The timing of that particular Awake article is no coincidence. For a lengthy period during the previous year, 1972, there had been a (very) well publicised series of chess games between the American Bobby Fischer and the Russian Boris Spasky.
During this time, chess sets sold like never before - and probably like never since, as well. In fact, the expression"Chess Craze" would not be too strong a term to use to describe the hysteria that caught on over this series of chess games.
The media certainly hyped it up, and until the final saga of the Vietnam war (at least its allied intervention, anyway) displaced it later in that year, it seemed as if this chess match was all the media could talk about.
This sudden, new found enthusiasm for chess did catch on in the JW congregations, as well - which almost certainly prompted that Awake article. (After all, old Kill Joy would have to have something to say about anything that might actually entertain people!)
Bill