Does chess know how to market itself?
For those of you who follow chess, you knew the world chess championship is being held. But looking around the web, it doesn’t feel like a major or exciting event. (Granted, the first 6 games have been draws, many not that interesting. So maybe it’s just truth in advertising.)
Take a look at some major chess sites:
Chess.com. The headline event is some blitz event. Sure they want promote it, but could there be at least some sort of link or…something…to world championship coverage?
USChess.org. For some reason, the US Championships are being held at the same time as the World Championship. There must have been some sort of logic to this, but I’m still trying to figure it out. World Championship coverage is in the rotating headline…at number 8.
FIDE: The World Championship is being held by FIDE. At least it’s easy to find a link. But the page linked to is so bland…it should go to the main championship page, which at least has a video and tries to appear interesting.
Could you imagine ESPN or Fox Sports with such understated coverage of the World Series? Heck, no. During the event, you’ll have a huge headline right in the middle of the page with what’s going on. There will be major buildup leading up to the event with all sorts of analysis.
With web coverage so vital, the chess world needs to make important events look important. Team Liquid (for Starcraft coverage) can do it, why can’t chess?
Good topic to bring up. My commentary:
Chess.com is a commercial site. If you think it’s supposed to be relevant to the state of the chess world, check out its active blogs, half of which have nothing to do with chess.
I actually agree with the USCF coverage, i.e. focusing on the U.S. championship, of which the live coverage is excellent. It’s a national chess federation site, so why shouldn’t its own championship be the focus. FIDE changed up its own world championship plans several times, nothing the USCF could do about that.
FIDE is no doubt finding it hard to market a series of games that features an off-form Anand trying hard not to lose and an on-form Gelfand trying hard not to lose.
Well, there was a reason why Magnus declined this event. He’s the top seed and by right should be playing. Instead we have a couple players that a few clicks down the FIDE ladder that agreed to the $$ to play a few games.
There is some serious politics going on at the FIDE level that has taken some of the dignity out of this game and in particular the World Championship.
So yeah, page 8 sounds about right. U.S.Championship being covered live? I’m on that.
-BP
You should suggest that the advertisers use your Chess Enquirer article about Aronian starting WW3. That’ll generate a lot of interest 🙂
Q is right, in general–this match needs some serious spicing up. It’s only 12 games, neither of the players is an a—— and no one’s been accused of cheating. Yet.
I was told by a guy whose Mom knows Anand’s Mom that ANAND HAD DRUGS SLIPPED IN ARONIAN’S WATER during qualifying because he was afraid of him! Carlsen did not compete because ANAND WAS AFRAID OF HIM TOO AND THE INDIAN CIA PAID MC $1.5 MILLION TO STAY OUT. Also, GELFAND HAS A MICROCHIP PLANTED IN HIS TEMPLE THAT IS RELAYING MOVES FROM AN ISRAELI SUPERCOMPUTER. He is going to win the match in tie-breaks just to make it look good. His short loss yesterday was because Lindsay Lohan is a secret chess groupie who flew in for the day and Boris had to get out early for a “love match” before she left.
There, once this news goes viral I think interest and coverage will pick up rather nicely.
@ChessAdmin: As someone who only casually follows the chess world, I did not realize FIDE changed the championship plans multiple times. While it does make sense that the USCF gave its own championship priority, it seems it would lose viewers by making world championship commentary difficult to get to.
But the website’s design is not that good to being with.
As far as chess.com: it seems to make commercial sense to at least attract passers-by with some reasonably prominent world championship coverage. A rough analogy would be espn.com lacking a link to NHL coverage. While hockey is not its main focus, it doesn’t want to drive traffic away to another sports site with an easier-to-find NHL link.
@Blunderprone: I’m not up on my chess history. Is it normal for the highest-rated player to automatically play the champion?
While I have no love for FIDE, it’s not going to be replaced anytime soon, especially as that was fairly recently attempted by the PCA. IMO, marginalizing the championship is about as effective as the US embargo on Cuba.
@Q: Sadly, it’s more interesting than the championship. It’s worth noting that Aronian has never denied the allegations.
@Robert: That is perfect! Without Toiletgate, or a women’s mud wrestling side event to draw outside interest, no one’s really going to pay attention.
The Israeli supercomputer angle is obviously bogus. That computer power is being used full time to develop the perfect matzo ball recipes for every altitude and climate on earth.
you are exactly right. not only is marketing completely missed, as you well know, so much web design is just plain bad, totally absolutely terrible. tech people in general are NOT designers. a designer can step back and ask, what does it look like? few can see what is in front of them. josef albers, the colorist, when he got off the plain from europe to teach at yale, said, ‘EYES OPEN!’ his first words. just as man lives in sleep and only by acknowledging this, begins the slow, hard process of waking, so here. only by knowing you do not see, can you begin to see. few can draw, and most art is garbage, total garbage. we forget, picasso, durer, degas, all of them had the foundation of classical correctness. try drawing a human body with charcoal!
And icc is the worst of them all, for visual inteligence. for example, a 1 0 bullet game button next to a fifteen minute standard game. milimeters away. i have told them this fifty times. they even called me from europe. impossible.