http://onpoint.wbur.org/2014/09/23/chess-sinquefield-cup-st-louis

Does Chess Still Matter?

A young grandmaster just did the impossible at a top chess tournament. No one paid attention. Does chess still matter?

Once upon a time, chess – the game of kings – was huge in America. Bobby Fischer was world champ, and the chess champ of the world was on the cover of Time, Sports Illustrated. Then the Cold War ended, video games moved in, and chess went off the radar. Maybe we should bring it back. There is incredible stuff going on in the world of chess, and around it. Aliens, oligarchs, Norwegians, Las Vegas, Vladimir Putin and an Italian superstar named Fabiano. This hour On Point: Checkmate. The wild, wonderful — and these days, much-ignored — world of chess.

– Tom Ashbrook

Before the Bobby Fischer era chess did not "matter" very much in the USA. It became important because of the Cold War between the USA and USSR. The USSR had the best players in the world and gave a lot of government support to chess, providing chess programs in schools and out-of school youth activities, sponsoring teachers, etc. They claimed the USSR chess superiority was a symbol of the superiority of the USSR Communist ideology. When Fischer came along and it was clear that he could compete on even terms with the Soviet grandmasters the USA started its own propaganda campaign and encouraging US youths to play and "beat the Communists". As the Soviet Union neared political collapse, the Soviet domination of the chess world also ended. I think chess was so strong in the USSR (and other Eastern European Communist countries) because playing chess offered a way to escape the crushing atmosphere of repression under the Communist system. The best players could even leave the country to play in tournaments. Once the system lightened up chess became less important in the Soviet Union.

Boy, you're as bad as them. Again, HISTORY (chess history) and cultural differences.

You are acting as if there was no chess prior to WW II. Look at where the contestants in the AVRO (1938) came from. Now I was born in '45 and wasn't that old when Fisher took the title so the Soviet "domination" wasn't of all that long duration. Just the post WW II period till Fisher. What I suggest is that you take a look at the list of world champions from 1917 (start of the Soviet Union) to the breakup, considering how long each individual held the title. Still look like the Soviet Union was all that dominant all that long?

And sorry, but Eastern Europeans, Russians, Georgians, etc. didn't take up chess to escape the oppression. They had always played chess. That is why so many good players turn up. Over here, only some kids ever learned the game. There, not knowing how to play chess would be unusual.

Well, first of all, he did not do the impossible. If it were impossible then he would not have done it. But you don't say what impossible thing he is supposed to have done, so it is a moot point anyway.

To answer your question I would have to ask if it ever mattered.

I did not write the promotional blurb for the radio program. I simply shared the link for those that may be interested in a significant achievement in Chess. I think that there are many analogues between Chess and Go and therefore discussions about one or the other will often be of interest to players of either game.

It is hyperbole when he uses the word impossible. It is not meant to be taken as a purely logical statement. Language is used in many ways and it should be intuitively obvious how the writer is using the word impossible.

"The rules of go are so elegant, organic and rigorously logical that if intelligent life forms exist elsewhere in the universe they almost certainly play go."

You are not the only one to think that. Edward Lasker, chess player and co-founder of the American Go Association (not to be confused with Emmanuel Lasker world chess champion who was a distant relative) said something like:

Clearly a proof that he never met RJ.