18-10-2012, 06:34 PM
"...I think the entire ‘Chess as a Sport’ movement is completely misguided. Chess certainly has the competitive qualities of a sport, and physical fitness plays a role in maintaining concentration for long periods, but the lack of any physical skill or technique disqualifies it from the accepted definition of a sport as it is understood by virtually everyone who isn’t a chess player with a vested interest. The game has enough positive qualities to be promoted on its own merits, without resorting to questionable semantic trickery.
As far as I’m concerned, chess is an absolutely wonderful game and it fully deserves the kind of funding afforded to other mainstream sports. However, instead of attempting to have it reclassified as something it isn’t, I think it would be much more sensible to campaign for ‘Mind-Sports’ such as chess to be recognised alongside sports and arts as something beneficial to society which should qualify for similar funding. It seems to me that this is much more sensible and would maintain credibility in a way that the ‘Chess as a Sport’ argument does not."
IM Andrew Greet interview BCM
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk/the-andrew-greet-interview/">http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk/t ... interview/</a><!-- m -->
As far as I’m concerned, chess is an absolutely wonderful game and it fully deserves the kind of funding afforded to other mainstream sports. However, instead of attempting to have it reclassified as something it isn’t, I think it would be much more sensible to campaign for ‘Mind-Sports’ such as chess to be recognised alongside sports and arts as something beneficial to society which should qualify for similar funding. It seems to me that this is much more sensible and would maintain credibility in a way that the ‘Chess as a Sport’ argument does not."
IM Andrew Greet interview BCM
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk/the-andrew-greet-interview/">http://www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk/t ... interview/</a><!-- m -->