The sport of kings? Chess makes its debut at Asia’s mini Olympics
DOHA, Qatar: The players wear the same national team uniforms as everybody else. They fought just as hard to get here. And they are doping free. Well, hopefully.
But come on, chess? A sport?
“Chess has been recognized as a sport since 2001 by the International Olympic Committee,” said Khalifa Al-Hetmi, who is president of the Qatar Chess Federation and was instrumental in seeing that it be included in this year’s Asian Games, the continent’s biggest sporting event.
“The Olympic motto is swifter, higher, stronger. I would add ‘smarter,'” he said. “You cannot have a complete man without a brain. That is why humans rule the planet.”
In their effort to see that the first Asian Games ever held in an Arab state also be the biggest ever, Qatar has pushed the envelope regarding what, exactly, qualifies as a sport.
While dozens of the best chess players in Asia were matching wits in a gymnasium at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Club, Asia’s best billiards players were shooting pool across town at the Al-Sadd Sports Club.
Here, it’s called “cue sports.”
And then there’s bowling. That’s not on the Olympic sports program, but it’s been a big draw in Qatar. The bodybuilders are here, too, though not all would agree their discipline is a sport in the strictest sense, either.
Al-Hetmi said it makes perfect sense.
“How many people can own a horse, or a gun?” he said, referring to the Olympic sports of equestrian and shooting. “Or how many people play golf? But chess, anyone can play. Something like 500 million people play chess all over the world.”
Check mate.
Al-Hetmi added that now that chess is on the Asian Games list of medal events, it’s just a matter of time before it makes its Olympic debut.
“Qatar is bidding for the games in 2016, and chess is part of the bid,” he beamed.
The full story can be read here. 
Don’t mean to be a contrarian, but chess in primarily mental while the regular Olympics is for primarily physical sports. I wonder, we have the Winter Olympics, the Summer Olympics so why not the Mental Olympics. There could be competitions for chess, bridge, checkers, go and so on.
sport
–noun 1. an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess and often of a competitive nature
Note “athletic activity” in the definition. Chess is not a sport, it is a game. Get over it.
The most athletic thing a chess player has ever done is Kramnik’s repeated trips to the bathroom.
And save the “it takes stamina to sit at chess board for that long.” No it doesn’t, no more than it takes to sit and watch football all day long. This attempt to call chess a sport is just the attempted revenge of the little geeks who got picked last for dodgeball in school.
Chess not an athletic sport, it is above them, as humans’ advantage is with the mind, not physical, and chess is the ultimate thinking game.
Kasparov is arguably the greatest when comparing with all games/sports considering his 20 years at the top in an age when top players are getting younger and younger- he had to keep very fit.
Molding chess into a “sport” and humiliating our pro-level players by forcing them to take “doping tests” is the mad obsession of a lunatic from the bizarro-world who, having taken control of FIDE, is destroying the honorable traditions of our game. A “sport” by real-world definition, chess is not!
The arrogance of chess players never The arrogance of chess players never ceases to amaze me. “A superior sport.” Please. You play a kids game. Save the mental superiority argument for the other chess losers who believe that crap. If that’s true, maybe you can explain why it is that the greatest chess playing country in the world, Russia, is also home to the most dysfunctional government in the modern world and an economy that is one step away from third-world status. Just how did they lose the cold war to a bunch of Americans who can’t play chess? Easy, chess is not about intelligence, it’s just a game. Let’s face it, any game where the World Championship is reduced to toilet humor is a freaking joke. Get over yourselves, you don’t really matter. When people worldwide recognize poker champs before they recognize chess champs, you know where you stand in the game hierarchy.