Chess IS a Sport

[gentile]

That's right. I said it.

 

[MaRdYC26]

Your wrong.

 

[the_pestilence]

how is it a sport? and can a mod move this to normal off topic?how can something be a sport when there's no physical excercise and the #2 ranked all time player is a robot

 

[gentile]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (tHe_pEsTiLeNcE @ Mar 31 2007, 07:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>how is it a sport? and can a mod move this to normal off topic?how can something be a sport when there's no physical excercise and the #2 ranked all time player is a robot</div>A mod can move this to normal off-topic. But I'm pretty sure this is gonna be a debate.Deep Blue is dope. Deep Blue was a marketing ploy and a test by a computer/programming company to make money. But a machine could beat Ben Johnson in a footrace if it were allowed and be number one. And using your brain is physical exercise. Lookit, chess isn't really a game the way it's played today. You yourself referred to rankings. What mere game has rankings?

 

[the_pestilence]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gentile @ Mar 31 2007, 04:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>A mod can move this to normal off-topic. But I'm pretty sure this is gonna be a debate.Deep Blue is dope. Deep Blue was a marketing ploy and a test by a computer/programming company to make money. But a machine could beat Ben Johnson in a footrace if it were allowed and be number one. And using your brain is physical exercise. Lookit, chess isn't really a game the way it's played today. You yourself referred to rankings. What mere game has rankings?</div>howabout academics? Are those sports? Because they have rankings (all academic first, second, third team), allstar teams (honor roll), Valedictorians and Salutarians (MVPs), stats (GPA, units, APs, etc), national competitions (otter bowl, science bowl, spelling bees, Model UN, etc), and so on. If you classify chess as a sport than what isn't?

 

[redneck]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>And using your brain is physical exercise.</div>Than why are most nerds fat?and no, Chess is a game not a sport.

 

[Something-To-Say]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gentile @ Mar 31 2007, 04:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>And using your brain is physical exercise.</div>

:laughin1: :HAHAHA: :HAHAHA: :HAHAHA:

 

[CelticBalla32]

If chess is a sport, then so is Candy Land. It's much closer to a board game than a sport.

 

[Justice]

Using your brain is a electrochemical process, not exercise (although exercise is a result of electrochemical processes).Sports not only require competitiveness, but also hand-eye coordination, physical skills, etc. A person with no hands could still play chess.

 

[CB4allstar]

So all board games are sports? Chess does not require any pysical exercise at all.....There is a difference between a non-sport game and a regular sport. I don't think you can really see the difference here...

 

[gentile]

I expected to take heat for starting this thread like I did. You guys did not disappoint. I'll attempt to address each of your points respectively.-All board games are not sports. You have absolutely no chance to beat, say, Anatoly Karpov or even a guy at master level at chess. But if you sit down and Monopoly or Candyland with anybody you can compete; there is a huge element of luck involved. Play poker with professional Phil Ivey (I know, it's a card game, but it's still on ESPN), you still might not lose your shirt. But in chess, as in other sports, the levels of competition are extremely segregated. Imagine yourself taking Kobe on one-on-one. Or a college tennis or golf player. They'll stick a fork in you.-Academic bowls and spelling bees are likewise deficient in the sports argument in my view not only because of the luck of the draw element in questions asked, but because of the overwhelming presence of moderators. I'm cynical because it is also easier to fix these competitions, not by paying somebody to take a dive, but by coordinating answers with contestants. The moderators would have to be beyond reproach. A weak comparison with chess. As a matter of fact, chess doesn't even need referees to make calls. In this way, chess is more pure than most sports.-That was a very redneck thing to say about nerds being fat. Fitness is acknowledged as integral to grandmaster level chess. There hasn't been a fat World Champion since Petrosian in the early seventies. And there was only one before him.-Justice has made a very good point that I cannot directly refute. However, a good game of chess will increase your cardiovascular activity to levels similar to exercise. Calories will burn. But that doesn't really matter. Chess makes up for this lack of necessary hand-eye coordination with it's purity. No referees making bad calls, or ending the fight, and the huge gap between professional players and neophytes. Or between grandmasters and masters for that matter. No other sport can brag of such complex purity. Let's call it a sport for your mind. It's beyond any board game.

