Goddesschess Meeting 2007

This year's Goddesschess meeting was held in the most beautiful spot in Milwaukee Wisconsin, Jan Newton's lovely home. Jan Newton is the driving force behind Goddesschess, and is responsible for making our web-site and blog a great success. I am honored to have such a wonderful friend and research partner. The focus of this year's meeting was how to promote and market chess. Earlier this year I attended the Las Vegas Open Chess Tournament held at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas Nevada. My assignment, for Goddesschess, was to attend Susan Polger's seminar and report new ideas to market chess. I was impressed with the ideas that Susan and her charming husband detailed in the seminar. For more on this subject go to Susan Polgar's Blog. Susan Polgar explained how difficult it is for women chess players to get recognition from the "Old Boys Club" of chess...The boys seem to be stuck in the dark ages, they need to move into the 21st Century. Women need sponsorship, and larger prize money, in order to continue competing in tournaments. The lack of money makes a career in chess almost impossible for young women. The chess world needs to follow the lead of other successful games, such as Billards and Poker. Both of these games have become multi-billion dollar businesses now. I believe that chess can also become a multi-billion dollar industry, and move into the main stream. The secret is women!! Women bring money to the games. Steve Miserak, World Champion pool player, mentioned during an interview on PBS, that women took pool out of the pool rooms, and put it on major sports net-works. He also mentioned that women were the best thing that has happened the game of pool...there is money to be made playing pool now, which means one can make a comfortable living playing pool professionally. The prize money in tournaments has increased tremendously. Poker is another game that has benefited from the influx of women. Over 60% of the people that watch poker on TV are Women! Women have help take the game of poker from the back room to the front room of every home. Women bring money to games...billions of dollars. The "Old Boys Club" is missing the boat when it comes to marketing chess. The discriminatory attitudes of these men has kept chess from growing. When are they going to wake-up and smell the roses, or smell money? In summary, women need to have more opportunities to make a living playing chess. Bigger prize money, more sponsorship, and more exposure. We at Goddesschess support the efforts of the beautiful, and brilliant, women chess players through out the world.

Isis

Cub-reporter for Goddesschess