Chess: Sport or not?

[Jowy]

are you wearing a cup while involved in this activity? if the answer is "yes", you're playing a sport.

[blackmage_nuke]

Anything you play sitting down isn't a sport.

Wheelchair basketball

[escobert]

No, it's a game. It doesn't require physical exertion.

[Del Murder]

I will concede to rowing and wheelchair basketball but ONLY IF the person normally is in a wheelchair. If you are able to play basketball outside a wheelchair and choose to use one to play, then you aren't playing a sport; you're being a dumbass.

[escobert]

It's not nice to call people names

[Denmark]

You're forgetting that sport involves skill and competition. Chess requires mental skill to play, and it's very competitive. There are chess tournaments played.

fair point, but:

An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others.

skill and competition does not make an activity a sport. physical exertion, skill, and competition, all together, make an activity a sport. physical exertion is a required component.

[Pumpkin]

Hey, moving those chess pieces is hard. All that wrist movement and the fingers and just... ugh.

[Agent Proto]

Chess is a mind sport though. And I do believe mind sports are considered sport.

[Shiny]

If you aren't playing chess intensely then you aren't playing it right.

[Shorty]

There are no olympic winter mind sports.

It's a damn board game.

[I Took the Red Pill]

Chess is a mind sport though. And I do believe mind sports are considered sport.

Really grasping at straws here...

Do you bums have anything to talk about besides inane semantic arguments? Like, what are you going to d o this weekend? Anyways, I'm thirsty. Gonna go grab myself a cup of soup and maybe a can of soda too! (<---- that's an exclamation point, by the way)

[Del Murder]

Agent Proto, your Loony BoB impersonation is spot on.

[blackmage_nuke]

If you are able to play basketball outside a wheelchair and choose to use one to play, then you aren't playing a sport; you're being a dumbass.

I think handicapped nondiscrimination should cut both ways. Walkers should be allowed to play wheelchair basketball

[The Summoner of Leviathan]

To play devil's advocate. All mental exertions are physical exertions unless you subscribe to some theory of mind-body dualism. So given that mental activities and physical activities are to a large degree interrelated, quite possibly co-dependent if not co-terminus, then yes at any point you do a mental activity you are necessarily doing a physical activity. Moreover, all physical activity takes mental activity as it roots (with the exception of reflex systems). Partnered with the skill and competitiveness of chess there is an argument to be made for it as a sport.

As for synchro, my sister used to do it. It takes a lot to be good at it. Just because it looks easy does not make it easy. The fact that it looks so easy probably is indicative of a lot of work and training.

More to the point, do I actually care if chess is a sport or not? NO.

[Aulayna]

There are no olympic winter mind sports.

It's a damn board game.

Except the International Olympic Committee classifies it as a sport.

Chess Olympiad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

e: aulayna you gotta be freaking kidding me this is almost as bad as the soup thing

You mean that soup thing where I agreed with the majority? How bad of me.

Do you bums have anything to talk about besides inane semantic arguments? Like, what are you going to d o this weekend? Anyways, I'm thirsty. Gonna go grab myself a cup of soup and maybe a can of soda too! (<---- that's an exclamation point, by the way)

Pretty much why I don't bother with EoEO - though it is comedy gold sometimes watching people getting their knickers in a twist over the meanings of a word and frolicking in endless roundabout arguments over it.

The precise definition of what separates a sport from other leisure activities varies between sources, with no universally agreed definition. The closest to an international agreement on a definition is provided by SportAccord, which is the association for all the largest international sports federations (including association football, athletics, cycling, tennis, equestrian sports and more), and is therefore the de facto representative of international sport.SportAccord uses the following criteria, determining that a sport should:[1]

• have an element of competition
• be in no way harmful to any living creature
• not rely on equipment provided by a single supplier (excluding proprietary games such as arena football)
• not rely on any 'luck' element specifically designed in to the sport

They also recognise that sport can be primarily physical (such as rugby or athletics), primarily mind (such as chess or go), predominantly motorised (such as Formula 1 or powerboating), primarily co-ordination (such as billiard sports) or primarily animal supported (such as equestrian sport).[1]
There has been an increase in the application of the term 'sport' to a wider set of non-physical challenges such as electronic sports, especially due to the large scale of participation and organised competition, but these are not widely recognised by mainstream sports organisations.

End of Thread.