Author: Mike Byrne
Date: 19:03:12 01/11/04
Go up one level in this thread
On January 11, 2004 at 18:16:59, martin fierz wrote: >On January 11, 2004 at 17:03:12, Mike Byrne wrote: > >>On January 11, 2004 at 16:42:15, martin fierz wrote: >> >>>On January 11, 2004 at 16:11:06, Tom Kerrigan wrote: >>> >>>>On January 10, 2004 at 16:24:59, Jim Bodkins wrote: >>>> >>>>>The US doesnt play chess really. USCF has 90,000 members out of 1/3 billion >>>>>people and just went bankrupt (over about $300,000 - chump change to a pro >>>>>basketball player) and had to sell its store to an english firm. Most of the top >>>>>US players (USCF) are immigrants not native. >>>>> >>>>>I'm a native American, so dont get mad. We play baseball not chess. Chess isnt >>>>>culturally a part of the US at all. People (Garry) come here mainly because of >>>>>money not chess. Chess software doesnt interest most programmers in my >>>>>experience. OS's, databases etc do. >>>>> >>>>>The US will get hammered, but the guys will probably have fun anyway. >>>>> >>>>>... oh, and we do Mars missions. :) >>>> >>>>I believe people on this message board have forgotten their history. :) Shannon >>>>was American, the revolutionary programs MacHack and CHESS were American, the >>>>world champions Belle, Deep Thought, and Cray Blitz were American. >>> >>>you are forgetting the first computer chess programmer - alan turing, not >>>exactly american :-) >>> >>>>I'd say computer chess is a fairly significant part of American culture. >>> >>>and this is the wrong way round: some americans made very significant >>>contributions to computer chess. but "part of the american culture"?? there are >>>many things that come to my mind when i think about american culture, both >>>positive and negative (think football, baseball, everbody having guns, free >>>speech, the whole idea of the american dream etc). but certainly not computer >>>chess... >>> >>>cheers >>> martin >> >>It is clear that there is much more interest in Chess and Computer Chess in >>Europe than in the US, but there are times that chess gets a push in the US - >>Fischer in '72, Deep Blue - GK in '96 and '97 - the last Fritz/GK match was >>reported regulary in the news ...so I think what we see in the US very latent, >>under the right circumstances - it could really tale off again , GK visits the >>US quite often and he does a lot to promote chess (book signings, simuls etc) in >>the US, I do like him for that. >> >>According to the Harris polls in 2001 , about 40% of Amercians own guns ...down >>from 48% in 1973. Contrast that with Switzerland which has far higher gun >>ownership since it is legally mandated for every adult male. >> >>Getting ot here - but just wanted to point that out. > >hehe, i didn't know we had a higher figure :-) >then again, i believe having guns is much more part of the american culture than >the swiss - we are, as you say, forced to take our army rifles home. for most, >they end up in the attic, and we would rather not have them there. for the Amercans that own guns - the vast majority are locked away ..., paradoxically , research indicates that for those countries that are more permissive about gun ownership, the violent crime rate is often much lower than countries that are more restrictive --e.g., it is usually only the criminals that own guns when gun ownership is forbidden...imo, guns in the US is perception that is carried over from the Wild West days, enhanced by movies made in the US ,the anti-gun lobby and the international news events like like the Columbine shooting... Best, Michael >anyway, i just mentioned some things that spring to my mind when i think about >the US and the american way of life or american culture. just to contrast these >things with computer chess, which very definitely is not part of the american >way of life - of course it is not part of *any* country's culture IMO - it is >far too insignificant... > >cheers > martin
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