Chess

“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art — and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.” - Marcel Duchamp
 
777 said:
His wife was so demoralized by his fascination with chess that she nailed all his pieces to the board.
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To be fair, though, that was on their brief honeymoon, when she presumably imagined/hoped that he might have some plans other than playing chess ...
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dealmaker said:
“I am still a victim of chess. It has all the beauty of art — and much more. It cannot be commercialized. Chess is much purer than art in its social position.” - Marcel Duchamp
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Cannot be commercialized? What an obsolete quote. Corruption is rife from Ilyumzhinov's pals raking in millions in FIDE to every small cocksucker in national chess unions hosting tournaments for kids in hotels with bugs and billing it as Hilton.

Bigger pay-offs for players would help too. My perception is that players outside top 50 make less than they used to some twenty years ago in dollar terms, and even less if you factor in converging Western Europe/former soviet union living costs, where many players have come from.
 
The chessmaster fighting for glory:If you ask the people who know Fabiano Caruana what Fabiano Caruana is like, they will tell you he’s … just a normal guy. He likes movies. He works out. He goes on dates. Just a normal guy who, you know, also happens to be ranked second in the world in chess and got pulled out of seventh grade to do nothing but play the game. This week, he faces off Magnus Carlsen for the chance to become the first American to win the world championship title since 1972. This is a really good one.

“Fabiano does not think about a life without chess.”
 
Congratulations to Magnus Carlsen for winning the World Championship by winning the rapid playoffs (again!). He is certainly the best player when combining the classical, rapid, and blitz performances.

But if judged only by classical, I think he now has quite a bit of competition from other players at the top level. It will be interesting to see the performance of Carlsen, Caruana, Liren, and others in 2019.
 
"... the winner’s prize of €550,000 (£486,000). Caruana at least had the compensation of returning to St Louis with the €450,000 (£398,000) runners-up prize."

For 3 weeks of competition and hours and hours of dedication in this world championship, I have to admit the prizes seem pretty light. No doubt sponsorships are not as big as in sports championships but still....
 
El OchoCinco said:
"... the winner’s prize of €550,000 (£486,000). Caruana at least had the compensation of returning to St Louis with the €450,000 (£398,000) runners-up prize."

For 3 weeks of competition and hours and hours of dedication in this world championship, I have to admit the prizes seem pretty light. No doubt sponsorships are not as big as in sports championships but still....
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Yep, attracting sponsors to chess should be somehow difficult because visibility and audience is not massive. I guess other sports have the same issue like judo, fencing, gymnastics, shooting, weightlifting, etc.
One can be a top world class athlete and, even so, not make in an entire career a quarter of what Nadal or Federer make in simple season.
 
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