The Sydney Morning Herald Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Sunday, April 30, 1972 - Page 93
Now It's Chess For The Masses
From Don Riseborough in New York
WITH YOUNG Bobby Fischer preparing to become the first American to play for the world championship in June, the sale of chess sets across the US is booming.
Chess, once thought to be a dull, slow-moving intellectual's game, is now thought of by Americans as “a challenge, a brain-tease, an ‘in’ thing,” according to one chess expert this week.
Chess is now an everyday thing in schools among young people and women.
The US Chess Federation reports that there are now over 500-membership clubs in this country and many are known to exist outside the federation.
Manufacturers say that new improved instruction booklets have made it possible to learn chess quickly and helped it to shed its image as a game that takes years to learn.
According to Irving Toler, vice-president of sales for Caramoor Products, one of the most significant aspects of the new chess boom is that it now has a two-fold market — the player and the collector.
The collector, a growing breed, is buying numerous sets for their beauty, for status and as decorative pieces of furniture.
For him, there are “boards” on rugs and fancy table tops, and handsome chessmen made out of sterling silver, blocks of lucite, ivory or crushed stone.
The chessmen can resemble Roman or Napoleonic figures, museum objects, Picasso drawings or even scenes from “Alice in Wonderland,” and the sets may cost as much as up to $500 each.
