He writes in the fourth paragraph, “Chess is a very hard game, and what is most remarkable about that summer is that people wanted to play anyway. They wanted their minds stretched, and were willing to work for that reward. The brief period of Fischer’s ascendancy – he quit chess three years later – was perhaps the last era in our nation’s history when this could be said.”
He posits, “…we may be lagging behind the rest of the world.”
Later: “Now, I am not saying that we would be better off if everybody followed chess. I am wondering, in this vast nation of ours, what intellectually serious pursuits attract a sufficiently mass following that major consumer-products companies would think it sensible to support them.”
There is a Stephen L. Carter from CT in the USCF rating list. Assuming he is the one who wrote the article.
Chess in 1972 with the Cold War match in Reykjavik predated the computer games era, cable TV, internet, smartphones, and all of the whiz bangs and media distractors of our time. The match also predates the rise of tennis, college basketball and the NBA, and even the modern NFL with it’s billions in TV contracts. Besides the nationalistic aspect, I have to wonder how much attention the match would get today. Fischer’s bad boy image would likely be a plus, but I doubt that he would try to capitalize on it. When he had a chance to play in a multimillion dollar match in 1975, he turned it down. The money instead went into the “thrillah in Manila,” Ali vs. Frazier fight. That was the last chance for the game of chess to be looked on as sport, catch the wave, and stay on the media radar.
Will there be any anniversary celebrations of the match?