Bobby Fischer's dead. Why no chess on TV?

[richardhutnik]

To bring up a prior thread, but worth bringing it up again, in light of Bobby Fischer passing away.

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 Sport 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 championship 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?