Thursday 30 August 2007

Is Chess a Sport?

In Australia the answer is clearly no. This is both for administrative reasons (not recognised by the government as a sport) and cultural reasons (not enough sweating to qualify).
But for most of the world the answer clearly is yes.
Now I'm not going to get into the whys and wherefores of the issue, just to note that FIDE is a member of the International Olympic Committee, while the International Cricket Council is not. Although they are trying to change that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It all depends on where the money is. For the high profile "sweating" sports, especially those which are televised in this country, that is where it is at. Chess just does not rank in that regard. The Rabbitos draw more interest from the populace.

Raises an interesting question. If they get to the Grand Final (like Yeah?)and there is a really good chess comp on the same day which would you choose? Yep, same answer as most: "Go the Rabbitos."

Phil Willis said...

If the amount of sweating was the only criteria to classify chess as a sport, I can assure you that based on my own experience, it would definitely qualify!