David Richerby wrote:

it's very entertaining. It would be foolish to base a `chess
economy' on anything other than its entertainment value.

Exactly. Explain it to the people who suggest moving into the mass
TV market to bring big bucks into chess.

I tried. They insinuated that I somehow wanted to hold chess back and
deny it its place in the sun.

Look here lebanese cucumber - it's November already, almost December
when the snow habitually falls in screes & droves in Moskaw & you have
the effrontery to harp on about the Sun & how you have influenced the
Muscovites in their choice of _great_ leader aka Putin, but Gazza is
there in the waiting. This time. Yeah! I like it. Garry Kasparov -
supreme leader of the ex-soviet. Yeah baby!..