Is chess a sport? Ending the debate

The problem with saying that chess isn't a sport is that it opens up the question: what is it then? Since that is a question that they can't answer, we have to conclude that chess is therefore a sport.

My response to Blockhead Bud.

I don’t want to waste any more time with this pig ignorant individual. By the same token I don’t see why the mentally defective town drunk should be continually prominent on this thread. So once posted, I will occasionally copy and paste this to caution newcomers of this truly obnoxious individual. This I take on as a service to the chess.com community.

He and many others argue that sport needs a physical component separate from the brain to be called ‘sport’. I am not unsympathetic to this viewpoint. However I believe a significant minority, including myself argue that chess is within our definition of sport. Numerous dictionaries include definitions of sport that don’t include vigorous movement. Blockhead Bud will not accept that there are certain words in English usage that can mean different things to different people.

He continually misrepresents others points of view and accuses others of name calling while continually dishing it out himself. His contention that cerebral pursuits aren’t covered by dictionary definitions is a lie, and he knows it. At first, I admired his resoluteness, but after a while I realised I was dealing with a pig ignorant liar who is immune to reason.

If billiards, snooker or golf can be a sport then chess is also a sport.  

Well it could be if people wanted it to be, it fits. A loser and a winner etc.

All of these sports, chess poker etc are their own category of sports. Just like Esports, it's apart from the Olympics, but still considered a sport.

PEOPLE YOU MUST HAVE READ THIS BECAUSE IT WAS IN CAPS AND I GOT YOU ATTENTION NOW so then all games are sports and all sports are games how about we say that 

Well, that's the point, you don't have to be too intelligent to recognise that chess is a sport.

It's the same thing everyone has been saying it is all a long. It's a board game. Its a board game because it's a game played on a board. It's competitive, has winners and losers, etc. just like sports. But lacks the one thing that is required to make it a sport. It lacks the training or excellence in physical ability to achieve superiority at it. 

The physical skill part is the part that differentiates the two. Thats why there are two words to describe the two differenct activities. Poker, chess, tic tac toe, monopoly, sorry, battleship, etc are games. Football, golf, baseball, wrestling, karate, skiing, etc are sports. For chess to be a sport, any physical part of it would be the part someone trains at to be good. The scratching of the head, the moving of the pieces with your hand, the hitting of the clock, those would be what you would practice if you wanted to excel at chess if it were a sport. So obviously it's impossible for it to be a sport (with the exception of speed chess which does rely on physical skill)

"Chess is a gymnasium for the mind"- Chess Rules of Thumb

IfPatriotGames wrote: "It lacks the training or excellence in physical ability to achieve superiority at it."

Do you think a not really physical excellent person could be sitting at a board, concentrating for five hours or more? It lacks the training? Do you know how long the grandmasters train to be good at chess?

To answer your first question, yes, of course. A person does not have to be physically excellent to sit at a board for 5 hours. Would it help? Maybe yes maybe no, but it's certainly not required. As for the second question, that is my whole point. Grandmasters DO train. Probably for a long time. But the reasons they train and how they train is exactly why chess is not a sport. They are not training to become better at the physical parts of chess, the shuffling in their chair, the fidgeting, the hitting of the clock, the blinking of they eyes. Instead, they are training in the NON physical parts of chess, the mental part. Ever notice how sometimes chess players wrinkle thier nose when pondering a position? That wrinkling of the nose is the part chess players would practice and become good at if chess were a sport.

Impressive!

Poker is not a sport.

Wrong! Poker helped me with my obesity.

As far as the 'physicality' required to play "the game" of chess...

False. Chess is recognized as a sport by the International Olympic Committee and over 100 countries. Monopoly is just a hobby. Chess is a hobby but also a sport

Blindfold chess is just about the most amazing thing that any human being does.

It's a pity they look like total wazoks when they're doing it. 

Chess is nothing like Monopoly, scrabble, or checkers. Therefore, Chess is not a board game.