user20721: Chess has survived for thousands of years.  Do we need to make special efforts to promote it?
Should anyone bother to promote chess other than FIDE?

user4418: 
Does chess need promoting at all?

The only way a chess tournament happens is if one or more people organize it. If nobody promotes chess then there will only be sporadic individual games. There will be no organized tournaments.

Should anyone bother to promote chess other than FIDE?

There are tens of thousands of chess clubs in the world. Suggesting that FIDE should, or even could, organize just the annual club championships of these tens of thousands of clubs is ludicrous. That can only be done by members of those clubs. Similarly local leagues can only be organized by groups of clubs coming together and agreeing league rules, fixtures and structures. It is just not feasible for one international body to do that.
Football has massive amounts of money from television and even FIFA doesn't have the resources to organize local leagues in one country let alone the world. The idea that the impoverished chess world could even attempt to do that just makes no sense.

Of course some people will promote chess. But they do it for their own
  benefit not just so that chess will survive

This is completely wrong. There is very little money in chess. The vast majority of people who organise tournaments are older players who know they have taken much out of the game over the decades and want to give something back. 
My club is a good example. Our tournament organiser is in his 8th decade. He doesn't get paid anything. He organises 3 competitions during the season, an open club championship, a rating limited club championship (roughly under 1450) and a handicap tournament. There are no entry fees and no prizes. The winner of each competition has their named engraved on a club trophy and gets to keep it on their mantlepiece for a year. These tournaments are for club members only. Annual club membership works out at about $6.50 at current exchange rates.
Out of season during the late spring and summer I organise and run weekly themed blitz tournaments, no entry fee, no prizes, no rating. Two or three times a year I organise and run club 9 round FIDE rated blitzes, again, no entry fee, no prizes, but, yes, rated. These are primarily for club members but non-members are welcome (warning, we may try and poach you!). 
Once a year the club organises a 9 round FIDE rated blitz in a large venue with invitations to players throughout the region. Entry fee converts to about $13. Our club chairman runs around trying to raise sponsorship from local businesses to cover the prize fund and I suspect dips into his own pocket to subsidise any shortfall.
Our club pays in two local leagues. The committees which run those leagues are composed of players from those clubs who give up their time for free to make it happen.
I don't think what I have described is extraordinary. I think it is how chess works at a local level in most of this country and, I suspect, in most of the world. To work like this it just needs a few public spirited individuals, usually old, who want to give something back to the game which they have loved for many years.

20721: <p>Chess has survived for thousands of years.  Do we need to make special efforts to promote it?</p>

<p>Should anyone bother to promote chess other than FIDE?</p>
 4418: <blockquote>
  <p>Does chess need promoting at all?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The only way a chess tournament happens is if one or more people organize it. If nobody promotes chess then there will only be sporadic individual games. There will be no organized tournaments.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Should anyone bother to promote chess other than FIDE?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>There are tens of thousands of chess clubs in the world. Suggesting that FIDE should, or even could, organize just the annual club championships of these tens of thousands of clubs is ludicrous. That can only be done by members of those clubs. Similarly local leagues can only be organized by groups of clubs coming together and agreeing league rules, fixtures and structures. It is just not feasible for one international body to do that.</p>

<p>Football has massive amounts of money from television and even FIFA doesn't have the resources to organize local leagues in one country let alone the world. The idea that the impoverished chess world could even attempt to do that just makes no sense.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Of course some people will promote chess. But they do it for their own
  benefit not just so that chess will survive</p>
</blockquote>

<p>This is completely wrong. There is very little money in chess. The vast majority of people who organise tournaments are older players who know they have taken much out of the game over the decades and want to give something back. </p>

<p>My club is a good example. Our tournament organiser is in his 8th decade. He doesn't get paid anything. He organises 3 competitions during the season, an open club championship, a rating limited club championship (roughly under 1450) and a handicap tournament. There are no entry fees and no prizes. The winner of each competition has their named engraved on a club trophy and gets to keep it on their mantlepiece for a year. These tournaments are for club members only. Annual club membership works out at about $6.50 at current exchange rates.</p>

<p>Out of season during the late spring and summer I organise and run weekly themed blitz tournaments, no entry fee, no prizes, no rating. Two or three times a year I organise and run club 9 round FIDE rated blitzes, again, no entry fee, no prizes, but, yes, rated. These are primarily for club members but non-members are welcome (warning, we may try and poach you!). </p>

<p>Once a year the club organises a 9 round FIDE rated blitz in a large venue with invitations to players throughout the region. Entry fee converts to about $13. Our club chairman runs around trying to raise sponsorship from local businesses to cover the prize fund and I suspect dips into his own pocket to subsidise any shortfall.</p>

<p>Our club pays in two local leagues. The committees which run those leagues are composed of players from those clubs who give up their time for free to make it happen.</p>

<p>I don't think what I have described is extraordinary. I think it is how chess works at a local level in most of this country and, I suspect, in most of the world. To work like this it just needs a few public spirited individuals, usually old, who want to give something back to the game which they have loved for many years.</p>
