Is chess a game or a sport?
I am sure you have all had the conversation with your friends, is chess a sport or a game? This may of course depend on who you are playing against; if it is just a friendly match with your uncle or sibling, than sure – the match you are playing can be seen as a game. But as soon as you are playing in a tournament – whether it is school against school, or an individual championship – I believe chess should be looked at as a sport.
In the seventies and eighties, the Australian Government had chess classified as a sport. Funding for the game was allocated from the sports budget and chess was played by many. Since the removal of its status as a sport, numbers appear to have declined and funding is harder to find. Around the world, the opinions are also divided; the countries that have embraced chess in their curriculum are those that often have chess recognised as a sport, while other countries offer it as a game.
Chess was accepted as a sport by the International Olympic Committee in 1999 and the world chess body FIDE has been dreaming of having chess included at the Olympic Games. FIDE’s controversial President Kirsan Iljumzhinov has put in another bid for chess to be included in the 2024 winter games (Paris), with the idea of playing a blitz tournament with pieces made out of ice for it to classify as a winter sport. GM Ian Rogers wrote a blog about this recently: http://gardinerchess.com.au/gm-rogers-iljumzhinovs-olympic-games/
But the exclusion from the Olympics does not stop the chess community, since 1924 every two years they host their own Olympiad, where teams of 4 and 5 from around the world compete against each other. This highly respected tournament sees all the top players play for their country and coverage of the 10 day spectacle is almost as large as that of the Olympics. Last year, Australia did incredibly well and came 31st out of the 150 teams in the Open tournament and the Women’s teams came 32nd from 136 teams.
Most people consider a game to be a sport when it includes physical exertion, like running, and they can’t imagine a game whereby you sit still for 6 hours could be considered a sport. What most people may not realise is that thinking for 6 hours at this level will have your brain use as much energy as your muscles would need to run a marathon. Most chess players loose a fair bit of weight during a game, because their brain consumes so much energy. And these chess players keep this in mind with pending tournaments, by keeping to a strict diet and exercise routine, just like any athlete does.
I guess in the end it all comes down to how you perceive the activity. If you play a game of footy with your friends, are you participating in sport or are you just having a game? If you play tennis with your sister, are you playing a game or a sport? Overall I think it is important that if you are playing chess, it is important that you need to take it as serious as you can!