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Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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No, a sport must involve some kind of physical activity, Chess is a game. I'll go for some less strenuous activities/games as sports, such as Cornhole, and shuffleboard, even air hockey and billiards, but not chess...and not Poker!
No, a sport must involve some kind of physical activity, Chess is a game. I'll go for some less strenuous activities/games as sports, such as Cornhole, and shuffleboard, even air hockey and billiards, but not chess...and not Poker!
You have to pick up the pieces and move them. That's physical activity. But why does a sport have to involve a physical activity? Why not a mental activity?
I can't believe the IOC sanctioned chess as a sport. There's no physical component at all, unless you count concentration and fatigue from a long game, which I don.t. What's next, poker? I'm still confused as to why ESPN used to show poker all the time (maybe they still do). I like chess and all, but I don't think I could sit there and watch a match or tournament. If they combined power lifting and chess into some sort of biathlon I might be into it.
Next up, Olympic knitting finals, followed buy the Olympic tiddlywink primaries. Maybe Scrabble should be an Olympic "sport". Or crosswords. Or hangman. Vanna could work the Olympics.
I stand with Great Britain. They have been trying to get jousting added to the Olympics for years. Now jousting, THAT is a sport. I would kill to watch Olympic jousting.
Is chess a sport? I would bet most jousting combatants are better at chess than most chess players are at jousting.
Olympics: Include jousting in Games, petition urges
I play tournament chess. I'm not very good but just enjoy the tournaments.
From someone who has played a variety of organized sports in my life, including in college, chess IMHO is not a sport.
I've played too and I think it's so much mental work that it should count. A serious player does get exhausted. Remember the 1st Karpov- Kasparov match?
I've played too and I think it's so much mental work that it should count. A serious player does get exhausted. Remember the 1st Karpov- Kasparov match?
I agree that it can be mentally exhausting.
But along with the mental exhaustion athletes have to deal with the physical exhaustion.
I ended up in the ER once for dehydration after a tennis tournament. Treatment was iv's then gatorade etc.
Never even came close to an ER room after a chess match. Have had to take a couple of Tylenols and strong coffee for my headache after a long game, and I have played those matches that started at 7 pm and ended around 1 am....
I don't consider chess a sport any more than backgammon, go, or monopoly.
But everyone has their opinions.
Some don't think driving a race car is a sport. I get a lot of crap about golf not being a sport either...
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