user1816: I'm one of those sad geeks that, instead of watching football of some sort or another, prefer to watch the super GM's battle it out whenever my schedule allows. This weekend I was looking forward to following the FIDE Grand Prix Series, just to find out to my dismay that they are having a rest day on Saturday.
Now I understand that chess is a demanding game and that GM's need their rest, but why do they schedule rest days over the weekend, when spectator interest is at its highest?
Why not have rest days on Mondays and Thursdays, for example? Or alternatively, have a system where players have various rest days, but there is at least one game going on every day for the duration of the tournament.
Surely it is in the interest of the game to maximise the spectator value, which in turn improves the commercial value of the game?

user20721: The physical demands of GM chess for a game day is higher than pro sports.
Chess Life in the late 50s (early 60s?) had an article by a PhD psychologist who actually measured physiological results of playing in tournaments.
The scheduling has to do with other factors of holding a tournament as TV revenues are not a major concern for the organizers. 

user924: (the following is my speculation based on following chess for a few decades, I might be wrong)
Most top level chess tournaments do not make money from spectators or from commercials shown to spectators. They make money from sponsors. Sponsors don't usually care all that much about spectators either.
Sponsors care about prestige, about showing business relations around and having them meet some of the grandmasters. About speeches in which they can talk about being smart and looking many moves ahead, and then having their name attached to a tournament.
Having a lot of internet spectators probably helps in attracting sponsors, because you can show that a lot of people are interested and it has global appeal; but that's indirect and not usually considered when choosing rest days. Having good facilities for business networking (weekdays?) probably counts more.
The entire tournament has to last some logical period of time (e.g., they rent a venue for two weeks, from weekend to weekend, because venues are available to rent per week) and then if you want to have a rest day, it's logical to have it in the middle. The more rest days you have the more expensive it is, because the venue probably won't be useable for anything else on the rest days.

user4362: I would say the problem is that the Grand Prix is a Fide organised tournament. If you see how often those tournaments are played in almost completely empty halls, it is obvious that Fide doesn't much care about spectator value.
Some other tournaments conveniently have an uneven number of players, which leads to an extra rest day for each player, "unnoticeable" to the spectator. 
Generally non-Fide tournaments try to maximise the income from visitors, which means the weekends have to be played (From the top level tournaments I visited, I would estimate that weekend days draw double to triple the number of visitors compared to workdays.). 

user7391: Also many of these huge tournaments usually have side excursions/simultaneous exhibits/autograph sessions/kids meeting grandmaters/ etc that are best put over the weekend when spectators, chess enthusiasts and parents can make time to attend/take their kids over as opposed to weekdays that are majorly working days and school time.

1816: <p>I'm one of those sad geeks that, instead of watching football of some sort or another, prefer to watch the super GM's battle it out whenever my schedule allows. This weekend I was looking forward to following the FIDE Grand Prix Series, just to find out to my dismay that they are having a rest day on Saturday.</p>

<p>Now I understand that chess is a demanding game and that GM's need their rest, but why do they schedule rest days over the weekend, when spectator interest is at its highest?</p>

<p>Why not have rest days on Mondays and Thursdays, for example? Or alternatively, have a system where players have various rest days, but there is at least one game going on every day for the duration of the tournament.</p>

<p>Surely it is in the interest of the game to maximise the spectator value, which in turn improves the commercial value of the game?</p>
 20721: <p>The physical demands of GM chess for a game day is higher than pro sports.</p>

<p>Chess Life in the late 50s (early 60s?) had an article by a PhD psychologist who actually measured physiological results of playing in tournaments.</p>

<p>The scheduling has to do with other factors of holding a tournament as TV revenues are not a major concern for the organizers. </p>
 924: <p>(the following is my speculation based on following chess for a few decades, I might be wrong)</p>

<p>Most top level chess tournaments do not make money from spectators or from commercials shown to spectators. They make money from <em>sponsors</em>. Sponsors don't usually care all that much about spectators either.</p>

<p>Sponsors care about <em>prestige</em>, about showing business relations around and having them meet some of the grandmasters. About speeches in which they can talk about being smart and looking many moves ahead, and then having their name attached to a tournament.</p>

<p>Having a lot of internet spectators probably helps in attracting sponsors, because you can show that a lot of people are interested and it has global appeal; but that's indirect and not usually considered when choosing rest days. Having good facilities for business networking (weekdays?) probably counts more.</p>

<p>The entire tournament has to last some logical period of time (e.g., they rent a venue for two weeks, from weekend to weekend, because venues are available to rent per week) and then if you want to have a rest day, it's logical to have it in the middle. The more rest days you have the more expensive it is, because the venue probably won't be useable for anything else on the rest days.</p>
 4362: <p>I would say the problem is that the Grand Prix is a Fide organised tournament. If you see how often those tournaments are played in almost completely empty halls, it is obvious that Fide doesn't much care about spectator value.</p>

<p>Some other tournaments conveniently have an uneven number of players, which leads to an extra rest day for each player, "unnoticeable" to the spectator. </p>

<p>Generally non-Fide tournaments try to maximise the income from visitors, which means the weekends have to be played (From the top level tournaments I visited, I would estimate that weekend days draw double to triple the number of visitors compared to workdays.). </p>
 7391: <p>Also many of these huge tournaments usually have side excursions/simultaneous exhibits/autograph sessions/kids meeting grandmaters/ etc that are best put over the weekend when spectators, chess enthusiasts and parents can make time to attend/take their kids over as opposed to weekdays that are majorly working days and school time.</p>
