Is chess a sport or not?

[midg3333]

I say no, it is not a sport. It seems that the main argument for it being a sport is that it is 'mentally taxing'. Look at other sports...they aren't so much mentally demanding as physically. In most sports, you practise certain skills until you can perform them easily, generally follow a basic strategy that you have learned over time and a high fitness level is important/helpful. In chess, you don't need to practise certain skills so much as just know general strategies and logic. Fitness is unimportant.

Also, some other things. Now I know there are exceptions to these, but in general:
-sports are not turn-based
-sports involve a central object (such as a ball, or a hole in golf) that players try to get/aim for
-players move around, rather than moving pieces around.

If you want to consider chess a sport, would you also call games such as warhammer sports?

[Scaredgirl]

SG, as per my posts, the differences between chess and Monopoly are significant.

Yes, they are different games, just like Monopoly and Poker are different games. The fact that chess has more prestige and long history does not change what it is at the core: a boardgame.

The "physical" strain from chess comes from mental exhaustion. There's no real physical activity involved in any board games, chess included, which is why I think it's ridiculous to claim that it is a sport. If we used that logic, then math competitions would be a sport too. Or maybe crossword puzzles?

I also know people who will fight to the end stating chess is a sport. But i never understand why..

There's a simple explanation to that. Chess players want chess to sound more of a big deal by calling it a sport. Chess is a big deal and a very cool game, but calling it a sport is just dumb.

[BluePriest]

Anyone who has played super smash bros competitively, knows just how mentally taxing it can be. If chess is a sport, then I would demand Super Smash Bros to be recognized as one as well.

[MrBlonde]

Anyone who has played super smash bros competitively, knows just how mentally taxing it can be. If chess is a sport, then I would demand Super Smash Bros to be recognized as one as well.

This is exactly why i think it's pretty lame to label Chess as a sport. It's just a slippery slope of the term "sport" to become completely silly. I may be wrong here but i'm guessing for those that voted yes for for chess as a sport did not play organized sports in high school or college.

[rotface]

idk i think its a sport  something u play but idk

[Gerontius]

It is a game, not a sport. They are different for all the "physical exertion" reasons given above.

But that doesn't make chess any less pretigious. To my mind, games are superior to sports because they tax the brain not the body and the brain is what makes humans better than animals.

So, people should stop trying to diminish chess by calling it a sport.

[Appawesome]

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.

[BluePriest]

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.

football, basketball, and just about everything else is based on luck. You have to hope the play you plan for is what the other person does, and it is luck if you choose ther perfect counter.

And also, you dont think gymnastics, nor anything of the sort is a sport? That is based on people with opinions.

[Appawesome]

football, basketball, and just about everything else is based on luck. You have to hope the play you plan for is what the other person does, and it is luck if you choose ther perfect counter.

And also, you dont think gymnastics, nor anything of the sort is a sport? That is based on people with opinions.

Football, and basketball isn't about luck, it is about predicting you opponents moves.

I don't count gymnastics as a sport. More of an activity.

[Mavyrk]

Sport was first used in verb to mean "pleasant passtme." However, the argument about whether or not chess is or is not a sport, comes down to its meaning as a Noun. Etymologically speaking, "sport" has meant "game involving physical exercise" since the 1500s. Queen Elizabeth knew Chess wasn't a sport, and we're still having this argument 500 years later. 

The distinction between game, exercise, and sport cannot be divided by difficulty, because lifting a car is difficult, but it is neither a game nor a sport.

Luck can't divide it, because advantage is often given to one side or the other, in sports, because of the use of coin flips, seeds, and weather.

And can anyone name a sport where rules decide the outcome? I know rules decide the methodology of participation, but I can't think of a game where the rules decide the outcome. You win in hockey because you had more goals, which is fundamental, not ruling.

At the end of the day, sport is an elusive mixture between both game and exercise, that straddles the gray area on a line so thin that any tip in either direction settles the issue in its entirety.

What sport can you think of that brings so much debate to the table when you think of it existentially? At the end of the day, when you think of chess, and you have even the slightest doubt that it is not a sport, then it simply is not a sport.

You do not scrutinize real sports ("Football? Of course football's a sport"). You do not scrutinize real games ("Elements? Obviously that's not a sport"). You do not scrutinize exercise ("Man, I was pumping irons the other day, and whooboy did I win").

If chess brings scrutiny to itself, it must inevitably be lowered to its basest level; that of a game, and nothing more.

At least til they come out with Xtreme Chess.

[BluePriest]

Football, and basketball isn't about luck, it is about predicting you opponents moves.

I don't count gymnastics as a sport. More of an activity.

But predictions are 90% luck,

[Appawesome]

Football, and basketball isn't about luck, it is about predicting you opponents moves.

I don't count gymnastics as a sport. More of an activity.

But predictions are 90% luck,

Predictions aren't luck. If you know them well enough, you know what they are going to do. And by luck, I meant like dice/cards.