SCANDAL = PUBLICITY

The argument that scandal brings publicity was
made by Campomanes and other Fideistas.

This argument has weight -- at least initially.
One of the benefits of Campo's antics was that there
was a split in the chess world, and publicity
increased in the years from 1985 to 1993.

BUT: there comes a point when scandal loses its
cutting edge. It becomes murky. The public no longer
knows what the quarrel is about, and people drift away
from chess coverage.

The same thing happened with boxing, which
has been dragged down by the endless bickering and
scandals in the heavyweight division. In activities
outside of chess, the sporting champion that came
closest to matching the role of the traditional world
chess champion was the heavyweight boxing champion.
When this figure lost his authority because of
conflicting claims and endless infighting, many of the
other divisions within boxing suffered.

The same process happened in chess: the devaluation
of a traditional champion has adversely affected
sponsorship. I would note that even the reemergence
of top white fighters in the heavyweight division has
failed to revive boxing, just as, one suspects, even
the return of Garry or Bobby won't help much now that
chess is in the process of being destroyed by FIDE as
a serious intellectual pursuit.

I predicted years ago in Larry Evans' Chess Life column
that sportifying chess would lead to disaster by destroying its
special intellectual and cultural cachet.

Brilliantly written, Larry Parr. I would only add that the possibility
of cheating via small but powerful computers from the WC level on down
to the River City Opens will further send chess back into the
coffeehouse. The game will never amount to much. It is a lost cause.

Old Haasie

Larry Parr wrote (8 Oct 2006 18:14:38 -0700):

7 ... The argument that scandal brings publicity was
7 made by Campomanes and other Fideistas. ...

_
Did Campomanes have any particular scandal in mind
when he made this argument? Did he argue that the
scandal publicity was good for chess?