1. Bring back the Cold War.

Chess popularity was at it's peak during the cold war. Many of the most famous and infamous players flourished during this era. The risk of total nuclear annihilation would be a worth while trade off.

2. Introduce mandatory Bread Lines everywhere.

When bread lines were a permanent fixture of the landscape in the former Soviet Union chess there was probably stronger and more popular than at any place or time in history. There has to be a definate correlation.

3. Have Cheer Leaders.

Most televised American sports would not be considered complete without cheer leaders. If we ever realistically expect to get chess televised we need to introduce some scantily clad, firm thighed buxom cheerleaders, preferably female.

4. Chess Hooliganism.

An occasional riot at a chess tournament would get the game some overdue media attention.

5. Victory for Whiners.

Allow those who make such claims as I lost because my opponent played badly to win by default. This way the true undiscovered greats of chess can rise rapidly to their rightful place at the top without been held back by any unfair obstacles in their path.

6. A good old fashioned War.

The Taliban outlawed chess among many other sports. We should take this opportunity to unleash some chess jingoism by getting the United States to invade Afghanistan.

7. Jeepies.

I have never met a Phillipino who wasn't a good chess player. We need to buy army surplus jeeps, paint them in multiple colors and add lots of chrome.

8. Play for Ratings not Rating Points.

Have USCF backed Russian Roulette style tournaments which work as follows. Each time two people play each other the winner gets to keep the higher rating and the looser the lower of the two ratings. If it is a draw both players get an average of their ratings. This would allow players to get a master level rating in hours rather than years.

9. Have a Global Ban on Personal Computers.

This would bring back artistic and creative play.

10. When top level players play one another have them treat their opponents with courtesy and respect.

I know the previous suggestions are easily achievable but I have to admit this one is a bit of a stretch.

It would seem that we are living our lives presently amidst a media frenzy. Advertising and advertising revenue appear to be both the drivers and the benefactors of this modern day circus. Everything popular from celebrity scandals to indoor bowling to natural disasters have been blown up and window dressed to fuel this media facade, that is everything it seems except chess.

I among many others do not like everything which the advertising industry is doing, but if chess is to become a more popular sport the chess world will have to take advantage of everything it offers in this realm.

And what does it offer?

Well lets see.

1. Its one of the most popular sports in the world.

2. Its one of the oldest.

3. Its extremely cheap to play.

4. Its a perfect sport for todays interactive internet world.

5. It has a history of colorful stories and characters.

6. With a good commentary and lets be honest, if the game is speeded up several times, it is very enjoyable to watch.

7. It fits in well in a population that likes to analyse and think.

Many people would dismiss the last point but if you look at the success of crossword puzzles, poker, bridge and you see the popularity of the history channel, national geographic, pbs and the discovery channel, it is evident that besides being able to sit back and watch a movie, people also regularly like something to stimulate their minds.

What this means for chess is that the game is missing out on a huge untapped market and opportunity to become more popular. Look how huge poker became both onscreen and off once it started being televised regularly. As everybody knows if you want to make something more popular it has to be on TV.

If you take a look at FIDE's website and compare it to that of FIFA's or the NBA's you can see it is basically drab and boring and lacking imagination. Unfortunately this is reflective of how world championship level chess has presented itself in general since the Fischer - Spassky match, with a couple of exceptions.

Strange to think that the future of one of the world's oldest and most popular games has been put in the hands of people with little or no imagination.

The present powers in the chess world are either not trying to get chess properly televised or are not being succesful. In some countries we are lucky if we see the moves of a world championship game printed in a newspaper. They need to hire executives from other sports who have already been successful in this venture. Why re-invent the wheel. Once media executives are properly presented how popular chess could be as a spectator sport, there shoud be no stopping chess getting a lot more media coverage provided they are allowed to use their media skills and not told how everything should be done by those who know a lot about chess but obviously nothing about publicity.

If the above path is taken then perhaps in a few years chess will be as popular onscreen as off.