Should games like poker and chess be counted as sports?

[Hoggy31]

Would love to see Poker in the olympics, epic viewing.

 

[cricketboy29]

So scrabble, Worlds of Warcraft, playing a musical instrument, and baking are all sports?

No way are either poker or chess sports. They are games. That doesn't denigrate the skill of the people who play them, but that skill and effort no more makes them a sport than it makes them art.

You can be a professional WOW player?

 

[David]

Read it as 'Should games like poker and chess be combat sports?' Not my day today.

 

[Johnners]

You can be a professional WOW player?

World of Warcraft: Professional WoW Players - Yes It's True | SK Gaming

 

[Trumpers_Ghost]

I'm very much of the opinion that a "game" needs to require the aplication of physical skills in order to be classed as a sport.

Therefore chess and poker (games that I love to play and consider to be very mentally challenging) are not sports. They fail the Stephen Hawking test (ie. Any game that Stephen Hawking could potentially be really good at, are not sports)

 

[andmark]

Your contention doesn't hold water, sorry. Games like Gaelic football, hurling and field hockey are amatuer at the highest level, as was rugby union until 1995. Are we then to say these games aren't sports because the players can't become professional?

So scrabble, Worlds of Warcraft, playing a musical instrument, and baking are all sports?

No way are either poker or chess sports. They are games. That doesn't denigrate the skill of the people who play them, but that skill and effort no more makes them a sport than it makes them art.

Fair enough.

 

[andmark]

Would love to see Poker in the olympics, epic viewing.

USA would run away with it. Maybe to the exception of Canada with Daniel Negreanu.

 

[biased indian]

YouTube - 1st Chessboxing Worldchampionship PT2

 

[Jamee999]

Unless the Poker section of the Olympics was a couple of years long, the winner would just be whoever got luckiest.

 

[sledger]

I watched the Poker Ashes on TV the other day, Warney was lording it over Darren Gough and Rob Key.

 

[Langeveldt]

Do they pass the Stephen Hawking test??

Although I rate Poker as a more worthy sport than say, cycling, where everyone is jacked up to the nines, vegging it up to the eyeballs on all kinds of crap, or sailing, where 0.1% of the population can afford to participate

 

[Neil Pickup]

cycling, where everyone is jacked up to the nines, vegging it up to the eyeballs on all kinds of crap

No one in the world is tested more than a pro cyclist.

 

[GIMH]

Do they pass the Stephen Hawking test??

Although I rate Poker as a more worthy sport than say, cycling, where everyone is jacked up to the nines, vegging it up to the eyeballs on all kinds of crap, or sailing, where 0.1% of the population can afford to participate

It is the activity that defines whether something is a sport, not the participants...

 

[andmark]

To answer this question perfectly, you need to fully understand the definition of the sport. Until there is a definite and correct definition which is completely agreeable, then only then this question can be answered.

 

[marc71178]

Doesn't that therefore render the initial question (and therefore the thread) pointless?

 

[andmark]

Doesn't that therefore render the initial question (and therefore the thread) pointless?

I suppose it does.

 

[sledger]

 

[Agent TBY]

Nothing wrong with pointless threads.

 

[ripper868]

Just had a random thought, should golf be considered a sport? In a similar vein to pool/snooker it may not pass the "can it be played while in a pub/pissed" test. Also similar to pool it is about putting a ball in the hole with a stick. For me on a number of occasions, the Golf course has simply resembled a large beer garden extending from the club house, with many an alchoholic beverage consumed during the round. Is golf therefore a game and not a sport?

 

[Jono]

^ Haha nice. Showed the arbitrary nature of claiming pool isn't a spot because you can play it in a pub.