Why is the popularity of chess is growing

The last and a half decades, the naked eye has been observed by a small but steady increase in interest in chess. The phenomenon is quite amazing and seemingly difficult to explain, but it’s more interesting to try. Moreover, this is not only my personal opinion-it is shared by many shahmatist colleagues, especially close to children's chess. First, let's list why it is actually surprising.

There are a lot of well -known reasons why it is customary to predict the imminent death of chess and a catastrophic fall in interest in them. Firstly, the total propaganda of chess in the USSR was largely artificial, caused by political interests. Chess clubs in every city, chess mugs in each house of pioneers, on the walls - the quotes from V.I. Lenin, movie heroes, playing chess and proud of his son-discharge ... frankly, to the Domino are less fortunate.

Secondly, in the pre-Internet era of leisure options there were much less than now. It was only for nothing to work for teenagers under socialism. As a result, in the USSR, even a philatelist was almost every first. And chess had a number of advantages: participating in children's competitions, the whole union could be traveled, and few elected eventually reached the passage.

Both of these reasons for the high status of chess in society almost disappeared, and it seemed to many that chess could not withstand competition with warcraft and poker. At the turn of the century, chess missed several more painful blows. With perestroika and publicity, the world of chess from the beautiful picture of the sages in the ivory towers turned into the world of ongoing scandals at all levels. It all started with the dissident of Korchny, but that scandal compared to the latest was extremely noble. Simultaneously with the scandals of modern, the scandals of the past developed violently, related to both historical studies, suddenly freed from censorship and the publication of sharp memories designed to get scores with former rivals. The apartment question did not bypass - recall the long -term series of lawsuits and scandals around the TsSHK building on Gogolevsky Boulevard.

Then, progress in computer chess completely closed the question of the superiority of the machine over a person. This gave rise to the problem of cheatics: the chess players now appeared already in the role of a cards Shuler and a swindler. If earlier chess were a game that was most protected from fraud - because all the figures on the board and closed cards are not, and even all the moves are recorded - now they have become extremely vulnerable to suspicion of using computer assistance during the game. There are many real stories with the exposure of scammers, unjustly accused, as well as not caught, also many.

It would seem, why do parents bring children to chess, where there is little money, is small prestige, the game is killed by computers, scandals and suspicions? And why should children stay in them if there are a lot of computer games more interesting?

The main motivation of parents: "Chess develops brains." It is a mythical interest by 90-99, for the cause and investigation are clearly confused in places. Talented children with already developed brains succeed in chess too, but rarely thanks to them. The remaining 1-10% go to the fact that some benefits from the development of thinking in the style of “if” and the habits of counting options still have (although most of these skills appear without chess).

The second reason is the desire to protect children from drugs and other troubles. A quiet, not traumatic and non -aggressive activity, clothes are not in mud, knees are not in abrasions - and yet not idleness, from which one step to terrible drug addiction. This motive allows a joke with a degree to say that with their current growth in the popularity of chess owes the growth of drug addiction - more precisely, aggressive and frightening anti -drug propaganda. In a surprising way, there are really few drug addicts among chess players - it is noticeably smaller than the average in the hospital. The reasons are also unclear, but somehow they have enough smoking and drunkenness, and many do without them. And “contacting a bad company” for chess players is also less likely to be able to.

Once a strong career incentive retreated to the third plan, but did not disappear at all. Parents do not attract computer games at all, more carefully chess, parents try to drag children from a computer, which is "harmful to spend a lot of time."

What are the children? Why are chess for them better than other classes? Firstly, it is a pity to quit-in the process of relatively long-term training, which has been spent several years, a lot of time and effort has been spent and unique skills have been obtained, which cannot be applied anywhere else. Secondly, children like to win. And who do not like - they did not start to play chess or quit without learning. Thirdly, and sometimes, first of all, the status is still. The child and teenager play with adults, squeeze their hand, as equal, before and after the party, they are treated not by age, but by the strength of the game. The most thing for children who want to quickly grow up and earn respect with their minds. Moreover, respect for objective: the glasses in the table are very clear and undeniable even for those adults and peers who do not understand anything in chess. Fourth, an alternative school in socialization-it is very useful to nerds who are difficult to find a common language with classmates. Fifthly, the opportunity to win a cash prize in the tournament (this is for parents-a penny, and before the same classmates you can show off). Sixth, to go to the same tournament, sometimes getting rid of parental guardianship. In-seventh, the status in the family: parents do not really understand what you are doing, but they respect and bought a computer for chess preparation.

And finally, “B-Libe”-chess is just a very interesting game. And almost the only intellectual, where there is a stable calendar of children's competitions - from city to world championships in different ages.

All this together outweighs it seems to be indisputable disadvantages. Although there has been no USSR for a long time, and chess has ceased to be seriously considered science and art -they have a powerful status of a cultural phenomenon, the image of a smart game. And in this regard, a black and white checkered board is akin to the “black square” of Malevich: you can perplex that people find in it, but the market price and place in history cause respect and envy.

Nikolai Vlasov

He graduated from the Mehmat Moscow State University. International Master. Two-time Moscow Blitz (1989,1990), world chess champion on the Internet (World Internet CHASS Championship 2001), participant in the final stage of the FIDE 2001 championship and the Fide Grand Prix of 2002, the winner of the Super Final in Kuzbass in December 2012. A chess journalist, from 1999 to 2003 he collaborated with Harry Kasparov chess sites.