Are chess players athletes?
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The question is anything but. You, like most others I have met online and in person, refuse to stoop so low as to call a chess player an athlete, regardless of his/her skill at the game. Even the best players that ever lived. Would they be considered athletes? ANY sport you can think of the best ever would b considered an athlete. This question just points out the craziness of trying to equate chess to sport.
And regardless of why some people here say, definitions of words ARE what is used to determine a words meaning. If a 1st grade student is given a picture of a chair and then asked what it is he cannot say "Rottweiler" an expect to be considered correct.
Where's TurdBoy gone?
Athletes run, jump and throw.
Chess players can be athletes and athletes can be chess players, but they're completely unrelated.
Mar 5, 2012
0
#45
AndTheLittleOneSaid wrote:
Athletes run, jump and throw.
Chess players can be athletes and athletes can be chess players, but they're completely unrelated.
Thus we can exclude those who participate in the Olympic games of downhill skiing, bobsled racing, swimming, ...
Mar 5, 2012
0
#46
LordNazgul wrote:
Well, it's possible that definitions vary across languages. Over here, we don't use athletics and sports as synonyms, eg running or jumping would be identified as athletics while soccer or tennis would be identified as sports. Perhaps in American English they are more nearly synonymous. No doubt soccer or tennis players are generally fit physically, but there is a set of sports-specific skills. If you look at Federer or Jokovic, sure they are fit, but every second guy who frequents the gym is more "ripped" than they are.
In American English, football is a sport in which only one player uses his feet. I wouldn't look there for a sensible solution.
Ziryab wrote:
AndTheLittleOneSaid wrote:
Athletes run, jump and throw.
Chess players can be athletes and athletes can be chess players, but they're completely unrelated.
Thus we can exclude those who participate in the Olympic games of downhill skiing, bobsled racing, swimming, ...
I would. I doubt there is a strict definition (hence discussions like this), but athlete to me means track & field only.
The definition of a word is not determined by the dictionairy, it is determined by common usage. The dictionary definition is itself determined by common usage. If a word is used to mean something often enough by enough people, the dictionary will change eventuially to reflect that. Words like "gay" and "cool" have changed in one meaning over the years because of everyday use. If you get away from chessplayers for one minute and ask anybody walking down the street if chess is a sport they will say "of course not", if you ask them if chessplaying in itself makes you an athlete they will say "of course not", and everybody on this site knows it regardless of what sophist, sematic games they want to play.
What the hell "street talk" are you talking about? I don't care how "big and strong" you are as long as you stay in Montenegro, whereever the hell that is. 
Yes! Claiming people on the street would not consider chess a sport is SO rude. Look out. You might offend the big guy. I don't care HOW big you are, I'd love to see you try to argue this topic to some of my friends who are college athletes. I've been trying to get chess players to do tht for a while but so far no takers
Peedee wrote:
Yes! Claiming people on the street would not consider chess a sport is SO rude. Look out. You might offend the big guy. I don't care HOW big you are, I'd love to see you try to argue this topic to some of my friends who are college athletes. I've been trying to get chess players to do tht for a while but so far no takers
!!!
It's a very LUDICROUS argument.
Well, maybe chess would be recognized as a sport if chessers started wearing athletic uniforms:
chubbychocobo wrote:
false logic. excluding rugby does not make it not a sport ...
Actually in these parts rugby isn't really a sport - it's a religion. It's like the whole mood of the nation depends on the success or otherwise of the rugby team.
To paraphrase Karl Marx, sport is the opium of the masses.
Somehow, I can never envisage chess having this effect 
Sounds like American football in Texas.
Where's TurdBoy?
Only if the chess pieces way at least 200 pounds.
woodshover wrote:
Only if the chess pieces way at least 200 pounds.
How about 1/0 bullet OTB? Play this for a few hours and tell me you're not physically exhausted
madhacker wrote:
woodshover wrote:
Only if the chess pieces way at least 200 pounds.
How about 1/0 bullet OTB? Play this for a few hours and tell me you're not physically exhausted
I guess then the pieces need only weigh 10 pounds.
chubbychocobo wrote:
Peedee wrote:
Even the hardcore "chess is a sport" people will not go so far as to call chess players athletes.
http://www.thechessdrum.net/newsbriefs/2004/NB_Ashley5.html
& don't forget to catch the chessathlon at
http://ladiagonaledusud.free.fr/fresh/docs/ECM_Chessathlon_2011-2012.pdf
remember, me messenger & u not spartan, ok?