Since poker is on TV 24/7, why can't they broadcast chess too?

[Telly Savalas]

It's not like it's really any less exciting than watching a bunch of middle aged guys playing cards.

I'd watch.

[Skink]

1. Chess players tend to be left wing subversive types...

thus the blackout.

[trackfan]

2. Chess is just too hard to understand - If more people understood chess...

there would be less people on the road who change lanes into a lane in which a car is parked about 25 yards ahead. A lot of people do not think "two or three moves ahead". It is somewhat difficult to realize this if you in any way, shape or form, do. Nevertheless, it is, sadly, true.

[existentialist]

3. Actually

sometimes they do broadcast chess, but for it to get aired in this country it takes something major--like the Kasparov v. Deep Blue matches. It gets a lot more coverage in other countries.

("America is not a very cultural country. People don't like to read a book. They want to sit in front of a television and be entertained." Bobby Fischer, probably slightly misquoted).

Not that I'm putting forth Bobby Fischer as an expert on hardly anything except chess. Basically he's a right wing idiot-savant, but he did have s point here.

[Spinzonner]

4. Major somnolescence outbreak