Hey, Mark, this is my local chess club. I, um, don't, ah, actually play
that, uh, game. FIDE, that is. I stopped playing FIDE around 35 years ago,
and didn't play any sort of chess at all until I got online and found this
site about 3 years ago. I played for about 10 years, basically in the
1960's, between ages 10 and 20, and then switched to wargames. This
undoubtedly helps explain some of my more, mmm, unusual designs.
I do agree with what you said, except that I think 10% interest among
'Chess' players is probably too high, unless it's Bughouse or 5-minute
chess, which the people who teach chess seem to find useful in sharpening
their student's skills. But only as practice, warm-up excercises. I do
think people on the internet will find a range of games to play, and that
at some point in the future [far future, most likely - not less than 50
years, anyway], FIDE will be only one of the games played in world chess
championship tournaments.
Now, if that is the case, what other games will they be playing? [Sure, it
*could* be anything, but some games are more likely than others...]