Is chess a sport? Ending the debate

I think they're actually called "athletics" not sports

It is! You can lose tens of calories and even punds at a serious chess tournament.

I understand ex drinker's comment but at school we had sports days. I was a very good javelin thrower. I never thought it wasn't a sport. I had a girlfriend and she would win victrix ludorum every year for high jump, long jump and 100 yards. She never trained and the next best girl trained for weeks and couldn't beat her. More like a fun afternoon for her and she felt sorry for her opponents and slightly ashamed. So I'm not really sure she even knew she was doing sports.

being a sport or not, isn't good or bad

it's just a kind of taxonomy

I've been trying to work out how to upload pictures. It used to be no problem but they seem to have changed the rules a few times and I didn't keep up. Sorry for using this as a test bed but someone not on this thread wanted to see this pic. It's the young lady in question circa 1969. The victrix ludorum type.

This is the other thread.

Chess is not a sport. A silly idea that it is a sport, accepted only by the credulous!

Dictionaries document common usage. Or, at least, that’s the claim. But, when the dictionaries ignore the usage of a substantial minority of writers/speakers, their purpose becomes prescriptive instead of descriptive.

but language is alive too. sometimes words change their meaning over time, and it's hard to know why exactly.

the dictionary should follow the language, not try to lead it.

Good dictionaries show all the different meanings of a word, note which are rare or used only in particular circumstances, give obsolete meanings that may be encountered in old writings, and explain the origin of the word.

A lot of disagreements in these forums arise from posters' concerts that only their interpretation of a term can be correct.

That's true. A while ago someone posted a definition of the word sport from a few centuries ago. It said something like "merriment" or "pastime". Back then chess could probably be defined as a sport.

But over time the meanings of words can change. Culture and language change. In the 1700s one could reasonably make the argument that chess could be a sport. But that's not the question. The question, the title of this topic is "Is chess a sport". Not WAS but IS. Present tense.

Currently chess is not a sport. Because we are using current definitions of words and current language and culture. But that could change. Who knows, maybe 300 years from now chess might be a sport.

As you say, cultures make a difference in people's views. In the USSR chess clubs, events and masters' salaries came under the purview of the ministry of sport, so it's only natural that those living in former Soviet republics would consider chess to be a sport.

Did you ever solve your plumbing problem?

Yes. Also yes.

Some people make the mistake of thinking that dictionaries provide answers which are prescriptive, to problems regarding definitions etc.

I didn't. But someone else did. It was just a matter of isolating where the water was going. time consuming, but it worked. It was a sprinkler.

leaking hose?

Or are they fixed, underground, I expect.

Obviously you haven't given any argument as to why you think it's a sport. Actually, nobody who thinks it's a sport gives good arguments but you haven't even tried to give an argument.