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IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
Re: IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
If you scroll way down the front page, no doubted distracted on the way, you will find this text:
Coming this week
THE RISE AND FALL OF CANADIAN CHESS
This article will appear in coming days , having been slightly delayed because of difficulties in adapting the layout to a web format.
This controvertial article is my version of what has happened -and why- to organized chess in Canada these past 20 years. This is a true story. A bird's- eye view, so to speak ,of the incestuous relationship between Canadian chess organizers, special interests and money.
This is the story that will be remembered by future generations of Canadians of what really happened, long after we are all gone.
Divided into 5 parts, the article will be presented as a series:
Introduction
1) The Kevin Spraggett Foundation for Chess (1988-1992) and the FQE
2) Larry Bevand's personal war on organized chess (especially 1996-present)
3) The ChessTalk fiasco
4) The sale of Canada's National Team (especially the Yves Charbonneau saga)
Re: IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
All this history is all very well, I suppose, but I don't know how relevant it is to today's situation. Do I care about "Kevin Spraggett Foundation for Chess (1988-1992) and the FQE"? That was 20 years ago.
I suppose part 5 might be interesting, but are any new ideas going to be presented?
Re: IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
It's difficult to believe that Kevin is writing this blog himself. Because of its sheer volume and the substantial non-chess content I suspect there's a Marlowe to his Shakespeare in the background.
Last edited by Dan Scoones; Wednesday, 1st July, 2009, 03:24 AM.
Re: IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
Huh, interesting, looks like Spraggett has a lot of time on his hands (if he is the one compiling all these images and whatnot).
I scrolled down... way down.... and noticed his comments as follows:
"... the only way things are going to improve in Canada is if we chessplayers take control of our destiny and start doing the right things. Things that will change the way chess is viewed by sponsors.
Where do we Canadians start to change things around?...
1) explore ways to improve the marketing potential of the game
2) improve communication with the media so that they become aware of chess
3) use IT to create an online site that is interactive, visually attractive and updated daily (preferably several times daily)"
Points 2 and 3 are inconsequential if point 1 doesn't occur. To Kevin and anyone else who is serious about marketing chess, I have this to say:
LEARN FROM POKER!
It cannot be done any other way. Chess cannot be marketed to the masses as it is. It will not sell to the masses as it is... not now, not tomorrow, not next year, not in your lifetime, not before the universe stops expanding.
What to learn about marketing from poker:
1) long time pros and skilled players are favored and will make money over the long run, but for a given event, ANYONE CAN WIN! For chess, this means introducing some element of luck.
2) once the previous point is enabled, HUGE PRIZE POOLS ARE POSSIBLE because of vastly larger entries (and vastly larger entry fees).
3) change the rules to contain a "game within a game". Poker has hands that are done with fairly quickly. The masses like that (golf and tennis being other prime examples). Chess for the masses needs to eradicate the 2 to 5 hour marathons. A chess match between 2 players needs to be a series of short, separate battles in which at most each player has 8 pieces / pawns (King included) on the board, and even that may be too many. Blitz or Active chess haven't done it and won't do it, because the masses don't understand the opening phase. Any more than 8 pieces / pawns per side and the masses are going to shrug and change the channel. That's right, THE CHANNEL... TO MARKET CHESS, YOU NEED TV.
That's it in a nutshell. I'm sure someone will bring up the g-word... don't want to turn chess into gambling.
That's fine. THEN SHUTUP ABOUT MARKETING AND ABOUT GETTING CHESS OUT OF ITS FINANCIAL DOLDRUMS! Of course, I'm only directing this comment at people who dare write about marketing chess, as Kevin has done. Hey, bloghead, how's the above for "exploring ideas for improving the marketing potential of the game"?
I think I already know Kevin's answer to this. Why? Because Kevin is part of the chess elite, and as long as chess has no element of luck whatsoever, he can continue to reign as a skilled enough player to garner nothing but respect well into his senior years, and make a modest living from it. It's the GM syndrome, not specific to Kevin. They get to a certain point, and then they just... stay about the same. I wonder if Kevin ever sees the irony in his yearning for improvement of chess marketing.
*** the preceding was sponsored by the Happy Fun Ball Limited Liability Corporation.
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
1) long time pros and skilled players are favored and will make money over the long run, but for a given event, ANYONE CAN WIN! For chess, this means introducing some element of luck.
The #1 reason that I play Chess is BECAUSE there isn't an element of luck. If I lose I can't blame anyone but myself... no excuses. If they brought in an element of luck in chess I would go play a different game.
In any event I don't think there would be any need to introduce pure luck into chess to make it a good TV sport. Look at golf. If they can make golf a spectator sport without changing it's rules they can do the same with chess. It's just a matter of creativity.
Last edited by Ed Seedhouse; Thursday, 2nd July, 2009, 05:30 PM.
Re: IMPORTANT: Kevin Spraggett's blog and the revelation this week ...
One website (http://batgirl.atspace.com/CIP_8.html) cites an old article: ""The Man Who Screamed When He Lost." Warner, Glen. Saturday Night (May 1980), p. 50-53.
According to a gallup poll, chess ranked as the second most popular sport in Canada."
One website (http://batgirl.atspace.com/CIP_8.html) cites an old article: ""The Man Who Screamed When He Lost." Warner, Glen. Saturday Night (May 1980), p. 50-53.
Over the years, I've heard often about that Gallup study, but NEVER saw the questions and numbers.
When Camille Coudari called me in 1979 to suggest splitting the bill to find out how many chess players there are in Canada, it seemed like a good idea.
(1)
I've been told often that Québec (FQE ?) never paid its share of the bill.
(2)
Also, I was told the survey was an ''omnibus'' one : the questions on chess were I slight portion of the whole survey (i.e. it was not a survey on chess).
The #1 reason that I play Chess is BECAUSE there isn't an element of luck. If I lose I can't blame anyone but myself... no excuses. If they brought in an element of luck in chess I would go play a different game.
Your version of chess is not going anywhere. It will always be around. It will just never get successfully marketed and promoted to anywhere near the levels that poker has. And for you and many others, that is obviously fine, and I have no issues with that as long as you don't post here about needing to get chess as it is now marketed to the masses or on TV.
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
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