Similarity

Was wondering if chess can be said to be similar to any outdoor sport - like, soccer, basketball, or any outdoor sport for that matter. 

Don't you have to use your legs in all sports?

Soccer, basketball and chess all contain the letter "s."

Not in wheelchair basketball or sledge hockey. Or so I've heard.

As kids we played a highly cerebral game that wasn't actually named but could have been called "Let's see who can get stung by yellow-jackets the most". We didn't need legs for that.

(Edit: I should add, however, that we often found our legs quite useful immediately after we had decided to stop playing the game.)

do esports count?

True. But originally those sports required the use of legs and was later adapted by the disabled as a variant. It could be that chess can not be considered a sport at all, because it originally did not require the use of legs.

maybe politics! but I don't think they do much of it outdoors - vampires don't like the sun :) 

A valid argument, under the 'presumption of legs' paradigm. Target shooting? My own dividing line is unclear.

Savage - lol

I thought about target shooting with arrows and guns, but isn't that more like using a machine efficiently? If that is allowed then it would seem like crane operating would be considered a sport.

Crane operating definitely could be a sport.  A good crane operator is a skilled individual!

Harder than shooting, that's for sure.

Lol. The sport of crane operating.

set up "crane olympics" and then the best ones can be rewarded with better payments?

sounds like a fair idea

Maybe there is some type of 'crane-games' in the midwest or southern U.S.? I know they have "monster truck" festivities in arenas throughout those parts:D

Any idiot can drive a truck.

Even a "monster truck"? Can an idiot drive a "monster truck" over a whole bunch of cars, or does it take an exceptional athlete?

Pretty sure any idiot can do it, but I've never had anything to do with such an activity, so I could be wrong.

I think the winner of the U.S. chess championships could probably drive a "monster truck" into a bunch of cars. So maybe that's the answer the OP was looking for?

Perhaps we should begin by defining a sport that way we can make efficient progress.  To me, a sport is an activity done in one's spare time in which you find pleasure in participating and after playing for a while, you start to fatigue.  Chess fits those criterias: I do it in my spare time, enjoy it, and for the three tournaments I've been to, I have been exhausted after the final games.  Therefore, chess is a sport to me.  What do you guys think?

Step 1. Define what a sport is

Step 2. Figure out if chess fits the description.

Which of course raises the spectre of rhythmic gymnastics being in the Olympics, and why-in-hades don't we have any form of interpretive writhing and twitching considered a sport ... I have no point to make. I'm done.