is chess really a sport?

[fat bear]

i'mean cmon, is it?

[felp]

sport ( P ) Pronunciation Key (spôrt, sprt)
1
a) Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.
b) A particular form of this activity.
2
An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.
3
An active pastime; recreation.

etc (there's more but they're not relevant)


chess1 ( P ) Pronunciation Key (chs)
n.
A board game for two players, each beginning with 16 pieces of six kinds that are moved according to individual rules, with the objective of checkmating the opposing king.



thus acording definition number 3 of sport, it is.

[PoofBird]

fat bear, read this: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=441

this isn't a debate. you should elaborate your views or stay in pap.

[pie chicken]

no

[statueofliberty]

Methinks chess shud be more commonly regonised as a sport as its a really enjoyable passtime that can be played almost anywhere. Even in bed ;)

[ZekeyLizard]

No offense.

But I wont consider chess a sport until someone gets a hideous physical injury due to a checkmate gon awry.

[Wally]

Not all people feel like moving around and such.. it is more a sport for people like me.. I like checkers more actually...

[statueofliberty]

Well thats a good point although whens the last time u saw someone die playing darts?

[felp]

Originally posted by statueofliberty
Well thats a good point although whens the last time u saw someone die playing darts?

1 dart to the corroded artery and it's lights out... as soon as u pull the dart out.

[squealpiggy]

Haha I saw this documentary about paramedics, and there was this kid and someone had thrown a dart at his head. He was wearing one of those mesh caps but wearing it backwards so that the gap was at the ront and this dart was sticking straight out of his forhead in the centre of this gap! The ambulance guys arrived and they had to keep leaving the room to laugh because this kid looked so funny! His face was a picture ofmiery but he looked so comical!

I thought I would share that with you all. He did get better!

[Pod]

Yes it is a sport. Weight lifting : is that a sport? How about Golf? or Javelin throwing? or swimming? snowboarding? skateboarding? XTREME Frisbee?


Theres thousand of "sports" that don't fit the definition of being 2 teams of 'men' batteling it out. They're still sports, and good ones at that.

[pie chicken]

Chess is not a sport it is a battle of logic therefore it is a board game as it is played on a board HA HA HA i laugh in your face

[squealpiggy]

It is a sport under one definition of "Sport", being a game of skill between two players.

Like golf is a sport, darts, squash, badmington...

[SemiCircle]

Originally posted by pie chicken
Chess is not a sport it is a battle of logic therefore it is a board game as it is played on a board HA HA HA i laugh in your face

and that discludes it from being a sport because...?

(pray tell, have you written an essay ever before in your life? that is the worst use of the word "therefore" i have seen in a long while.)

the distinction between "game" and "sport" is the point here. superficially they mean the same thing, and indeed in many languages it is the same word. however, there are implications of the word "sport" that aren't within "game".

first off, it implies physical exertion. if you play a sport seriously, you should be tired at the end of it, as i'm sure any footballer will tell you. as a chess player, i can say that you do indeed feel tired after the end of a long match; it might not be "physical" exertion, but that doesn't mean it's not hard work. it's a moot point whether that's good enough to count. i think so, but anyone is entitled to disagree.

secondly, it implies that the better side should win, that is the result of a match is determined by the skill of the players, and there is minimal luck involved. (yes, that is mostly put in to discount bridge and poker and other card games.) the purpose of the whole thing is to show that you're better than them, after all. you can't argue against chess on that one.

thirdly, it implies that it is played in serious competitions. tournaments, matches, things like that. lots of things qualify for that, including scrabble and monopoly (but they're games of luck as well).


the best argument against chess as a sport, that i can see, is that the frame of play is too limited. take snooker, for example: fundamentally it's all about potting balls yourself and stopping the other guy from potting more than you. it's very tactical, with safety shots and the like, and anyone who doesn't think about where the balls will end up after he's played his shot will lose to someone who does, even if he's just as good at playing the actual shots.
a similar sentiment applies to chess, but the major difference is that there is no need to actually "play the shot" as it were. it's like a game of snooker where you can never mis-hit, or even miss the pocket. the whole game is effectively about who thinks harder about where the balls will end up after the shot is played.

no doubt any pro snooker player will tell you that that is as much a part of the game as playing the actual shots. he would also agree that even if everybody was able to play every shot perfectly, there'd still be a game in it, for the reason that there is still capacity for a player to be better. he'd probably also say that it would still be a sport, but then he's biased.

the question to be answered is, does removing EVERY element of chance disqualify it as a sport? that is something that is down to public opinion. i say no, but some disagree.

[Reddig]

You can brake your jaw while yawning. Yeah, it's a sport, and a dangerous one at that.

[squealpiggy]

Noone said it was a spectator sport!

[smiley clown]

If you had to classify activities between being games and sports most people would put chess down as a game. However many sports can be played as a game rather than in competition with one another so there is clearly lots of overlap between the two and so I think chess can be both a sport or game.

[ZekeyLizard]

Little Billy Bumpkin was killed today in a hideous Chess accident.

During his turn, Billy was moving his pawn to space D-3 when something went wrong. Horribly wrong.

Paramedics arrived on the scene within minutes. Billy's organs were lying on the ground outside of his body.
Sources say that just before he collapsed his last words were "Checkmate"

Memorial services tuesday.

[Cherokee Red]

The english language is terrible in the way that one word can mean 20 or One hundred different words. And vice - versa; One hundred words can mean 1.

Chess it can be interpreted as everything everyone has mentioned so far.
ie. classed as a board game, a game, a sport, recreational activity, a battle of logic, etc.
At the same time, every other "sport" or "game" would have to be classed the same, as they all really have the same ideas.
They can all be played for fun or gain something at the end, whether it's a trophy, money, friendship or just a better understanding of what you are playing.

For me, chess is a great way of having fun, and giving my mind and the minds of my friends a good challenge.

[Dude]

I play chess, I beat people lots, and it gets very booooaring, I dont think it should be concidered a sport, more of a nerdy pastime (that makes me a nerd:eek: ) I have got into the gigafinals of the British land chess championship several times but haven't got passed that, but all could change next year!!!:D

[SemiCircle]

oooh, i might know you. or i might not; i haven't bothered with that gigafinal crap for years. ahh well. it all depends how old you are, really.

(this really ought to be a pm. oh well, i've typed it now.)

[Wahoo]

chess is definatly a sport, there is no question about this. Sport is an activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

So chess follows all these rules, the skill in playing chess is to know the right combination of moves and outsmart your opponent, this takes years of practice. There are many rules to take, and this is done just as the description for sport says, so, it is a sport.

My dad has a program called chessbase, which has over 1 million chess matches on it. You think it's not a sport? i can prove it is!

[fat bear]

Originally posted by PoofBird
fat bear, read this: http://www.weebls-stuff.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=441

this isn't a debate. you should elaborate your views or stay in pap.

i appreciate your concern poofbird, but just because i do not have an opinion to a question that explains it all or i do not have a certain view on a topic because i want to see different explinations on the topic does not mean that this is not a debate.