tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post58829451052427014..comments2023-12-28T02:11:22.501+00:00Comments on The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog: Who'd have thought it?Tom Chivershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09850710685193416732noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-19067644594473294362016-08-08T21:26:42.762+01:002016-08-08T21:26:42.762+01:00Great quote from Makro from 2008:
Georgios Makrop...Great quote from Makro from 2008:<br /><br />Georgios Makropoulos, deputy president of FIDE and the International Mind Sports Association, agrees: “We hope that this event in Beijing will be so important and so big that the IOC will understand that they need us.” <br /><br />The IOC needs FIDE like a ___ needs a ___ ...OpenIDnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-14426187247053520112015-11-30T23:18:45.075+00:002015-11-30T23:18:45.075+00:00In his Chessdom interview, the 600 million number ...In his Chessdom interview, the 600 million number is magically applied to people "who understand the rules of chess" (not very impressive any more). The goal is one billion (not called "smart people" this time around).<br /><br />- And what about you? You’ve got to think about yourself as well.<br /><br />- I love what I do, and I don’t care how it affects my health or how much of my own money I have to spend on it. I’ve got no intention of taking a Rolls-Royce or Rolex to the grave with me. I want to leave a legacy behind. Right now, 600 million people across the globe understand the rules of chess. We want to make that figure one billion. <br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-86095070781258140262015-11-29T07:48:22.171+00:002015-11-29T07:48:22.171+00:00For his 20th anniversary, accomplishment #5 for Il...For his 20th anniversary, accomplishment #5 for Ilyumzhinov was this. Includes how to equivocate with statistics, and claims that the KO system allows more to be make their living from chess. Doesn't give figures for number of aliens that play chess.<br /><br />5) The number of people playing chess increased more than ten times<br /><br />In July 1995 there were 18162 FIDE rated players and in November 2015 the number reached 227751 players, thus, the number of active chess players increased more than 10 times in the last 20 years. In November 2015 there are 547747 registered players.<br />In 2010 the FIDE President announced his main target - to reach 1 billion people who can play chess. (According to a study of British company YouGov, more than 600 million people play chess in the World (March 2012)). Every year he visits many countries promoting the ‘Chess in Schools’ programme, inspiring people of all ages to play chess.<br />Since the FIDE President launched the knockout system a lot of players have been taking part in all knock out events during all these years. The new World Championship cycle system allowed many more chess players to make their living and benefit from chess. This was not possible before 1995, when only a dozen of top players were enjoying the advantages of elite players.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-23190265806306518052015-11-27T00:30:17.774+00:002015-11-27T00:30:17.774+00:00Ilyumzhinov writes a thankyou for his 20th anniver...Ilyumzhinov writes a thankyou for his 20th anniversary wishes.<br /><br />https://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/9227-thank-you-letter-from-the-fide-president.html<br /><br />"As you know there are 186 members in our big family and more than 600 millions of chess fans."<br /><br />He does say "more", but perhaps 5 million people left chess fandom due to the recent sanctions?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-19779165587580935082015-11-11T06:31:53.207+00:002015-11-11T06:31:53.207+00:00On the other hand, here is a verified number (anne...On the other hand, here is a verified number (annex #49 of the same).<br /><br />FIDE Online Arena has 4805 active members, of whom 2078 pay the subscription fee.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-11306400900146393802015-11-10T02:55:53.480+00:002015-11-10T02:55:53.480+00:00If you read section 5 (sponsorship of chess) in Me...If you read section 5 (sponsorship of chess) in Merenzon's latest letter to FIDE, it notes that one of the problems in getting sponsorship is "Lack of verified numbers"...<br /><br />It is in annex #54 of the Abu dhabi meeting.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-64822460514303580312015-10-24T09:43:32.808+01:002015-10-24T09:43:32.808+01:00Though not that surprising, given that he's no...Though not that surprising, given that he's not above repeating similar claims himself...ejhhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01582272075999298935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-83538471160012638482015-10-24T02:52:49.199+01:002015-10-24T02:52:49.199+01:00re: ordinary chessplayer
Thanks for that. Sadly t...re: ordinary chessplayer<br /><br />Thanks for that. Sadly typical of the Telegraph, one fears. It's surprising that the excellent Malcolm Pein doesn't jump ship....Tchitcherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02121268955098180299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-79184289679782493862015-10-23T16:09:53.761+01:002015-10-23T16:09:53.761+01:00Popped up again in the Telegraph, linked by Cristi...Popped up again in the Telegraph, linked by Cristian Chirila on uschess.org.<br />http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11928084/Chess-gets-sexy-in-million-dollar-Las-Vegas-tournament.htmlan ordinary chessplayernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-8782821956910820652015-10-23T09:40:58.535+01:002015-10-23T09:40:58.535+01:00RdC
