Why chess actually is a sport
by The Journal
December 11, 2012
By Josh Coppenbarger and Haley Luke
Susan Polgar said she first became interested in chess at the age of 4. She said the shapes of the pieces intrigued her.
“I was very fortunate that my father was an excellent teacher and he explained the game as a fairy tale and as a fun thing even for a young girl to do,” Polgar said.
Polgar is now a chess grandmaster and the director of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence (SPICE) and chess coach at Webster University. Polgar believes chess is a sport.
Tony Rich, the executive director of the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, sits on committee’s of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and is working to make chess part of the Olympics.
“When you see players competing in top level events, they are true athletes in every sense of the word,” Rich said.
Currently, the International Olympic committee recognizes chess as a sport, which Rich said is a huge step forward in making chess part of the Olympic games. The committee reviewed it in 1999 and finalized it in 2008.
Chess Olympiads have been played since 1927, but are held separately from the true Olympics. Chess is lumped together with other “mind sports,” like checkers and bridge, Rich said.
What makes chess stand out as a sport are three aspects: competition, skill and athleticism.
Chess is a sport with clearly defined rules and regulations and there can only be one winner in the end. It takes a lot of training, practices and discipline to become a high level competitor. It’s not only a mentally draining sport, but physically as well. A chess game can go on for hours. Polgar said she’s played a game of chess for 14 hours straight.
Why chess actually is a sport
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
This is yet another example of people or organizations taking too many liberties (for whatever reason) with existing words. In UK at moment some are trying to redefine ‘marriage’. The ‘Turner Prize’ is supposed to be ‘art’.
A ‘sport’ is where physical action is required with bodily exertion, where there is a possibility of injury either while doing or training or where doping may be physically beneficial – eg obviously as in cycling but also in snooker to control heartbeat therefore steadiness. (Not condoning this!)
The article’s ‘aspects’ for a sport are equally applicable to cooking competitions! Or playing ‘Twister’! Or knitting. Look forward to seeing them all in ‘olympics’. It is quite clear that many chessplayers are about as ‘athletic’ as a gnat’s kneecap.
I suggest that people forget trying to strain word meanings of ‘sport’ or ‘game’ and instead consider chess as belonging to a new category (as yet unnamed – suggestions welcome!) also to subsume Go, Bridge, etc.
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The reason why many are pushing to have chess recognized as a sport is not just some semantics argument. Many governments provide funding for sports- if chess is recognized as a sport then it will have access to such funding.
I tend to agree with the first comment, but a sport also requires some level of dexterity and that’s what makes snooker a sport, not really to control heartbeat which could vaguely be argued for chess as well. It’s the physics.
Nobody plays chess for the physical stamina element of it. “I was able to physically sit in a chair for more hours than you were!”. Keeping up concentration is not something physical, being fit helps but you can say that about any performance in anything.
I don’t know why people want it to be called a sport, there’s nothing inherently good about a sport that’s not good about a game. Chess is no more a sport than debating, quizzes or taking an exam is a sport. A sport is something physical in nature.