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June 21, 2007

Is chess a sport?

In my humble opinion — yes!

The definition of sport (n.) is: "a physical activity involving large muscle groups, requiring strategic methods, physical training and mental preparation and whose outcome is determined, within a rules framework, by skill, not chance." I just love those words: skill, not chance.

That's right! Chess is all about skill with no chance involved. Maybe a little luck, but dumb moves are made by woodpushers and patzers!

Major sporting events take concentration and and strategy, kind of like, um, uh, chess — but with just a few differences. With baseball there's a lot of running; with chess there's pacing. Wiith basketball there's the 24-second shot clock. With chess there's staring...and staring at the chessboard, and the game can go on for over six hours! With NASCAR there's a cheering crowd. With chess, there's silence. With golf, well, I don't have any analogies for that sport.

So, is chess a cool sport or what?

Posted by rene on 3:47 PM | Comments (0)