Quite an interesting conversation.. personally, Practicing a sport is often about improving one’s physical abilities, losing weight, and developing stronger muscles. However, from a medical or biological perspective, chess fails to engage the body like most sports do.
IS CHESS A SPORT?
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From catching a ball to timing a jump, most sports require some form of motor coordination. Therefore, one of the purposes of practicing a sport is often to improve coordination. Chess doesn’t require advanced coordination since players move pieces on a board. Plus, with the rise of digital chess and chess-playing AI, the game’s physical components are becoming less important.
I think it is with a few points below
- Like any sport, the object of chess is to win over one’s opponents. An ‘activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another for entertainment’ is the very definition of sport.
- Chess is physically challenging. Chess players need to be in top physical condition, similar to athletes, in order to attain peak mental stamina, which is necessary to win at chess. And the list goes on..
Chess requires good physical condition to maintain hours of concentration.
Most top players have a physical coach.
Do you consider formula-1 racing, snooker, darts as sports?
Not sure as to how anyone would think that chess requires physical exertion. If chess is a 'sport', then backgammon and poker are sports as well. Based on this logic, anything requiring strategy and thought would be considered a sport as well. Would checkers be considered a sport? Enough said.
@6
"chess requires physical exertion"
++ There has been research about this. Chess players played in a laboratory with their physical parameters monitored. A classical time control chess game was physically equivalent to a 10-rounds boxing match.
Chessboxing
Chessboxing is a chess-boxing hybrid where rounds are alternated between full contact boxing and chess. You can either checkmate your oponent in chess, win a knockout in boxing, win on time in chess or on points in boxing. It has its own governing body, the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO) and a growing fan base in Germany, the UK, India and Russia. Chess shouldn’t be a contact sport
Yes
Archery and shooting are olympic sports.
The concept of a sport is contested, and it’s not clear that a sport need have physical activity (and if so, how much?).
Aristotle considered sport as, amongst other things, an honorific. So, to call something a sport and not a game is to say that it plays a particular role in our culture that is judged to be worthy. To play chess is thought to be a component of the good life in a way that playing snakes and ladders is not.
Of course, there are other accounts of sport out there. Some essentialist views of sport would rule out chess, or bodybuilding, or maybe even artistic gymnastics! Are these essentialist views right? Maybe, maybe not.
Football is not a sport if it is not competitive
Yes because it is very competitive and they have tournaments for chess
Exactly. For some the definition of sport is "Anything competitive with a rulebook". Others would say "If it doesn't have a ball it's not sport."
And somehow everyone's favourite activity is always a sport, and the thing they look down on or don't understand is not.
My definition: a sport is a competition that is constrained by physical limitations.
If Magnus told me what moves to play in a Classical game, I would be more or less as good as he is. The thing separating me from GMs isn't the physical ability to execute moves (inb4 "b-but time scrambles!")
If a top athlete told me what to do in a football game or a 100m sprint, I still wouldn't be able to execute it at a professional level at all. I am not physically at their level, which is a huge part of "skill" in a sport, not just knowing what to do.
Also, it has nothing to do with what's my favourite. I love chess and personally admire it more than any sport, and spend the most time on it. It just happens to not fit what the word "sport" has always meant to me.
Yes, chess is a sport
Two things are needed for something to be a sport.
1. Competition against one or more person or group.
2. Involves at least a moderate amount of physical exertion.
Chess does have the competitive aspect but NOT the required amount of physical exertion. Therefore it is not a sport.
You join my club, I'll join yours.
https://www.chess.com/club/chatchess
Yes it is
Cymbiotika wrote:
- Chess is physically challenging.
Beg to disagree. I've played in many over-the-board tournaments.
Between moves I walk around, glance at other games, look out the window or stare at the ceiling fan ... leisurely yawn and stretch. Or simply rest my chin on my hands and stare blankly into space ...
The main challenge of chess is mental. It's a thinking game.
We’ve been playing chess for over 1,500 years. From international competitions to chess-playing AI, chess fascinates and challenges us.
However, is chess a sport?
Some argue that chess lacks the physical component we typically associate with sports. When we think of sports, we think of activities that require physical performance, often to the point of exertion.
Kindly leave a comment because I’m lost..