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Should FIDE be the one to promote chess. Or USCF and other national NCFs?

Should it be tournament promoters who profit from more players attending?

Is it the job of local clubs to promote chess?

All of the above??

I have seen local clubs fail because they promote chess instead of promoting the club for the benefit of the players in their town. I see small towns have successful clubs with no dues and many rated events with dozens of players , when some larger cities charge too much, throw the dues money around like they printed it, and rarely have a rated tournament which is usually very poorly attended.

Clearly tournament promoters need to promote chess so they can generate profits.

FIDE needs to promote chess with less urgency as they are the one in charge of chess and the size is less important to them, but still significant.

National federations would tend to be in the middle although IMHO leaning more to needing the members to pay dues so they can survive and thrive.

Now I see that some schools promote chess. WHY?

Rewan Demontay
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edwina oliver
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    I am not sure that any of them do a great job. It seems to be dedicated individuals, who promote chess the most. – PhishMaster Jan 22 '20 at 18:41
  • I recall the old days when there was a gentleman running many tournaments making a good living from it. I had played him in the Md junior in Baltimore and beat him. I guess he figured it better to be a promoter than try to be a professional player when he grew up. – edwina oliver Jan 22 '20 at 18:43
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    I think they scrape by. With the exception of Bill Goichberg, I do not know of any that I would say made much at all. – PhishMaster Jan 22 '20 at 18:45
  • Why do they do it then? And Goichberg was the name I was (senior moment) trying to recall! – edwina oliver Jan 22 '20 at 18:48

1 Answers1

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Simple answer: it is everybody's job to promote chess.

FIDE stands for "Fédération Internationale des Échecs" which stands for "International Chess Federation". It is their job to promote international chess -

World Championships
Candidates tournaments
Continental Championships
Olympiads

It is the job of the national federations to promote chess at the national and regional level -

National Championships
National Leagues
Regional Championships
Regional Leagues

It is the job of clubs and their affiliates (in some countries the national federation is also run completely by the clubs) to promote chess at the local level

Local Leagues
Local congresses

It is the job of internet companies to promote chess online (although FIDE and the federations sometimes like to try as well)

It is the job of rich sponsors to fill in the gaps and provide the icing on the cake. Here I'm thinking of lucrative, major opens like the Isle of Man, Gibraltar and the big events run out of St Louis Chess club (and bankrolled by Rex Sinquefield)

No one group of organizers is best overall. It would be ridiculous for FIDE to try and run every minor city league. It would be equally ridiculous for clubs to run the World Championships.

Note that I haven't mentioned entrepreneurs for the simple reason that making money from organizing chess tournaments, while possible, is extremely difficult. Whoever can crack the TV market and turn chess into a sport with the same televisual appeal as soccer deserves to be a billionaire.

Brian Towers
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  • So are you saying everybody? You can say it but that wont make it true. Why should anyone person promote chess at all? Why should any company sponsor chess? Chess has been on TV. So has bridge. They both went away. Goichberg did well sponsoring tournaments. The Fischer boom ended. Roanoke chess club is a total fail at promoting chess compared to Greenville NC's results. So clearly not all clubs should try promoting chess rather than promoting the club itself. – edwina oliver Jan 22 '20 at 19:19