If you are likely to make great innovations in chess moves or patterns that will influence a large number of people in subsequent generations, you may have an impact. Given the dominance of computer chess and the small proportion of the world who appreciate advanced chess, your impact will still very likely be smaller than those of giants in art or music.
Fields matter:
Newton and Einstein still changed the world much more than Mozart and Michelangelo did.
Far smaller is the audience for play-by-plays of competitive chess. I'd guess because the experience is less visceral? I've read a beginner-intermediate books with this kind of play-by-play and found it interesting enough, but I'd take my record collection over those books any day.