Russia also has a pretty strong sports tradition...especially strength sports
Chess vs Athletic sports popularity
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FIDE recently published a report on the popularity of chess around the world, and India had just over 7,000 active FIDE players and Russia had around 6,600.
There has to be more people in those countries that play physical sports -- although the actual number of competitve chess players must also be higher since not everyone is a member of FIDE.
There is a high learning curve required before you can enjoy watching a game of chess. To someone who has never played, it takes a long time just to learn the moves and recognize checkmate. To really appreciate a game between masters, you have to sit down and do hours of analysis work, hardly relaxing! But everyone understands athletic competitions. Anyone can appreciate those who are bigger, faster, and stronger. You don't even need to know the rules to appreciate athletic competitions, "Wow! That guy just ran past everyone!"
In the USA sports like Basketball and Football are played way more than chess. In my high school there many sport teams but no chess club. In other countries such as Russia, India or any other country is chess more popular than physical sports or are there more people who prefer to play athletics than competitive chess?