Is chess a sport?

I'm not sure. Personally, I don't know whether those who think chess is a sport are deluded, crazy, thick or politically correct. I also collect stamps. I'm 68 so I need to do something energetic with my declining years. I also do quite a bit of weight training but that's just to keep me in shape for moving stamps. This week I bought 8 big cartons full of stamps and three of coins. I've been sorting them ever since. My chess playing form has nosedived but I feel fitter.

You people and your logic stink. Try telling NASCAR their race is not a sport.

Ciao

I dont think anyone would try telling nascar that racing is not a sport. Because racing IS a sport. It takes physical skill to drive a car, or any other type of race. That's why I think the only way a type of chess could be a sport is if it's a race. Like speed bullet chess. That's a game where physical skill determines the winner. If a person doesn't move the pieces fast enough they lose. Just like chess boxing. That is also a type of chess where physical skill determines the winner.

But normal chess cant be a sport because no physical skill is required. Even a paraplegic is allowed to play chess, no physical skill of any kind needed. Racing, physical skill necessary, sport. Chess, no physical skill needed, not a sport.

I mean, even counter strike is, so chess, definitely

“A word now on the game itself. Chess has never been and never can be aught but a recreation. It should not be indulged it to the detriment of other and more serious avocations - should not absorb the mind or engross the thoughts of those who worship at its shrine; but should be kept in the background and restrained within its proper province. As a mere game, a relaxation from the severer pursuits of life, it is deserving of high commendation. It is not only the most delightful and scientific, but the most moral of amusements. Unlike other games in which lucre is the end and the aim of the contestants, it recommends itself to the wise by the fact that its mimic battles are fought for no prize but honor. It is eminently and emphatically the philosopher's game. Let the chessboard supercede the card table, and a great improvement will be visible in the morals of the community. But, ladies and gentlemen, I need not expiate on the field so ably traversed by the eloquent gentleman who has just addressed you. I thank you from my heart for the very flattering manner in which you have been pleased to receive his too complimentary remarks, and for the numerous attentions received at your hands. I shall leave New York with melancholy sorrow, for I part from friends than whom none truer can be found. Let them rest assured that along with the memory of the chessboard I possess the memory of the heart. And now, with a renewal of my sincere thanks for the splendid token of your regard with which you have presented me tonight, and the assurance that I shall cherish in unfading memory the remembrance of my sojourn here, I bid you, ladies and gentlemen, a farewell, which I fondly hope will not prove the last. “

excerpt from Batgirl post

Apparently, there seems to be a giant conspiracy behind the arduous attention paid to chess and how it is chronologized. Much has been made of the revenue generated by its labeling. On the one hand, we have supporters that wish the game be known as a sport. As the opposing position has vehemently stated its only a game. But why? What you and your congress wishes us to realize, is that all the money we spent on membership cost, cost of chess sets, club memberships, entry fees into far away tournaments, travel cost, lodging and finally for the dues paid to an official federation that qualify us to play and get paid was all done in the name of a mere game? One may even try to lead us to believe that all the time and effort we spend on any one thing should be regarded with a grain of salt. Salt and talk are cheap but not chess.

After all, what's in a name? Lord Delaney at the height of Britians, Opium War with China in the mid-1800's answered that very question in no uncertain terms, he can be quoted as saying, “War is diplomacy by other means.” The name game was also played with the game of baseball from its inception at that point of its humble beginning baseball was a mere game. It is only after million dollar contracts are paid out does the game evolves into a sport. Baseball, as is with chess, is a game first a sport second.

Chess in Europe has a television audience as if the sport we not like watching the grass grow. Be that as it may, all this attention is not paid to a mere game. The preponderance of the verdict on whether the sport of chess should remain forever a game is again answered when sponsors of an event refer its audience to the event in advertising. “ Watch a live chess match, not a live chess game.”

Albeit, I agree with the responders of the above-mentioned speech by Morphy, posted by Batgirl. I agree it sounds diplomatic, myself I still at an absence as to why anyone for that matter needs to ensure that chess is labeled a game. It is that sure just a game, but, for the reasons enumerated above and more. It has now evolved into a sport.

Ciao

Post the link Timmy, please.

@Ziryab wrote,

Post the link Timmy, please.

I am relatively new to posting, I am afraid I have made many technical errors and I don't know what link whence you reference?

Ciao

If chess is a sport then poker is a sport too

Where did you find the BatGirl quote? I'm certain that I could search her blog, but if you have the link ready to hand, it might save me (and others reading this) a bit of time.

Chess is, and poker may well be. It meets the normal criteria for sport: rules, organized competition, books devoted to performing well available in Barnes and Noble (unfortunately crowding out better sports--chess and hunting), ...

Everything except the reductionist notion calling for athletics that is pushed by the dull plodders who must employ argumentum ab auctoritate.

@Ziryab

It's a Batgirl Post, title A Morphy's Speech. Therein lies the confusion. 

A bit of clarity; it is not the OP it is a different speech by the GM and it exists somewhere in the responses.

Ciao

That's been brought up many times before. If chess is a sport, then (fill in the blank) is a sport too.

If chess is a sport, then you could literally fill in the blank with anything. Spelling bees, SAT tests, writing resumes, etc, etc. 

If the threshold for a sport is so low that it includes chess, then it would be very difficult to exclude anything else.

Spelling bees, SAT test writing resumes, etc. as a sport is nonsense. Chess is a sport. Keep it real. You are drifting away from reality to prove your point in vain. 

The question remains, is chess a sport. It has been answered. Yes, chess is a sport.

I am tempted to submit this entire thread to the Olympic Committee.

Ciao

Patriot is like a parrot, keeps on repeating thinking that it will make her right. It's already been proven that Chess is a Sport. You can argue the definition of sport but that's already been explained. 

....ur in denial. Seek attn immed.

No sport can be played without the tools of. Chess can be (and is !) played w/out a so much as the board. Itsa board game Homer....u doh !!

Learn to make a proper sentence kid 👶. 

<<It is that sure just a game, but, for the reasons enumerated above and more. It has now evolved into a sport.>>

Only in the minds of the gullible.

It's difficult to comprehend the level of delusion that must cause people not only to think of chess as a sport, which is, at least, comprehensible, although alien to the meaning of "sport"; but to embark on crusades of persuasion to get other people to believe it too. Obviously it is a matter of indoctrination. Where are the logical arguments? Pretty startling by their absence?