 

[the_pestilence]

-All board games are not sports. You have absolutely no chance to beat, say, Anatoly Karpov or even a guy at master level at chess. But if you sit down and Monopoly or Candyland with anybody you can compete; there is a huge element of luck involved. Play poker with professional Phil Ivey (I know, it's a card game, but it's still on ESPN), you still might not lose your shirt. But in chess, as in other sports, the levels of competition are extremely segregated. Imagine yourself taking Kobe on one-on-one. Or a college tennis or golf player. They'll stick a fork in you.

you happened to name games involving a lot of luck to prove your point, but what of Stratego, and Boggle as just two examples. Those games entail no luck factor and you will rarely beat a superior player.

-Academic bowls and spelling bees are likewise deficient in the sports argument in my view not only because of the luck of the draw element in questions asked, but because of the overwhelming presence of moderators. I'm cynical because it is also easier to fix these competitions, not by paying somebody to take a dive, but by coordinating answers with contestants. The moderators would have to be beyond reproach. A weak comparison with chess. As a matter of fact, chess doesn't even need referees to make calls. In this way, chess is more pure than most sports.

Does the "overwhelming presence of moderators" mean that basketball is not a sport? Baseball? Football? Those sports often have no more moderator influence than an academic bowl.

-That was a very redneck thing to say about nerds being fat. Fitness is acknowledged as integral to grandmaster level chess. There hasn't been a fat World Champion since Petrosian in the early seventies. And there was only one before him.

Not that I agree with redneck at all, but just to add some fodder, there have only been 16 undisputed chess champions and if only two of them were fat, that's well within the norm of average people taken of the street from 1886 to 2006.

-Justice has made a very good point that I cannot directly refute. However, a good game of chess will increase your cardiovascular activity to levels similar to exercise. Calories will burn. But that doesn't really matter. Chess makes up for this lack of necessary hand-eye coordination with it's purity. No referees making bad calls, or ending the fight, and the huge gap between professional players and neophytes. Or between grandmasters and masters for that matter. No other sport can brag of such complex purity. Let's call it a sport for your mind. It's beyond any board game.

First of all, washing dishes is both pure and it burns more calories than chess. Does that make it a sport?Second of all, purity has nothing to do with whether or not something's a sport. Here are the princeton definitions of sport:an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competitionthe occupation of athletes who compete for payit doesn't say "when lack of physical exertion is present other than anecdotal cardiovascular activity, it can be replaced with purity"The bottom line is, if the game "Go" had the same infrastructure worldwide as chess, would it be a sport? "Go" is a similar level of complexity and can similarly identify prodigies. It is similarly an even playing field every game.

 

[yankshater213]

chess is for homoshomos dont play sportschess is not a sport.

 

[gentile]

Pestilence. Washing dishes? Really? C'mon man. Skill, strategy, an well-established organized body, and the best players in the world competing? No way. Now I didn't bring up other board games. But I did address them, even if it was pretty broad. I love Stratego and rarely get beaten, but there are no formal Stratego grandmasters that I've heard about, and Stratego requires much less preparation and concentration to play at a high level. Any ten year old will always have a chance to beat a good player when the Marshall runs into a bomb, for Christ sake.As far as what you said about moderators and football or basketball, officiating is much more limited in those sports than spelling bees or academic bowls, where they toss you questions already made out. In most sports, it's supposed to be up to and between the competition, even though refs frequently screw it up, which doesn't happen in chess.Point well taken with "Go."

 

[gentile]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (yankshater213 @ Apr 1 2007, 01:06 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>chess is for homoshomos dont play sportschess is not a sport.</div>Don't ever read Freud. His theory about reaction formation might eject you from the closet before you're ready.

