Mind Sports :: essays research papers

It seems al just about like an oxymoron to combine the words mind and sport specially when the "sport" under consideration is rig. It is difficult to picture the zippy as a sport when the more or less physical activity it seems to require is moving the pieces across the board. Recently, though, the Olympic committee voted chess legal for competition in "The Games." This acknowledgment of chess as a sport by such(prenominal) a high council requires us to rethink our view of chess and athletics.      Although chess does not appear to require as much activity as most recognizable sports, it does require as much, if not more(prenominal), preparation and time. A study done at Temple University found that chess drains cogency at a rate that compares to football. Some of the best chess role players in history regarded athletic training as an essential part of mastery in the halting. Both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov lifted weights. They us ed other physical teach techniques as well, not necessarily for their health, but because of the amount of stamina the game requires at high levels of competition. It is not uncommon for a professional player to lose 10 to 15 pounds during the course of a match. Matches can buy the farm as long as a month, with one game both day, eight hours each.     Over 120 countries officially consider chess a sport. The Unites States is not one of them. That may be because we seem to have a very narrow-minded view of what exactly a sport is. hold all random person if chess should be considered a sport, and the most likely response will be hysterical laughter, yet more people play chess competitively than any other game in the world, and more books have been published on chess than any other subject. Most of those players and authors firmly believe that chess is harder to be redeeming(prenominal) at than any other game or sport. The thought of chess as a sport probably just never occurred to most people.     Playing in a chess tournament is akin to taking a establish that has not been studied for but that will get back some amour important, except that chess also has the added problem of time. Imagine taking that test with a time limit, like the SATs for example, but that the quantify that is keeping the time gives off a faint ticking sound. In a large room that is completely silent the only thing audible will be that noise, it is extremely nerve-racking for any untried tournament player.