Is chess a sport or a board game?
Is chess a sport or a board game? In June 1999, the International Olympic Committee recognized chess as a sport. Since then the International Chess Federation (FIDE) has been working so that the next step is to make it an Olympic sport. Traditionally, when the IOC officially recognizes a new sport (that is, since it formally recognizes the International Federation that regulates it), seven years pass until its inclusion in the Olympic Games is considered. It is also tradition that there is an exhibition in the following Olympic Games (chess had its exhibition in Sydney, but aware that it was not going to be a matter of arriving and kissing the Saint). Both the Athens and Beijing Olympics were too close (think of the organization, not the year of celebration) to try to get your head in, so the first decade of the 21st century was ruled out from the first moment - which which did not prevent FIDE from opening a delegation in Lausanne to lobby, which is how the inclusion of a sport in the Olympic grid is worked on. The International Federation tried in 2012 with the London Games and then in 2016 with Rio de Janeiro, but when it began to make serious efforts it was in the organization of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (postponed due to the pandemic derived from Covid-19, at the moment, as of July 2021), first, and with Paris 2024 (which will no longer be in 2024), later. With Tokyo (where new sports such as surfing, climbing or skateboarding are incorporated) he had no chance and with the Paris Games the flame of hope lives on.
Although it is officially considered a sport, however the debate on whether it is a sport or not, and also whether or not it should enter the Olympic Games, is still open. A sport is supposed to be an athletic activity requiring physical skill or skill, an activity involving physical effort and skill in which an individual or group of individuals compete against another or others for entertainment. And it is from these definitions where the debate is generated (well, then there are the haters who fill their mouths with bile attacking the economic interests behind including a sport as Olympic). The comments on this article should be the best example (and this, be careful, I write it before it is published) of the debate. Those who deny that it is a sport allege, basically, that no physical effort is required to practice chess - this is the argument that the IOC unofficially maintains for not making it Olympic - and that there is no athletics anywhere, which is undeniable, but They lose sight of the fact that 600 million people around the world practice it (compared to the million and a half of curling, which does not require brutal physical exercise either) and they completely forget its competitive nature.
Another common criticism of sport is the difficulty of maintaining interest in a televised broadcast. This should not be a criticism. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is aware of the length of some of the games, and therefore what it has requested is that faster formats of traditional chess, called rapid and blitz, be included in the Games. The Queen's Gambit series, for example, has shown that the general public can become interested in gambling if it is in small doses.
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Chess players remember that chess has its own Olympiads every two years and that is more than enough. So the question, really, is: Would greater exposure to the general public through the Olympic Games really benefit chess? Would it attract more fans to the practice of this sport as a television series seems to have achieved (it is impossible to determine its reach beyond a fad that may be fleeting)? Would you get more public funding to promote yourself?
