[chessmind] Dennis Monokroussos: Rooting for the underdog?

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Posted by Dennis Monokroussos:
Rooting for the underdog?
http://chessmind.powerblogs.com/posts/1187082575.shtml


   I came across this [1]story on Tiger Woods, in the wake of his victory
   in the PGA Championship, and this quote in particular caught my eye:

     Tiger might be on the verge of one of his dominating runs, when he
     seems to win every tournament he enters and a few he doesn't. And
     if it happens, some people will complain that Tiger is sucking the
     fun out of golf. They will be in the minority.

     Most people want Tiger to win. They want him to win big. He is
     exempt from two standard portions of the sports fan's charter: that
     we cheer against Goliath â unless that Goliath happens to be on the
     hometown team â and that we prefer competition that comes down to
     the final seconds.

   This seems obviously true of public attitudes towards Woods - mine
   included - but it struck me that chess fans have a similar attitude
   towards our game's big guns. It was a nice story when Viorel Bologan
   won Dortmund in 2003, and again when Arkadij Naiditsch won it in 2005,
   but neither player accumulated much of a fan club as a result.
   Likewise, though both players are immensely strong, neither Alexander
   Khalifman nor Rustam Kasimdzhanov became chess superheroes in the eyes
   of the playing public when they won the FIDE world championships in
   1999 and 2004, respectively. Chess fans seem much happier when the
   alumni of the 2800 club win, and they'll tolerate it when their
   closest pursuers sneak in there from time to time.

   Further, we seem to enjoy it when our heroes win big. I found it
   disappointing that Anand didn't take too many risks in trying to catch
   Topalov back in San Luis 2005, but I was certainly enjoyed watching
   the latter obliterate the field; in fact, I was hoping he'd run up the
   score even more than he did. (This was prior to his many conflicts
   with Kramnik, of course.) Likewise, to use an example from American
   football, New England Patriots fans take it as a sign of the team's
   greatness that they pulled out so many close playoff games, including
   three Super Bowls each won by just three points. When Kramnik ekes out
   a world championship victory, however, his cachet is diminished.

   Do you agree, and if you do, what accounts for chess fans'
   anti-underdogism? (A pre-emptive codicil: I think we do sometimes root
   for the underdog in the odd game, but generally not for the whole
   event. So let's restrict the discussion to big-picture
   anti-underdogism.)

References

   1. http://msn.foxsports.com/golf/story/7115226