Is chess a sport or not?

[Daytripper]

Haha, not the first time I have seen this.

So what is a sport?

Is it physical? Usually.

Is it a game? Usually.

However, take a judge and you can make something a sport.

Take dancing, one of the most straining activities in the world. You would not call it a sport... add a few people who mark you and there you go.

What about curling? Jeux de boules? A child can throw a ball or an object like that, so it isn't really straining.

Finally, is it competitive?

Chess is incredibly hard, that's why only a small percentage of the world population can play a strong game. Monopoly can never be a sport, however. If enough people played it no world champion would make it very long.

So, any activity that makes you stand out can be made into a sport..if people really want it. But, if you insist there must be a significant physical element then lots of games cannot be called a sport.

On a side note, did anyone here play competitive chess in school? It can have your heart pumping the same as if you were running. Did you know any people that have passed away after playing a game of chess? Do you even know how fast a chess player can move his playing hand?

[BluePriest]

Haha, not the first time I have seen this.

So what is a sport?

Is it physical? Usually.

Is it a game? Usually.

However, take a judge and you can make something a sport.

Take dancing, one of the most straining activities in the world. You would not call it a sport... add a few people who mark you and there you go.

What about curling? Jeux de boules? A child can throw a ball or an object like that, so it isn't really straining.

Finally, is it competitive?

Chess is incredibly hard, that's why only a small percentage of the world population can play a strong game. Monopoly can never be a sport, however. If enough people played it no world champion would make it very long.

So, any activity that makes you stand out can be made into a sport..if people really want it. But, if you insist there must be a significant physical element then lots of games cannot be called a sport.

On a side note, did anyone here play competitive chess in school? It can have your heart pumping the same as if you were running. Did you know any people that have passed away after playing a game of chess? Do you even know how fast a chess player can move his playing hand?

IMO, a sport is only a sport if:
It doesn't have any luck in it. (Most board games)
The rules decides who win. (Not humans with opinions.)

That is what I think a sport is.

I demand Super Smash Bros to be considered a sport!

[Daytripper]

Maybe if millions of people were playing it, ( I don't know it) and if some elite players arose from the masses, then who knows. It is mostly politics after all. I think I was pretty clear that an individual or some set rules don't make a sport. Countries make sports and countries make sports big.

Who knows. Chess is a few thousand years old, video games are young. Give them some time.

[BluePriest]

Maybe if millions of people were playing it, ( I don't know it) and if some elite players arose from the masses, then who knows. It is mostly politics after all. I think I was pretty clear that an individual or some set rules don't make a sport. Countries make sports and countries make sports big.

Who knows. Chess is a few thousand years old, video games are young. Give them some time.

Theres actually world championships for smash bros. In melee a guy names ken used to be chapion, played as marth, until some person annihilated him with peach

Also, havent you heard of the wsvg? World Series of Video Games. Its got tons of popularity already. Now as much as I would love Smash bros to be considered a sport, I dont think it should. I don think video games, or chess, should be;

[Daytripper]

I have never heard of any of that. While it can certainly be quite an accomplishment to master some of those games, I believe most of them will fade away over time. There are many and the design can be quite difficult, but most of those games tend to lack depth. In that case it becomes more of a hand eye coordination exercise and less of a mental feat. That is why a game like chess stands out. The design is incredibly simple, but the combinations can be mind boggling and it does not rely on luck. I can grab a combination most people could not solve if they had a few hours time. A grandmaster would solve it in under 15 minutes no doubt.

Many other games have their world championships, but still, that doesn't make them sports. 

So in the end it's still all politics, but you would do chess short if you called it ''just some game.''

[BluePriest]

If you think super smash bros lacks depth you havent played the game enough (although I do believe you werent referring to it) . I am a firm believer that no game requires as much thought speed, hand eye coordination or endurance as that. Sometimes a simple 3 life battle can end up lasting over 15 minutes due to the intensity of it all. And it has a HUGE competition base.

[Daytripper]

Heh, I don't know the game. I was just looking around, and it looks like a common fighting game. If so, I fail to see how it can have any depth at all. Maybe I'm wrong, if so, please enlighten me.

15 minutes is nothing. A blitz game of chess takes a minimum of 10 minutes. Take a look at some grandmaster games. They can play those blitz games and still come up with a several move deep combination to win. Some grandmasters do sessions and grind away for hours, sometimes giving material to the weaker opponents and they still win.

