Social Climate
The great popularity of chess
By Mahar Mangahas
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:28:00 05/30/2009
This piece is inspired by Florencio B. Campomanes, honorary president of the World Chess Federation, whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time a few days ago in Baguio City. We met through mutual friend Ed de Jesus, president of the University of the Cordilleras, who had invited me to lead a workshop with his faculty on the ABCs of survey research (which I will write on next time).
Despite his age, the maestro is well-recovered from a recent bad car accident, and his mind is as sharp as ever. Campo (as he likes being addressed) asked me if there is any survey on how many Filipinos play chess, and at what age do they begin. He believes that national excellence in chess comes from mass participation in it, if possible starting at the age of five.
Campo’s question can be answered, partially, from the national Survey of Leisure Time and Sports (LTS), done on March 30-April 2, 2008 for the International Social Survey Program, of which Social 
The LTS survey has separate items on sports which are also physical activities (of which the most popular among Filipinos is, naturally, basketball) and those which are non-physical, called “games” instead. It asks: “Thinking about games rather than sports or physical activities, what type of game do you play most frequently?”
Chess is the No. 1 game. It turns out that chess is the Filipinos’ most popular game, meaning non-physical sport. Those citing it as the game they play most frequently are 15.6 percent in the country. This projects to 8.5 million adult chess players nationwide, based on a population of 54.1 million Filipino adults when the survey was done.
Chess is relatively more popular in Metro Manila, where it is cited by 20 percent, than in the rest of Luzon (18 percent), in Visayas, and in Mindanao (the last two both 12 percent).
Chess is much more a man’s game (26 percent) than a woman’s game (5 percent).
Chess gets less popular as people get older—with percentages of 21 in the 18-24 age group, 20 in the 25-34 group, 17 in the 35-44 group, 13 in the 45-54 group, and 5 among those of 55 and up.
The popularity of chess grows with education and socio-economic class. It is the favorite game of only 1 percent of those who didn’t finish elementary school, 10 percent of those with some high schooling, 20 percent of those with some college, and 26 percent of college graduates. Only 11 percent of class E adults, compared to 24 percent of class ABC adults, call chess their favorite game.
I certainly agree with Campo that children should play chess. I learned it at age seven (and am a low-grade player) and recall that almost all my relatives and friends of the same age could also play chess. But another survey is needed to get numbers on chess-playing among children of age 5 to 17.
Incidentally, another item of the LTS survey finds that 90 percent of Filipino adults agree, and only 5 percent disagree, that “Taking part in sports develops children’s character.”
Here is the full article.
Campo put chess in the philippines on the map.
Campo put chess monies of the Philippines and FIDE in his pockets.
And Campo is too little too late too in fooling people of his interest in the young talents’ chess development.
His selective development of young talents only among his favorites, i.e., Torre, is unforgivable, and set back Philippine chess for over 50 years of his dictatorship.
Look at the strong Chinese and Indian chess players now compared to the badly outclassed Filipino players.
Pichay is exposing almost all deserving young chess talents to international chess competition.
No brainer why the Philippines is slowly but surely getting more and more GM strength players.
So Campo, no thanks, and stop fooling people. You’ve done well for yourself though, we can say that.
How did Chess become to be so popular in the Philippines? In my opinion the popularity of Chess in the Philippines is an exciting subject to research. To search for the roots of it, in Philippino Chess history.
Whatever it is, I am excited to read about the facts and about the spirit of chess in the Philippines.
Best wishes
A. Weiler