Cover Story / Chess in Popular Culture
For Ries, whose sons have also played tournament chess, the game needs more than just pop culture mentions to be cool. “There’s nothing that gets people more excited than celebrities and superstars,” she said. “People don’t necessarily get excited about a game, they get excited about the people that play it.” Ries brought up swimming and the Olympics. Casual fans that might forget the butterfly stroke except for two weeks every four years can still name Michael Phelps. Ditto Usain Bolt, Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis and the other champions of lesser-known sports. She could personally not name any grandmaster after Bobby
Fischer’s era, until now. Magnus Carlsen is on her radar, thanks to the continuous mentions of him in mainstream newspapers. “He’s young, he’s outgoing, he doesn’t wear a pocket protector and fit the stereotype of the chess nerd,” Ries said. “That is enormously helpful for elevating chess in peoples’ minds.” Carlsen’s 2012 segment on 60 Minutes did more to get the
public talking about chess than nearly any other piece of media. His blindfolded exploits and high-profile modeling contract removed all doubt that the latter-day grandmaster is unrecog- nizable to Vladimir Nabokov’s Aleksandr Luzhin in 1930’s The Defense (the 2000 film version updates the image slightly—the tormented Luzhin still defenestrates himself, as several real- life grandmasters also have, but this time his wife completes his brilliant post-mortem combination). For chess to truly reach 1972 levels of excitement, Ries would
recommend a definite rival to Carlsen’s purported hegemony. Fischer had Spassky and the Soviets. Kasparov had Karpov. While there are a host of super-GMs who could rival Carlsen, at least one has to become his near-equal. “We call it in marketing the law of duality,” Ries explained. “What makes a category exciting is not just one compet itor but two. They balance each other. Even in mouthwash, it’s Scope versus Listerine. There’s not one brand who appeals to everybody.” Without any knowledge of the recent chess tournament coverage, Ries unwit tingly affirmed that chess is making some of the strides she would recommend. “What makes sports so exciting is the live commentary. It gives you the back stories to get you excited. Ex-players are the best commentators—they give so much more insight.” Top-level chess events have already bettered coverage of live events in exactly this manner. A host of other chess references in the mainstream have
helped in their own ways. Chess players have been on Jeopardy recently and “chess” was a category earlier this year. Kasparov has appeared in several commercials, hawking soft drinks and search engines. His How Life Imitates Chess and Josh Waitzkin’s
The Art of Learning are two self-help books through the prism of chess. Chess players and their thinking continue to be used as choice material in research studies—friends in academia send me about one every month. I am also sent regular links to articles about chessboxing, even though the once-nascent sport is entering its second decade. Chess had another run at Sundance two years ago with the Bobby Fischer Against the World. Ashley recently hosted a TED presentation, one of the most in-vogue lecture circuits, and told his story on The Moth, a similarly topical radio show. GM Alexandra Kosteniuk graced the pages of Vogue last year, while the World Chess Hall of Fame continues to seek hybrids of chess and art or fashion. The Hip-Hop Chess Federation has been expanding the reach of its bold mashup of martial arts and chess combat. The BBC, Fox Sports and Huffington Post have all run multiple stories on chess in the last year. In one of the more obscure television references, a poker commentator explained a professional’s bad beat at the hands of an amateur by repeating (and referencing!) Aron Nimzowitch’s famous rejoinder, “Why must I lose to this idiot?” The reader will surely know even more examples. Despite the overabundance of pop culture chess tie-ins, among
chess professionals, the jury is still out on cool. GM Magesh Panchanathan thinks chess will not be cool until a majority of people understand it in-depth, which may never happen. “I guess being cool is relative,” he said. “I have been the coolest person in the room and the lamest person. It just depends on who is in the room!” IM Irina Krush attends a charity chess event in Cincinnati each year, hosted by former NFL All-Pro and current NBC commentator Cris Collinsworth. “The coolest thing he sees all year is me and Greg Kaidanov playing blindfold blitz,” Krush said. “He really gets a kick out of it. It's like magic to him. So, isn’t chess cool?” Sometimes, chess can even be too cool. Several years ago, a
female chess teacher told me of the problem. When a guy would approach at a bar and eventually turn the conversation toward her occupation, her reply “chess teacher” would invite a flood of follow-up questions. The intrigue by the would-be suitor masked whether he was actually interested in her, or just her atypical job. To better gauge interest in her as a person, she decided in the future to switch her answer. Her new reply? “Math teacher.”
Bottom: Coca-Cola® Chess Set, The Franklin Mint ©1996. Opposite page, top to bottom: Doug Anderson, Hollywood vs. Broadway; Methane Studios, Dave Matthews Band Posters; (left) Command Hair Spray, Playboy, June 1969; (right) Smirnoff, ©1997.
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