in algebraic and we shall be off!

Best Regards,
Rhys