Originally posted by BigDoggProblem
You wouldn't see a Bobby Fischer in "the cards". He wasn't the result of any outreach program or federation member drive, but rather a lone genius who, luckily for us, got hooked on chess instead of some other kind of intellectual endeavor.
It was Fischer who created the mess that is US chess today. After he won the title in 1972, he could have done so much more to keep the American chess boom at that time going-books, exhibitions, tournaments. Instead he did nada, zilch, zippo-just retreated out of the public eye, and from then it was all downhill with us.
The USCF must also shoulder its fair load of the blame. Instead of seriously promoting the game, they have done nothing for the past 40 years but kiss the butt of whoever is in charge-FIDE, Kasparov, and now Kirsan Whats-His-Name. Chess Life, the national organ, is a joke. Instead of following the international circuit, all they print are rubbishy stories about kiddie tournaments that no one cares about, except for the kiddies and their parents.
The only good thing happening with US chess right now is the crop of young, strong players we have leading the way to hopefully making the US a chess power again-Nakamura, So, Caruana, et al. These players need the support of USCF, but will not get it so long as the Federation is run by money-grubbing bureaucrats and bean-counters, most of whom don't even know how to play chess!