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I agree that chess is becoming more and more a memory game, but I was refering myself to the initial appeal to people, who in general like arts. Usually, people who like arts (music, painting etc) or math likes chess. The reason someone starts to like chess is in my view not because it is a memory contest but more about beautiful combinations etc. 

From what I know about Go, it is much more complex for a computer to solve it because there is no diferent piece values like in chess and the strategy part is more abstract to the machines "understanding" and maybe the players not assisting programmers plays a certain role too, but the possible variations or moves are much more higher than chess. 

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Yes, that could be a possibility. Chess world needs to think about this carefully. It could be a bit cold to see an empty atmosphere and could exist logistic problems to certain tournaments. The Cube in glass of Bilbao comes to mind and a diferent solution to lesser tournaments.

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The number is indeed important to find quality and they aren´t less intelligent too. Several tests about intelligence of white, black and chinese populations showed that all people could achieve the same levels but the important point that makes the diference is the cultural background and certain populations lost themselves wasting time for example in gangs culture in their youth. This is a controversial subject but tests in several universities showed that chinese achieve better results in studies and that is because of better discipline and reading a lot since their youth. 

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In tennis whenever a player goes to toillet, an arbiter always go with him. Maybe chess needs to put some guy in the toillet to control.
It will have two purposes: Could end up scandals like toillet World Championship too...
    

Soon all chess players will have to bring urinals to avoid having to go the bathroom. 

A limit to the number of times a player can leave the playing hall.

MNb wrote on 03/30/11 at 23:29:54:


I foundamentally agree with MNb. Go games are still (sometimes) played with long time controls and adjournements simply because computers are not yet  strong enough to solve the position overnight. The comparison with chess is not very fitting.
I have also read many go pros complaining about time controls becoming shorter and shorter, so in fact go is following the same path toward fast play.

Off-topic: i think that crude number is the main but not the only factor contributing to china upsurge in strenght in all sports.
For example i have read that talented young go players under 25 are encouraged to live toghether in a sort of college. This means having nearly a third of world top-50 players living toghether, playing each other every day and sharing ideas. This is to say that a good organization plays a role too.

I think Frederic Friedel has made some interesting points on this matter. He's right, of course.

Checking for electronic devices is reasonable too. But please think about two facts. If Feller was cheating, he wasn't carrying such devices anyway, as he seemed to have received the information from Hauchard. Well, then the team captain should not have a phone either, whether this is practical or not.

Anyway, if you think about a mass event like the chess olympiad, this means you have to check roundabout 1500 people for electronic devices within an hour when entering the playing hall. Seems to me we'd need half as much staff for this as an airport needs for these checks...

And so it begins as I predicted earlier!?

Straight from the Chessbase Site.

Cheating in chess: the problem won't go away 
30.03.2011 – As you know the recent suspicion of organized cheating during a Chess Olympiad has led to three French players being suspended. One is currently playing in the European Individual Championship, where his colleagues have published an open letter demanding additional security. For years we have been proposing a remedy for this very serious problem. It needs to be implemented now.

Why was Feller allowed to play in the European Championship is beyond me.
 
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Frederic Friedel proposal is interesting:

1.No kind of electronic devices are allowed to enter the playing hall, and offenders are heavily penalising.

2.Make it a breach of etiquette for spectators to enter and leave the playing hall repeatedly. Anyone who leaves the hall is not allowed to go to the press or other communications rooms immediately, or to inform other persons of what has just been played.

3.The playing hall should be treated as a VIP area, where people go to watch the games for a certain period, and not jump in and out dozens of times during a game. It should have the atmosphere of a theatre or movie palace where this is also not possible.

4.The visitors in the playing hall can be treated to very special GM commentary using infra-red earphones. If the same commentary needs to be made available to people outside the playing hall this is done using a delay-loop device that is synchronised with the move transmission.

Well, for one thing I enjoy watching one long good game of chess instead of a bunch of error-prone games. And I certainly like to play a game of chess where I have time to think more than playing a bunch of blitz games