This is the first survey that I can't decide what to vote for, so far anyway.

I think that there are some players who make chess look like art, just by having such skill that takes my breath away when they beat me.

When I started to play chess, about 2 months ago, I would have said it was a game....but now having become an addict it is more than a game.

A hobby doesn't really describe how I feel about chess either, to me a hobby is flower arranging or stamp collecting....and much as these two examples are great things to do, I personally would find it hard to fall asleep thinking about them the way I do with chess.

 Is chess a sport, it may not be in the traditional sense of the word..however it is extremely competitive and also relies on startegy it uses your brain and it can make you sweat with excitment and fear, sailing is classed as sport..........so maybe chess could be a sport too

As for a profession, I can see very easily how chess could turn into a profession...all I want to do is get better and better and find out more about it and read more about it. So imagining someone who has a real talent for chess, living and breathing chess is quite acceptable. I'm nearly there, not in the profesional league but I love it, think about it and can't wait til my next game. Imagine being good enough for this to be your job.

Enough said I think x

First of all, there is no right-wrong answer on this question, it depends on individual how he/she experience chess.

For me it is MOST ( not only) an art form, I would say art of fighting. You bring your creativity, emotions and character in the game. Josh Waitzkin compared it to martial arts (he once described GMs as mind gladiators) and I remember one of his interviews where he described how in one simul event he found himself playing chess and thinking in terms of martial arts, not chess terms - attacking the enemy, diverting upcoming attack,  use of space left by opponent ect. Also people like Tal, Bronstein and even Kramnik had described chess as artistic form (between other things). Kramnik said something like this (can't remember exact quote): "chess is an art of bringing your ideas into action."  It is not the same like painting, I agree, but still you can see some level of beauty, orginality, creativity in the game. Also for me it is not sport ( I say this FOR ME again) because I don't see the result of the game as most important thing. I don't feel satisfaction in winning the game where my opponent played realy badly. What I have for defeating someone who for example just started to play chess? Of course, that doesn't mean that I'll not play for a win, just that after the game is over there are not so many games for which I would consider to go through them once again, or showed them to someone else. 

I think it all depends on the individual. Some players have other types of sport...and they see chess just as something to while their time away..so for them chess is not the ultimate sport...as they may have rugby as their main sport...others have chess as their main sport. If you want to see chess as an art, it's because you see the esthetics in it, as mentioned by one poster here, that's fine too, as chess is in some way an art. If you don't have any hobbies, but you do have your sport...then you might see chess as your hobby, because you don't have any other things to classify as a "hobby"... and then some people, like the big chess machines of the world, - we know who they are...some are now even playing in the MTel-tournament.- ... they see chess as a profession... imo... chess is a sport and those who see chess as a game, it's because they see it as a "time filler"... like playing cards...etc.

  Being a full time artist I can safely say chess is not an art form, chess is an unsolved mathematical problem. Checkers has been solved chess may never be solved. To my very limited understanding, chess falls into a group of games called simple games because in theory all the information you need to win is in front of you. For those of us who are interested in math for its esthetics  the same could be said of chess. That does not make it an art form but can be seen as a thing of beauty. I find the pieces set out on the board in battle as attractive as several pages of steps to a solution to a math problem. Chess requires deep linear thought where the true creative process requires spacial. Being deeply involved in both makes it easy to see the difference.

  An interesting fact: There are 1 X 10 to the 120 legal board positions in the game of chess. Consider that there are only 1 X 10 to the 70 atoms in our galaxy. This quoted from a book on statistical mechanics.

 

I think of it as a hobby.

chess is a passion for me. here's an interesting quote that i've posted before, but it's fitting in this thread so here it is again:

 

"If chess is a science, it's a most inexact one. If chess is an art, it's too exacting to be seen as one. If chess is a sport, it's too esoteric. If chess is a game, it's too demanding to be just a game. If chess is a mistress, she's a demanding one. If chess is a passion, it's a rewarding one.
If chess is life, it's a sad one. " -- Unknown"

It is hard to define for what art really is. But what I think of it, it is a feeling you have or just want to show, you make it real, as in, something to touch hear etc. , then someone gets his or her own feelings from it. So art is the medium for feelings.

