Is chess a sport? Ending the debate

I thought chess was a game until I entered a tournament about a week after playing in competitive ice hockey.  After the hockey game, I drove home still high on adrenaline.  It took an hour or two to fall asleep.  The competition was insane.  

A week later was the chess tournament.  After the chess games I could barely drive home.  I was dizzy, and feeling just shot.  The exhaustion was deep and thoroughly about me.  I needed all the next day just to recover.  

Chess placed serious demands upon my body, as did ice hockey. 

After that tournament,  chess was always a sport and a damned tough sport at that!  I've never seen it any other way since.  

400+ comments and yet only a dozen or so of them actually address the point of the issue, which the OP tried to emphasize: whether or not chess is a sport is, ultimately, a semantic debate. It doesn't matter, it's a waste of time arguing one way or the other. It's a categorization issue, where the criteria are ambiguously defined (or defined in more than one possible way).

The debate should be ended not because we can determine that chess is a sport or not, but because the debate is inherently meaningless.

"Competition alone" does not qualify an activity as a sport.  A physical activity is what 'becomes the sport' itself.  The game of chess is not a physical activity, like the physical exertion involved with ice skating, or shooting/blocking Hockey pucks, with a stick.

you better telephone the bossmen that class chess as a sport and correct their butts then budman! since you are such a freaking expert on flexing muscles.

I encourage this field chess is being played in olympics as a sport.The players have to prepare their body and mind before plays it.True,it could make somebody faltering.

Clearly, it's a sport.

 International Olympic Committee and over 100 countries recognise chess as a sport.

1. Competitive. The objective of a game of chess is to win. Chess involves a relentless struggle against one’s opponent. There is probably no sporting activity in which two people are locked in a competitive struggle of such intensity for such a sustained period of time. One lapse of concentration and suddenly a good position is transformed into a losing one. Each game is a drama in which the outcome is uncertain until the very end. When recently interviewed by journalist Dominic Lawson, the world chess champion Magnus Carlsen said that chess was “definitely a sport”.
2. Well established. The world championship has been organised since 1886 and our national federation was founded in 1904. Chess competitions are organised at every level: schools, universities, counties, cities, leagues, junior, senior, European, World, etc. Six million people play chess in England each year according to pollsters YouGov. 125,000 children learn chess in school each year.
3. Physical fitness. Peak mental condition requires being in good physical condition. Players need to concentrate totally for up to seven hours. As the stress and tension builds up, blood pressure, pulse and respiration rates all increase. Contenders for the world championships have nutritionists and fitness coaches.
4. Behaviour code. Players are penalised for poor sportsmanship e.g. for refusing to shake hands with their opponent. Potential cheating is taken seriously. Mobile phones are banned. Players are prohibited on their move from leaving the playing area. There is an anti-doping policy.
5. Olympic Recognition. Chess has been recognised as a sport by the International Olympic Committee since 2000. It was an event at the Asian Games in 2006 in Doha and again in Guangzhou in 2010. It is also being considered for inclusion in the Pan-American Games. Tokyo is preparing bids for the 2020 summer Olympics and has invited chess and bridge to apply for inclusion. Russia is trying to bring chess to the winter Olympics.
6. European Recognition. Chess is recognised as a sport in 24 out of 28 member states of the European Union. The exceptions are the UK, Ireland, Belgium and Sweden. In Sweden, it is likely that chess will be included from next year. Support has come from the Swedish sports coaches organisation which admires the mental discipline of chess.
7. Global game. Chess is played around the world irrespective of age, race, gender, income or language. People with physical disabilities play chess. Blind people play chess. People with advanced motor neurone disease play chess: Professor Stephen Hawking played chess with his children.
8. Mental component. All sports have a mental component. Ultimately competitive sports may be construed as strategy games differing only in their physical manifestation. Commentators are prone to similes such as: curling = chess on ice; bowls = chess on grass; snooker = chess with balls, and so on.
9. National accolade. World chess champions have won their national Sportsman of the Year competition including Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Vishy Anand (India) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria).
10. Player ranking system. The player ranking system was developed for chess in 1960 and has been adopted by many other sports including American football, baseball, basketball, hockey, korfball, rugby and golf. Football and cricket use a related formula.

Like i told all of you; it's a sport.

I understand that some have trouble percieving what makes a sport.  A 'sport' is the physical activity itself. 
It is a tricky concept if you have not thought about it enough.

Steven Hawking plays chess, he is actually REALLY good at it. 

Because 'the game' requires ZERO 'bodily' skill honing, chess simply does not qualify as a sport. 

bashing your head against a wall is a sport. and try playing chess in a coma.

Personally, my definition of sport goes beyond being a physical activity.  I think it must be head to head competition in which you and your opponent physically alter conditions for each other in a continuous, rather than iterative way primarily using the physicality of the human body with the competition being objectively scored and won by specific triggers.  In other words, sport requires head-to-head competition of both mind and body.  I enjoy reading comments which challenge this view, but to me that definition succinctly includes the things which I feel are sport, and excludes a number of other things which I categorize as events of talent, and even events of athleticism.  Even though chess qualifies to meet the majority of my definition, it is just not an activity whose outcome is determined by physicality.

For me, I define sport as a competitive endeavour with an aerobic element where proficiency necessitates the development of a high degree of finely tuned physical technique combined with an adaptable strategic approach whilst in-play. It is the combination of mind and body - the whole human system - working harmoniously and rigorously to overcome an opponent. 

Whilst chess has the mental aspect, it lacks the physical aspect and therefore I don't class it as a sport. Conversely, dancing is sometimes considered a sport. It has all the physical elements though for me it lacks adaptable strategy component and therefore I hesitate to consider it a sport. 

Darts has the competitive element and finely tuned physical technique but it lacks the aerobic aspect and therefore I do not consider that to be a sport. Same with bowling. 

dannyp- exactly.  Competitive cheerleading, dancing, and others are events and activities of talent and athleticism to be admired.  I'm not sure I would specify aerobic element, but it's not really an insult in my view to not have ones chosen manner of competition labeled as sport.

Bobby Knight and Red Auerbach played basketball very well. Fine sportsmen.

Wikipedia does not label it a sport, so it's not. It is a child's hobby at best and a waste of time at that. 

IOC labels it a sport,so it is.

Imagine throwing a baseball, surely most have.  It is a 'physical exertion', and it is a 'skill' that can be honed, but must be honed 'bodily'.
Now, imagine the game of chess, it is a game, and an activity.  It is a skill that can be honed, but you do not hone it with your 'physical' self(bodily).
You hone chess in your brain, and mind, not with your body(Steven Hawking is an EXCELLENT chess player). 
 

maybe Budweiser can make the Bud wiser and help him see beyond muscles.

Sport.