AJacksonville Journal Courier Jacksonville, Illinois Sunday, January 02, 1972 - Page 8
Chess, Game of Kings Booming Across America
NEW YORK (AP) - Chess, once considered the exclusive pastime of intellectuals unpressed for time, is booming across the United States.
Department stores are selling more expensive chess sets and manufacturers report an increase in business. New chess clubs are popping up across the country. Chess tournaments are drawing bigger crowds than ever.
Some devotees of the game say its increased popularity is part of a trend that started three years ago and was sparked recently by Bobby Fischer’s bid for the world chess championship this coming spring.
Fischer, the 28-year-old American chess genius, defeated the Soviet Union’s Tigran Petrosian in Buenos Aires last October. His upcoming match is with Russia’s Boris Spassky, and the contests have breathed new life into a game which hardly has been considered an all-American pastime.
This fall, the U.S. Open at Ventura, Calif., drew some 400 contestants, 100 more than the previous year. The U.S. Chess Federation reports an 18 per cent increase in membership in the last three months alone. It boasts 450 affiliated clubs in 1971, up from 225 in 1969.
Cardinal Industries, Inc., a manufacturer-wholesaler, has seen a 10 per cent increase in business this year, bringing the number of chess sets moved to about one million. At Atlantic Playing Card and Match Co. turnover in chess sets has risen some 40 per cent over the last three years.
Rossolimo Chess Studio in New York has noted a 10 per cent increase in chess set sales this year. At Rich’s Department Store in Atlanta, expensive sets, $30.00 and up, are outselling less expensive models. At Neiman Marcus in Dallas, the best seller is a $35 alabaster-style chess set.
Membership at the Manhattan Chess Club, established in 1877, has almost doubled to 300 in the last seven months. The club has moved to larger, more elaborate quarters but already needs more room.
Some new members say they’ve joined the club because of Fischer.
“Reading about Bobby’s game made me come back to chess after 14 years,” says Amos Kaminsky.
“It’s the greatest solace in time of troubles that there is,” says retired stockbroker Schuyler Jackson, a member of the club since 1919. When he’s not at the club, he’s working out games in one of his 150 chess books.
“Truly great chess players come along once about every 30 years. Fischer’s it,” says Jackson. “This is the most interest the country has ever shown.”
Before his match with Spassky is over, Bobby Fischer may be a household word and chess a household game, wrenched from its pasty-faced intellectual image.
“I hear they even want to put out Bobby Fischer sweat shirts,” says one fan.
