<FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich stated for Championat, “According to my information, Karpov’s condition is stable,” Championat adds that the initial reports from Russia are that doctors diagnosed the grandmaster with a closed craniocerebral injury and a fracture of the left femur, as well as severe alcohol intoxication.>

chessdom.com/anatoly-karpov… #Karpov>

Probably he was about to get drafted to the army, the 'special military operation' is such a colossal success.

This seems noticeable, and I expect it's likely because of the nature of chess and its devotees compared to those of more "normal" sports and entertainment.

In most sports (and even a lot of other entertainment) the people are the prominent feature and frequently the actual event is merely a backdrop - i.e., people are watching for a favorite player or celebrity. It's why a lot of TV shows and movies that an uninvested viewer would instantly dismiss as tedious, dull, low-effort hogwash etc. are so popular, after all: the people, rather than the production, are the draw.

In chess, the game is the front and center feature by a country mile, to the point that the players are primarily of interest because they have delivered interesting games, or interesting theory to the game. The production, rather than the people, are the draw (as anyone who grew up on Reinfeld books in particular is especially aware, as he almost always redacted players' names and events from games and positions he cited to the point it can actually be a challenge sometimes to locate that information).

As a result, the families of chess players tend to be the most distant of backdrops, only really of interest to the most dedicated of historians and biographers, unless those family members were also chess players (as with, e.g., Paul Morphy's father and uncle), in stark contrast to most spectatorial events (how many celeb magazine covers are "I'M PREGNANT!!" announcements or about who the star is dating today rather than about what she actually starred in?).

<In most sports (and even a lot of other entertainment) the people are the prominent feature and frequently the actual event is merely a backdrop - i.e., people are watching for a favorite player or celebrity. It's why a lot of TV shows and movies that an uninvested viewer would instantly dismiss as tedious, dull, low-effort hogwash etc. are so popular, after all: the people, rather than the production, are the draw.>

Interesting theory. I wonder if the key factor is not where the focus of fans (of any endeavor) is but the number of fans.

The media could start reporting (with any dose of hyperbole) every single piece of gossip on Carlsen, Nepo, or others, and few people would care. But wouldn't that also be the case if they reported on every piece of gossip on fly fishing, backgammon, or falconing greats?

Yes, yes... chess fans outnumber fans of those other pursuits comfortably, but we are still, in the big picture, a limited bunch. I would assume that there is a threshold (of potential consumers of gossipy news) below which the media won't care, rather than chess enthusiasts being of an enlightened nature. (In fact, whenever I hang out with any group of competitive chess players, gossip on chess players tends to be quite a favored topic of conversation.)