If you ever grinded blitz games for a few hours you'd know it's as draining, if not more so, as playing a video game for a few hours. At least for me it is... After some 30-50 blitz games I can take no more while I can easily play video games for hours no problem.

[BluePriest]

It is insanely in depth. You have to know EVERY move the opponent can make at any time, know what would be best to counter, and since each opponent is different, you have only limited time to figure out how to best counter your opponent.

To compare time of chess, and time of ssb, you also have to take into consideration the game speed. Yes, chess may occasionally take longer, but it is also a slower pace. 15 minutes may not seem enough, but take into consideration the hardest AI the game has, I can be in under 2, and can occasionally beat 2 at the same time in under 2. Most of my friends I can beat in under three. I usually register over 80 button pushes a minutes (in a slower paced battle) not counting the analog stick.

The second of the series is more competitive so I  going to talk about that one.
In the game you can dodge attacks, or shield them. If you shield you want to try to get a shine shield, which means you have to shield at just the right time, that way you can counterattack. You only have a fraction of a second after shielding to figure out if you shined or not.  There is also airborne dodging. You can dodge in any direction in the air, sometimes to get up to a higher place, sometimes the opponent has a delay attack and dodging up will just barely allow you to escape the attack long enough. Then you have to fast fall and hope that you recover from the landing fast enough to counter.

I could make several pages just about dodging and shielding alone, all that have to be considered in an instant based on what you learned about your opponent, what you know about the opposing characters moves, what you know about strategies of that character, and what you know about your character and his physics with he game environment.

It is one of the simplest games as far as anyone being able to play it. 2 attack buttons, a shield button, and a throw button. Pushing a directional button changes that the attack and throw button does. But the depth required in just that is astounding. Even in a flat level, with no items on, all the possible things that need to be considered each and every second for competitive play, is exausting.

The last tournament I went to, I was exhausted when I finished. That was a local tournament as well. Not even a worldwide or nationwide one. I never went to one of those, never been one close enough.

Edit. Me and my friend stayed up 3 days straight playing spiderman 2 from beginning to end until we beat it 100%, When one of us wasnt playing he was eating and giving advice. I can play games for long periods of times no problem, but a tournament that lasted that long and that was all filled with high level players, that would be insane. It all depends on your competitiveness. I can play chess for hours and be fine, but Im nott doing it competitively. When I play games, I can do it for extended periods of times, but when I play competitively, its a whole new game.

[Daytripper]

Ah yes, I understand. It is much the same with chess. A tournament with lots of players around your level is much harder than just some casual games. The tension is possibly also a factor.

But, what I mean is, it does not have depth. A video game is pretty comparable to blitz chess.... But let's remember blitz chess is still very much considered a degraded form of chess. It only activates a shallow type of thinking process, because there simply isn't time for anything else. That is much the same thing you describe when playing a game.

Then, let's take real chess, and the kind of concentration that brings forth a 10 move combination that forces a win. This takes more time and it's obviously a deeper, more complex process.

You can look it up. It doesn't happen only in chess. The type of shallow and deeper thought processes have all been observed in the brain. 

[jmdt]

I played on both the chess team and the tenis team in high school.  I only think 1 is a sport...guess which one.

[BluePriest]

How long a decision takes isnt a factor, as having to look at that many things at once requires just as much skill as taking your time. They are just different types of skill. Most sports require split second decisions more than long thought out decisions. And with SSB, combing your opponent is also important 

  Setting something up like that when taking into account directional influence is insane looks simple, but requires many techniques such as L cancelling that if not done properly will cause you to be wide open for attack.

[Daytripper]

I played on both the chess team and the tenis team in high school.  I only think 1 is a sport...guess which one.

I understand that. These guys stand around with a ball in their hand longer than they actually play... No miracle people wouldn't call it a sport.

How long a decision takes isnt a factor, as having to look at that many things at once requires just as much skill as taking your time.

Eh, no. That is not what I said. The shallow thinking process and the deep thinking process are totally different. Both processes do not work well simultaneously and both skills can be trained independently. A great blitz player can be much worse at regular chess, and we usually see in practice it is very hard to be good at blitz and regular chess in the same period in your life...