 

[Combs]

Typical Gentile topic!!I see what you're saying. I'd be more inclined to put Chess in a class of it's own though maybe.People have almost started calling Poker a sport. Now, Chess is 100X more of a sport then Poker is. But really, though I see your points..and they are good ones considering the lunacy of this thread, but IMO you need physical activity for it to be a sport. Sitting in a chair and thinking, while may require a tremendous about of skill, shouldn't be considered a sport.

 

[gentile]

/\The lack of physical activity does seem to be the one big point I can't negotiate, Combs. The best I can do is say that thinking is a physical activity.Recently, the IOC and FIDE tried to get chess into the Olympics, after Britain labeled chess a sport. The only thing that stopped them was the bureaucratic wrangling over drug testing and playing for your country.

 

[Something-To-Say]

<span style="font-size:36pt;line-height:100%">SCRABBLE FTW!!!!!!!!</span>

 

[the_pestilence]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Washing dishes? Really? C'mon man. Skill, strategy, an well-established organized body, and the best players in the world competing? No way.</div>I just said it involves more exertion<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Now I didn't bring up other board games. But I did address them, even if it was pretty broad. I love Stratego and rarely get beaten, but there are no formal Stratego grandmasters that I've heard about, and Stratego requires much less preparation and concentration to play at a high level.</div>yes, but that's because there's nobody out there practicing all day to become a stratego grandmaster, whereas there are in chess.<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>As far as what you said about moderators and football or basketball, officiating is much more limited in those sports than spelling bees or academic bowls, where they toss you questions already made out. In most sports, it's supposed to be up to and between the competition, even though refs frequently screw it up, which doesn't happen in chess.</div>I would argue that in math, science, and UN competitions it is an even playing field as you're addressing the same questions/topics

 

[MaRdYC26]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Something-To-Say @ Apr 1 2007, 05:04 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><span style="font-size:36pt;line-height:100%">SCRABBLE FTW!!!!!!!!</span></div>LMAO.just bought a cadillac...ima throw some d's on that bi*ch is that a sport?

 

[ASUFan22]

Gentile, do you wear a letterman jacket like one of the extremely fat chess players at my school does?

 

[gentile]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (ASUFan22 @ Apr 1 2007, 07:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Gentile, do you wear a letterman jacket like one of the extremely fat chess players at my school does?</div>Nice. Naw, man. I got a track letter in high school.

 

[ASUFan22]

It's pretty cool though. It has the knight's head on it.

 

[Justice]

I imagine that four or five hours of sleep would burn more calories than an important game of chess would.

 

[Something-To-Say]

Is sex a sport then?

 

[Combs]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Something-To-Say @ Apr 2 2007, 01:16 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>Is sex a sport then?</div>I would seriously almost have to say it could very well be.

 

[gentile]

*grumble, grumble* If f*cking figure skating is a sport with completely subjective jugdes, I don't see what the beef is with the royal game... Punks.

 

[the_pestilence]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (gentile @ Apr 2 2007, 08:00 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>*grumble, grumble* If f*cking figure skating is a sport with completely subjective jugdes, I don't see what the beef is with the royal game... Punks.</div>The beef is that there is no exercise therefore it isn't a sport. Period. Difficult to play well? Yes. Competitive? Yes. A sport? No.

 

[BrewCityBuck]

Taking a sh*t is more of a sport than playing chess, give me a freaking break. Sitting in a chair and thinking about your next move is called playing a stupid board game, not playing a sport.Your actually implying that if figure skating is a sport than chess should be? Are you serious or is this whole topic just a big April Fools joke?

 

[gentile]

Naw. I'm saying that chess is so distinctive. It's actually beyond most sports when it comes to serious competition. There is zero element of luck, no moderators, judges, or refs to f*ck up the purity of the game. It's the truest form of mano y mano other than a street fight or cage match. The distinction in competition is tremendous.I conceded the point on physical exertion, but damn, give me something.