Aoxoxmoxoa, you say anything MADE. And I think that is also right, Id even say full heart OR knowledge, but then again it's personal. If you make something it is alway an interpretation of the way you see things, it is also possible people get inspired by it or hate it or whatever so it's art.

Then again it's a big question where are the limits. Chess is anyways not art to me, if I were to make compositions out of pieces on the board creating or ignoring balance. That'd be art. Getting the pieces there by playing is different in purpose. so I guess it really isn't art. But it really got me thinking though...

ps. I'd say art has become some sort of hype, just like design.(the word gives me shivers). Its strange, interesting(maybe) unknown, mysterious etc.  So of course you want your passion to be considered art, just like everything today is called design. Of course it's designed but still. If chess is art what isnt

 

 

no chess my life will be boring.......

Chess is my biggest hobby lately.

My Artteacher told me, that EVERYTHING made with your full Heart and plenty of Knowledge is ART.

Tiger_Kid> I consider an art to be a thing of free expression, where the medium is merely a means to express oneself. It is quite difficult to express oneself through something as rigorously defined as a chessboard.

Art thrives on 'rigorously defined media'. A prime example of this is "La Grande Jatte" by Georges Suerat, which was recently shown at the Art Institute of Chicago.  If you ever visit such a museum, you would be astonished at the variety of art created using 4 colours and 10,000 dots, or even 2 colors and 500 dots.

   It's been estimated that there are 10^120 unique chess games. The craft of the master Steinitz in Steinitz vs Von Bardeleben is no less astonishing to me than Seurat's, and I could easily spend hours looking at the output of either. 

   Then again I also appreciate art in dance, archery, and motorcycle maintenance.  ;)

Art... why everytime someone really likes something, it's art. Chess is not art unless you put paint on the bottom of the pieces or glue pieces on a board upside down or anything.

art is many things and I really like art, and chess, but I say chess is a game/sport. sport officially but game to me personally

"By some ardent enthusiasts chess has been elevated into a science or an art. It is neither; but its principal characteristic seems to be - what human nature mostly delights in - a fight." - Lasker
 

 

 

People are quick to call chess an art, as if trying to impress their ideas of romantic cliches upon it. It is no more an art than anything else that requires skill and focus. I consider an art to be a thing of free expression, where the medium is merely a means to express oneself. It is quite difficult to express oneself through something as rigorously defined as a chessboard. Rather the way one approaches a game of chess brings out certain aspects of their personality.

 

I cannot find the quote right now, but if you message me I'll look it up for you. Emanuel Lasker summed it up quite well when he said something along the lines of "chess is the thing which humans most delight in... a fight". Thus, my answer is "sport". It is other things as well, for some. It is a hobby for most. It is a sort of science, yes. It is a game, of course. And for a few it is a profession

 

This poll strikes me as ridiculous, though. It seems to attempt to categorize a thing more specifically than is possible.

It's more of a hobby then a game for me. A game of basketball or football at the park a few times a month is a game. Anyone that logs on to chess.com a few times a day to make a move and plays live online and/or with ppl they know from RL should consider the game a hobby. Or atleast i think so...

i hope for it to become a proffesion in the future.

its too hard game with deep thought and creation !! so it must be ART.

I'm not sure that just one answer is accurate.

Where's the option for all of the above?

to me it's a hobby AND a game but I had to choose one so I picked hobby.  I wish it were my profession but I'd certainly be broke.

Art form, but then I also view archery and motorcycle maintenace as art forms. ;)

All of the above.

for me it is an art the art of resistance

hello game!

 

I voted for "a game", but as my t-shirt says, "It's more than just a game".

Best survey yet!

It's a game for me.