AThe Herald-News Passaic, New Jersey Monday, January 10, 1972 - Page 11
Cry of 'Checkmate, Comrade' Spurs Sales of Chess Sets by David M. Levine, Herald-News Staff Writer
What can a lanky 28-year-old high school dropout do for the American economy?
Just ask the hundreds of North Jersey businessmen about one of the most popular games sold over the past few months. It's chess. And the young man cited for the surge in set sales is Bobby Fischer, whose upcoming match with Russian Boris Spassky is seen as something of an international political confrontation.
“It's getting to be a very patriotic thing to do,” laughed one variety store owner who did not want to be identified. “That Fischer guy is doing a lot — everybody seems to be buying them.”
The image that chess is reserved for society's intellectuals is diminishing and Fischer's victory over Russia's Tigran Petrosian in Buenos Aires has been credited with giving a spark of life to the game whose popularity was thought to be on the decline.
The United States Chess Federation of New York reports an 18 per center increase in membership. And it currently boasts 450 affiliated clubs, up from 225 in 1970.
Membership in the 95-year-old Manhattan Chess Club has almost doubled to 300 during the latter half of last year. The club, officials say, has been forced to move to larger, more elaborate quarters, but already needs more rooms.
Locally, chess is growing in popularity among North Jersey students. The Passaic-Clifton YMCA chess club meets twice weekly and has been successful in attracting new members. The team is forging to the front in the struggle for leadership of the North Jersey Chess League, consisting of 12 teams which compete against other leagues for championship titles.
A spokesman for the Joseph Rosenberg Co., 216 Madison St., Passaic, pointed out a 50 per cent increase in set sales during 1971, as compared to 1970. Players are buying fancy hand-carved French sets — selling from $6.75 to $25 each — but cheaper $5.95 sets remain popular too.
“Bobby Fischer sure has done a lot for chess merchandising,” the Rosenberg spokesman said.
But the picture is not entirely rosy. Joseph Myers, manager of J. & L. Meyers department store in Montclair, said there has been no increase in chess set sales in response to Bobby Fischer's new-found popularity, “But,” he added, “the $1.19 sets have experienced generally good sales during the year.”
William McCloskey, assistant manager of J.C. Penney department store in Dover said he had 60 sets in stock one week several months ago and they were quickly sold out. “It's not a big seller normally, but we have plans to bring in more sets.”
And a sales manager at the W.T. Grant Co. department store at Clifton plaza said that he could have used more than the 48 or so sets in stock during the Christmas shopping season.
He said the sets were just slightly more expensive than a checker game so the store didn't push chess set sales.
Many manufacturers have been working overtime in producing sets to meet hefty demands from around the country. Rossolimo Chess Studio of New York noted a 10 per cent rise in sales last year. And Cardinal Industries Inc., also of New York, turned out about one million sets, 10 per cent more than in 1970.
In the meantime, chess is in the process of shaking its snobbish image while manufactures pat the young man from Brooklyn on the back for breathing new life into an old game.
Cry of 'Checkmate, Comrade' spurs sales of chess sets Mon, Jan 10, 1972 – 11 · The Herald-News (Passaic, New Jersey) · Newspapers.com
