Saturday, March 12, 2005

More on chess as a sport

Here's another perspective to add to the Great Goldowsky- Monokroussos-Rakshasas Debate. Fire away!

Slate Magazine asks the question "Is Math a Sport? ". Along the way they conclude that chess is not a sport, but chessboxing probably is.
The philosopher Bernard Suits defines a sport as a game that meets the following four criteria: "(1) that the game be a game of skill; (2) that the skill be physical; (3) that the game have a wide following; and (4) that the following achieve a certain level of stability."

The first condition excludes Russian roulette; the second eliminates math, chess, spelling, and bridge; the third and fourth conditions, alas, rule out urinating for distance. Suits' definition is compelling, but difficulties hide not far below the surface. What, for instance, does he mean by "the skill"? All but the most primal sports demand multiple skills, some physical, some not. Maybe one should take 2) to mean "at least one of the skills relevant to the game is physical." In that case, chess boxing, in which competitors engage in pugilism and speed chess in alternate rounds, makes the cut.
So apparently Canadian IM Michael Schleifer was trying to combine two non-sports to create a new sport.

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