Chess vs go in lockdown

[John Fairbairn]

Pros go players in Japan, Korean and China have resumed official games even face to face, and in some cases have been played on the internet even during stringent lockdown.

But as far as I can see, the entire pro chess world is still in tournament hibernation. Yet at the same time chess is booming in Britain, if you believe the Daily Mirror (not a paper normally associated with the intelligentsia) which has the headline "Lockdown boom for chess in Britain with 400% surge in games played online" (full story on
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/l ... 0-21943522).

Anyone knw what is going in the pro chess world, and why it appears to be taking a different from go? I expect the higher level of travel in chess must be a factor, and at a guess I'd say they don't even trust pros not to cheat online. But that can't explain all of it....

[Bill Spight]

Mask wearing? That, and other cultural factors may make it safer in the East. I dunno. Did Singapore ever go into full lockdown? As for tournament locations themselves, they are probably pretty safe for the participants. Age is surely a factor. I have heard that Japan has only had one death of someone under 30, and that was a sumo wrestler. Here in the US we have had children die. But the US is much less safe than Japan. People in general don't wear masks and maintain physical distance. We're individualists.

[SoDesuNe]

Didn't read the article but I guess the following:

More people are able to play chess than go (just basic rule-wise). The western chess population has - in my experience - more... mature people and prefers to play face to face when possible. In lockdown then, more people (have to) switch to play online or just need to fill the day while sitting at home. Whereas in go, almost every player I know frequently plays online anyway and - as a plus - visits the club.

It helps that:

1) Online chess has very good, easily accessible and modern servers, with good handling on cheating, which are very streamer friendly and even actively support it and - going into bullet - online chess has variants you can't really play with pieces but are highly entertaining to watch (and, from what I see, are kind of addictive to play, too).

2) Chess also has way more experience under its belt to be present in the internet age (a top 20 player streams regulary, so do other grandmasters). Probably due to it being "profitably" even when run by donations.

3) The world champion himself is deeply involved in online chess, making popular videos, playing in popular tournaments - sometimes while streaming himself.

[...] and at a guess I'd say they don't even trust pros not to cheat online. But that can't explain all of it....

Travel probably, but cheating online at the highest level seems to be no problem at all:

During lockdown Magnus Carlson organised an online invitational tournament: Prize money $250.000.

Right now the chessable masters is going on - online: prize money $150.000.

On lichess.org alone there are titled tournaments with $1000 prize money twice a month (titled essentially means you have to submit ID and have - at least - a CM). And chess.com hosts similar tournaments on their site.

[Javaness2]

It doesn't surprise me that there would be a spike, although it does surprise me that the Mirror took the story. Many chess clubs have been organising meetings online. Likewise many associations have been organising tournaments online. Before Covid-19, it was easy to get a game at the club once (or more) a week, and now it wouldn't be so easy. That is, chess players were probably less likely to have an online account, but even if they already did they would have to register with a common server which would also boost numbers.

[hyperpape]

A post on the economics of Chess: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginal ... chess.html. Beneath all the details, I'd hope you take away that the current world #1 in chess is very media and business savvy, and thinks online chess is a good market for him.

[SoDesuNe]

A post on the economics of Chess: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginal ... chess.html. Beneath all the details, I'd hope you take away that the current world #1 in chess is very media and business savvy, and thinks online chess is a good market for him.

I'm constantly reminded of what John Fairbairn posted a couple of times about the beginnings of the Nihon-Kiin: The pros of a sport should have a massive interest in popularising it.

Magnus Carlsen and his team seem to understand this quite well.

[dfan]

I think it also takes much more travel to organize a top-level chess tournament. The current (very exciting) online tournaments that are featuring many of the best players in the world have participants that live thousands of miles apart from each other. In contrast one could organize a face-to-face tournament in Korea featuring, say, 12 of the world's best 20 go players without requiring anyone to travel outside their own country.

Edit: looking more carefully at John's original post I see he made the same point! But I think it is a very big factor, not just one component among many more cultural ones.

[gowan]

Go clubs in my area have zoom meetings to play club games. People play on a server, e.g. OGS, and talk via Zoom. This kind of "club" reminds me of the old Wings Over Calm Water Go Club organized by Terri Shurter. For me this is only marginally better than no "club". You can get to know people and look for them to play at meetings. People from hundreds of miles away come to "club" meetings. KGS used to host frequent tournaments.

P.S. I think Asian pros from Japan and Korea have tried to solicit students on line for teaching games. And certainly pros such as Yang Yilun, James Kerwin, Feng Yun, the new American and European go pros, all teach on line. I doubt that top pros, such as Iyama would have time to teach amateurs.

[charm]

This is probably part of the reason:

xQc vs Hikaru: How a Medieval Game Took Over Twitch
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0zjk0VXFcE