/yes, that is supposed to be neon sweat

Chess is a game...a sport of the mind - Bobby Fischer

if you were to look up the dictionary definition of "sport" (An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively) excluding all the conotations of the word (you were a good sport, ect) then... no... chess would not be considered a sport. but, not everyone uses the dicitionary definations of things. like one of my characters always says "Define ____"

Involving physical exertion - Chess, in blitz, requires speed, which is an athletic skill. 

Governed by a set of rules - in chess, you are not supposed to knock off pieces in order to gain some time on your clock (refer to the 2008 US Women's Chess Championship armageddon match)

And Chess is definitely competitive.

Yes, is sport.

Gokukid wrote:

Involving physical exertion - Chess, in blitz, requires speed, which is an athletic skill. 

 I see your point here, and, yes, as I was away for a moment in a thinking time, I thought about "Physical exertion... well... if you count moving the pieces as physical exertion, then, yes", though "speed" is open to interpretation where or not it is a physical exertion.

and, of course chess has rules, so there's no argument there.

You can't possibly be serious? Chess is a sport because you move the pieces?? There are people that actually think this way? If moving chess pieces is "physical exertion" than intense video game play should count as "physical exertion" I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world where we consider World of Warcraft" a sport.  

Obi-Wan has taught you well.

Chess_Lobster wrote:

You can't possibly be serious? Chess is a sport because you move the pieces?? There are people that actually think this way? If moving chess pieces is "physical exertion" than intense video game play should count as "physical exertion" I don't know about you, but I don't want to live in a world where we consider World of Warcraft" a sport.  

 I must admit, I don't really think that way. Unless, of course, at the end of the game, the loser gets really mad and starts throwing the peices... then maybe you have a sport by that definition... not that I really care wheither or not it's called a sport, unless of course someone tells a chess player they need to exercise by maybe playing a sport...

Is chess a rathfaroothcon? I think it is. Who disagrees with me?

Don't know what a rathfaroothcon is? It's something I have a private defintion for. I don't feel like sharing it, but I'd love to have a long discussion with someone over whether chess fits it.

Excuse this sarcasm, but it has been pointed out numerous times on these posts that the only thing you are doing is playing defintional games. If you can agree on a definition of sport, then you can debate whether chess fits it.

On the other hand, here's a less abstract and more practical question: should chess be governed by the International Olympic Committee? (For purposes of this question, whether something is a "sport" in the abstract is irrelevant; if it's part of the Olympics, it's an Olympic sport.)

phishcake5 wrote:

Are we really comparing chess with other board games?  There is a reason its called the royal game...so royal it got promoted to a sport.  Sorry if the other board games didn't make the cut, I don't make the rules.

The game Go is superior to chess in just about any way.

eternal21 wrote:

phishcake5 wrote:

Are we really comparing chess with other board games?  There is a reason its called the royal game...so royal it got promoted to a sport.  Sorry if the other board games didn't make the cut, I don't make the rules.

The game Go is superior to chess in just about any way.

 I agree, just haven't got to play it often

mysticalfairymagic wrote:

eternal21 wrote:

phishcake5 wrote:

Are we really comparing chess with other board games?  There is a reason its called the royal game...so royal it got promoted to a sport.  Sorry if the other board games didn't make the cut, I don't make the rules.

The game Go is superior to chess in just about any way.

 I agree, just haven't got to play it often

 Go talk to the Olympic committee

1. A sport is normally something physical, I'd say chess is not a sport.

There is a title called 'HONORED MASTER OF SPORT'.  I've read this in many sites:

http://donntu.edu.ua/english/Donetsk/sport.html

11 master teams in sports participate in play-offs for Ukrainian higher league Championships.  There are 8 champions and medal winners from the '96 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and 12 honored masters of Sports living in Donetsk.

Among them are

Sergei Bubka - Honored Master of Sports, and World Champion in the pole-vault, and his rivals Vasil Bubka, Alexander Chervonny;

...

10-12 Masters of Sports are trained at International levels in the city each year.

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Other sites where Masters of Sports is mentioned:

http://sc-azovmash.org/club_best.php?l=2

http://www.everestnews.com/everest2005/northwalleverest2005.htm

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Bill Wall submitted an article about Mark Taimanov.  Somewhere in that article I've read this:

He (Mark Taimanov) was stripped of his title 'Honored Master of Sport'...

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How is it that Sports Committees like the OIC as well categorized chess as a sport?  This was what I was trying to convey in the 'other' thread:  What is 'matter'?  Matter is anything that occupies space and has weight.  This definition is true - before men landed on the moon.  In the space of zero gravity and state of weightlessness did men (astronauts) ceased being matter?  So matter then was updated to : Matter is anything that occupies space and has mass.

Sports - as we understood it, may be 'perceived' differently by Sports Committees and the OIC.  If anyone has trouble accepting that chess is sport, that is like having understood what matter is on an earthly basis and not on a universal fact.

Regarding 'physical exertion'.  If you are a weightlifter and you go in outer space (zero gravity) you can lift without effort at all a 12 hundred tons of barbell.  In a state of weightlessness does the sport weightlifting cease being a sport?  If you play chess in outer space, using magnetic chess of course, the idea of chess being a sport still holds true.  That chess being the sport of the mind will remain the same, and being played competitively (imagine a world championship staged in outer space) players will experience pounding of heartbeats common in other sports disciplines.

Technically you could build a running robot - and 100m sprint would still remain a sport.

I don't know about you, but I don't consider the 100 meter dash a sport. All it is is an athletic event. It's not a sport what you and your opponents do not affect each other in any way. There is no strategy in a 100 meter dash; you are just trying to run as fast as you possibly can the whole time. Yes, there is plenty of technique, but that doesn't make it a sport.

Chess, on the other hand, has all the strategy in the world, so it might be more of a sport than track events, but I'm still never going to call chess a legitimate sport. You need both some level of strategy and physical activity.

in concern of what Gokukid has said, definitions of words do change, like you were saying in the example of matter. That is why we keep needing new dictionaries. Examples of words that have changed meanings: Closet means study, bless means protect. I had more earlier... but they've escaped my mind. Maybe one day the difintion of "sport" with change to accomodate chess. If you like, and example would be something like a sport is a competition with rules that works a music. Since your brain is technically a muscle...

Gokukid wrote:

Regarding 'physical exertion'.  If you are a weightlifter and you go in outer space (zero gravity) you can lift without effort at all a 12 hundred tons of barbell.  In a state of weightlessness does the sport weightlifting cease being a sport?  If you play chess in outer space, using magnetic chess of course, the idea of chess being a sport still holds true.  That chess being the sport of the mind will remain the same, and being played competitively (imagine a world championship staged in outer space) players will experience pounding of heartbeats common in other sports disciplines.

Well, not without any effort at all, just considerably less.  Plus, in zero gravity it's not weight lifting it's mass moving, so irrespective of whether the sport of weightlifting ceases to be a sport or not, it ceases to be weightlifting.

TheGrobe wrote:

Well, not without any effort at all, just considerably less.  Plus, in zero gravity, it's not weight lifting, it's mass moving, so irrespective of whether the sport of weightlifting ceases to be a sport or not, it ceases to be weightlifting.

 Nice analysis.  Very well thought of.