Sad Little Game
For the past few weeks I’ve been thinking of chess again. If you’ve read my about page you’ll know that it’s one of the few hobbies that has held my interest (on and off) for any appreciable amount of time. Also, I wanted to introduce my kids to the game in hopes of helping them cultivate problem solving skills and maybe increase their attention span to something greater than 30 seconds. The only drawback being the slight chance of driving them completely bonkers.
Since chess has been on my mind, I’ve found myself browsing chess related sites and was surprised to discover that the United States Chess Championship is going on right now. In Stillwater, Oklahoma! (Stillwater could really use a web developer by the way). Apart from a few viewings of Searching for Bobby Fischer, I have no experience with the operations of the chess world, nevertheless I was surprised that the countries greatest chess minds are gathered together in Stillwater to compete for the national title. I would’ve expected, New York, Chicago, San Francisco or someplace along those lines for what I imagined would be a prestigious event. And therein lies the problem with my reasoning.
Hanging out at the Stillwater Laundromat:
IMs David Pruess and Irina Krush
After about 5 minutes of research I discovered that the U.S. Chess Championship is anything but prestigious. The tournament is being held this year at the Quality Inn in Stillwater. It’s a 4 1/2 star hotel according to Yahoo, but still. I next wondered what the champion of this grueling 10 day tournament would be taking home for their efforts. Turns out the lucky(?) winner will earn $12,000 in prize money. To put that in perspective, Roger Clemens will earn about $9000 per pitch playing baseball with the Yankees this year. And, finally as I read the synopsis of yesterday’s results I noticed the picture with the caption: “Hanging out at the Stillwater Laundromat: David Pruess and Irina Krush”. That’s International Masters David Pruess and Irina Krush. Irina is, according to wikipiedia, the 11th best female chess player in the world (Wikipedia fails to mention that Krush has the best “sports name” of any player male or female).
Obviously if you take up chess as your primary vocation you’re not in it for the money. These people obviously love this game or are incapable of finding another means of supporting themselves. I expect the former is the case. It’s a shame they aren’t compensated at greater levels. I expect even the PBA is a more lucrative career path.
I always thought chess was, at least, an odd a profession as darts. But, it seems less so now as I can’t find a single article that talks about any money being won in darts.
Evidently Irina also plays chess for the New York Knights (along side Roy Hobbs?)
I always thought chess was, at least, an odd a profession as darts. But, it seems less so now as I can’t find a single article that talks about any money being won in darts.
I’m not sure what professional dart players make, but at least I have seen them on television! I can’t imagine a more television hostile sport than chess.
And speaking of the New York Knights (or as I prefer to call them, the ka-nigits), Tennessee also has it’s own team. They are the Tennessee Tempo. International Master Ron Burnett plays for the Tempo and is also in the U.S. championship. After 8 rounds, he’s sitting in 24th place.