Saturday 25 August 2007

Topic of the Day

"[In Australia] Because Chess is on the fringe, it attracts the fringe"
Feel free to discuss.

5 comments:

DeNovoMeme said...

Would the corrolary be that the mainstream attracts the mainstream? If so, opposites do not attract they repell, leading to insular lumpiness.

I think, then, that the important question is, "What causes the disruption of order." ie what breaches the insulation and loosens the lumps.

Shaun Press said...

Indeed, the second half of the quote (IIRC) continues "while in Europe, because chess is less on the fringe, it attracts less of the fringe"

Phil Willis said...

While I agree that chess is on the fringe I don't think it necessarily attracts the fringe.

I don't think too many on the fringe think: "What should I do this weekend, change my hair colour to blue, get another piercing or go to a chess tournament?"

People play chess because they like to play chess.

If the quote is meant to be a comment on why chess in any country needs to develop a critical mass of grass roots support - then that is certainly valid.

It's the same problem with any sport or activity.

And it goes double for a country like Australia which has a small and geographically dispersed population.

In the USA, with 300 million people living in fairly close proximity to each other, if you're into in a hobby that only interests 0.01% of the population you still have 30,000 fellow devotees.

Which means if you can't find a club or event you like in Baltimore, there's always Philadelphia, Washington DC, Wilmington, New York etc all within 2 hours drive.

Contrast that with Australia, where 0.01% of the population is only 2,000. And if you can't find what you're looking for in Perth - you're out of luck.

Even if there were similar levels of chess sponsorship, interest and promotion as there are in other countries (which there is not), Australia still has a lot of other factors which make chess (or any other "fringe" pursuit) difficult to achieve any sort of critical mass.

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