Surely it's the earliest possible sightin...RdC<br /><br />Surely it's the earliest possible sighting. As you speculated earlier, Ilyumzhinov was the source, talking, as usual, out of the wrong end of his alimentary canal.<br /><br />MHTchitcherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02121268955098180299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-34259169303368275682015-10-22T19:10:10.442+01:002015-10-22T19:10:10.442+01:00Even though the article reads as if it could have ...Even though the article reads as if it could have been written yesterday, it dates back to 2001. Still it's an early sighting of the 600 million claim. <br /><br />In my memory as well, it dates back to the era when every chess player was to be given a FIDE Visa card amongst other wild ideas at the time of the first shadowy figure persuaded by Kirsan to "buy" chess. <br /><br />http://anusha.com/fidememo.htm<br /><br />(The link is a Sam Sloan site but appears the only convenient archive of the proposals.)<br /><br />RdCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-7849908724149341182015-10-22T14:42:04.734+01:002015-10-22T14:42:04.734+01:00http://bit.ly/1OKzaHvhttp://bit.ly/1OKzaHvTchitcherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02121268955098180299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-50464418003478106972015-10-22T14:08:53.623+01:002015-10-22T14:08:53.623+01:00I put the link in a reply to your Tweet pointing a...I put the link in a reply to your Tweet pointing at this blog post.Tchitcherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02121268955098180299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-10564682745676333382015-10-22T13:18:57.185+01:002015-10-22T13:18:57.185+01:00Sorry Tchitcherine, your comment from yesterday go...Sorry Tchitcherine, your comment from yesterday got eaten by the spam filter.<br /><br />Could you possibly post it again.<br /><br /><br />Thanks.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Jonathan<br /><br />Jonathan Bhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00293162543015231439noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-61972740149102938982015-10-22T11:37:35.455+01:002015-10-22T11:37:35.455+01:00Did you get my link to The Hindu, yesterday, Mr. H...Did you get my link to The Hindu, yesterday, Mr. Horton?Tchitcherinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02121268955098180299noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-64071666075777648112015-10-22T10:17:39.327+01:002015-10-22T10:17:39.327+01:00Should be any easy goal to attain. If you can pull...Should be any easy goal to attain. If you can pull 600 million out of a hat (to be polite), you can just as easily pull one billion out of the same hat. It suits most people involved in chess to use these figures, and most people outside of chess won't question them as they don't know enough about it. <br /><br />Something similar happened with the recent rugby WC, when I heard that potentially 4 billion people would be following it. I suppose if you count all the people in the world with internet access (roughly 3 billion) and another billion who might be able to watch it on the telly, listen to it on the radio or at least get the result from TV/radio/newspaper, you might possibly arrive at a figure of 4 billion. After a while the 'potentially' part gets forgotten and only the '4 billion' sticks. <br /><br />In all of these cases, the truth is one thing, doing whatever it takes to promote your activity by making it seem bigger than it is is another.Niallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02930494998720038967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-17285951324845959732015-10-21T20:56:33.245+01:002015-10-21T20:56:33.245+01:00600 million? 700 million? Pah! FIDE President, Kir...600 million? 700 million? Pah! FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, wants <a href="http://kirsan.today/en/news/item/72-the-head-of-fide-congratulates-chess-players-of-the-earth-with-international-shess-day.html" rel="nofollow">one billion within five to six years</a>. Then "<i>the critical world mass of smart people will proliferate and increase the likelihood that only the smart ones will be elected to parliaments, become mayors, presidents or kings. Only in this way, I am sure, the number of incorrect decisions will be reduced, and that life on our planet will be better and safer</i>".AngusFhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09312254103335063535noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-44333950350973529442015-10-21T10:49:19.232+01:002015-10-21T10:49:19.232+01:00Chess is life, so the real figure is somewhere nor...Chess is life, so the real figure is somewhere north of 7 billion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37675897.post-41809133759917513352015-10-21T08:37:04.772+01:002015-10-21T08:37:04.772+01:00The origin is probably some flight of fantasy from...The origin is probably some flight of fantasy from Kirsan, like the aliens and becoming President of FIFA. <br /><br />Objectively you can count players, at the risk of duplicates, by counting entries in rating systems. I doubt that's something FIDE or any one else has tried to do. You would include all the online servers naturally enough. <br /><br />It's noticeable that what the 600 million is a count of, changes by who is claiming it. The more diluted the claim the nearer it becomes to plausibility. So if it's knowing the moves rather than playing, the count is obviously higher. <br /><br />You aren't the only one expressing doubt over this claim.<br /><br />http://www.kenilworthchessclub.org/kenilworthian/2007/02/how-many-chessplayers.html<br /><br />RdCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com