Chess... a SPORT?!

This is something that I believe is absurd.  I consider a sport (and I'm sure a lot of you as well), consider a sport to be a competitive game which is directly physical.  This could not be further from the truth in chess.  If someone weighed 5,000 pounds, chopped off an arm and a leg, but was extremely intelligent, they could win the World Title in theory.  Can someone please explain why they think chess is a sport?

I can only speak for myself in this matter, but who cares?

It is a competative activity which requires years of dedicated training and practice in which to be even moderately good. The notion of there needing to be a physical component to a sport is a common, but relatively modern, convention. "Sport" not long ago used to mean any divirting activity. Falconry, for example, is known as the "sport of kings."

Ultimately if you choose to consider it a sport or not is an entirely personal thing. The only way you could go wrong would be in getting into a semantic argument with others insisting that it is or is not a sport on definitional grounds. The reason this would be a mistake is that based on various definitions of the word "sport" as expressed in the OED, it qualifies. So there is no semantic basis for dissallowing the inclussion of chess in the category of "sports" (though including it is rather old-fashioned).

I say sport.  Because: Nascar is a sport, Golf is a sport, Fishing is a sport, Bowling is a sport, competitive shooting is a sport etc.  so if these can be called sports I say chess is too. 

The Olympic Committee decided that "mind games" do not qualify as "sport." No chess for the Olympic Games, I'm afraid.

No.

Those are all directly a physical activity, chess is not.

Sorry but The Olympic Committee is the one that classifies which are sports. Then they allow teams from those countries to compete.

You said Bowling is a sport.  It is not a sport. The Olympic committee will not allow teams to compete until it is accepted as a sport. The USBC has been trying for years to qualify as one. We combined the men, the women and kids as one. We have different levels of coaches. We have the Professional Bowlers Association on TV. No Women. But we cannot find a way to be accepted.

Bowling was accepted to appear as a guest Bowling  demonstration during the Olympics.

Yet, they accepted curling as a sport and how many countries do you think do that?

You say that Chess is a sport but you aren't the one to make it so. Besides Chess has it own FIDE and methods to select the champions. You don't want the Olympics to do that.

Soccer has a four year qualifying coountry eliminations to go to the World Cup.

The Olympics allow countries to send the amatuers sport teams to compete in their games.

I also believe that chess is a sport.

                                 IMHO

quite the dubious topic

@DENVERHIGH so let me get this right, in your mind nfl football is not a sport because it's not recognized as an olympic event?

Sorry, but your criteria is simply silly. The olympic commitee only came into existence with the birth of the modern olympics. Sports existed prior to that point in time.

The question of if chess is a sport or not is one of semantic categorization, not of legal qualification. Semantic criteria for inclusion of chess in the collective noun sports is met under multiple definitions within the OED. That it is an archaic usage should also obviously be noted.

Here is the answer...

Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree of skill, especially at higher levels. Hundreds of sports exist, including those for a single participant, through to those with hundreds of simultaneous participants, either in teams or competing as Some non-physical activities, such as board games and card games are sometimes referred to as sports, but a sport is generally recognised as being based in physical athleticism.

And here is the meaning of life...

Life (cf. biota) is a characteristic that distinguishes objects that have signaling and self-sustaining processes (i. e., living organisms) from those that do not,^[1][2] either because such functions have ceased (death), or else because they lack such functions and are classified as inanimate.^[3][4]

"wiki wiki wiki wiki...shut up" -Jam On It, Newcleus, Sunnyview Records (1984).

LOL

Chess is a recognized sport by the Internation Olympic Commitee with FIDE being the recognized International Sports Federation for chess since June 1999.

And their reasoning is...

Their reasoning is that FIDE paid the fees required and met the beaurocratic criteria for acceptance.

I'll make the point again -- the question of inclussion of the activity of chess in the category demarked by the noun "sport" is a semantic one, not a legal one. It doesn't matter what the Olympic Commitee does or does not do. If the Olympic commitee suddenly disallowed soccer would soccer cease being a sport? Hardly. It would simply cease being an Olympic event.

+1

A sport is something that many people compete in that has a definite set of rules that does not rely on an opinion.  Ergo, chess is a sport.  And at my school, it practically is.  There is a local scholastic league we participate in as well as going to local and national tournaments. 

I think it's a sport, but not in the sense that most "sports fans" would think of. Bobby Fischer trained both mentally and physically for the 1972 match with Spassky, his reasoning being that it requires a great deal of stamina to last throughout long games. He had a point. Certainly, chess does not involve the typical physical regimen of other sports, but it is a competitive game with multiple organizations devoted to it and it demands mental exercise. I'm not sure what the answer is; I think this is a debate that could go on as long as people are still playing.

not a sport ... lack of physical competition.