Recognition for Chess in Scotland

[Hugh Brechin]

This is essentially the point Hugh is making. So does that make snooker or darts a sport?

I do not see darts as a sport yet I think archery is!

Yup. There are sizeable grey areas here - for what it's worth, my definition seems to suggest that snooker and darts are sports, and I'm inclined to argue that they are, but I know a lot of people disagree. I've said before that words like 'sport' are defined in different ways in the minds of different people, as well as varying in definition between different cultures and languages, so there's scope for debate there.

I think things are simpler when it comes to chess. As has been stated earlier in this thread, whatever some of us might argue, chess simply isn't perceived as a sport by the average man on a Scottish street. We're talking about how best to achieve the level of funding that we believe the pursuit deserves, and I don't think that would be best served by straining every sinew to ensure that we're in direct competition with football, athletics and cycling for a dwindling supply of funding allocated by former Olympic athletes. Again, I'm repeating myself from the old board here, but to emphasise the aspects of chess which it shares with sports - which do exist - undermines what I find authentically brilliant about the game, which is its status as a pure mental contest. I think there's much more future in making that case.