Chess tournaments are organized and regulated like any other sport, with players competing against one another to win prizes and gain recognition. Chess players are also subject to doping regulations and must follow a code of conduct. In fact, some chess players have even lost weight during tournaments due to mental strain. Chess players do not need to be physically fit, nor do they need to have any athletic ability. This lack of physicality is a major reason why some argue that chess is not a sport.

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And it’s competitive, so it’s an e-sport,” he told Reuters. The popularity of the 1,500-year-old game has skyrocketed in recent years, with 711 million games played on the biggest platform in the world last month, a 726 per cent surge from seven years ago following a huge bump during the Covid-19 pandemic. “The online events we have run in many ways, I would argue, have been the only e-sports gig in town for chess for years,” Danny Rensch, chief chess officer at Chess.com, told Reuters. “To perform in a video game, you need to click faster and look at this now make quick good decisions. There’s a similarity with chess and we’ve been interested (in signing a top chess player) for a while,” Nicolas Maurer, the founder of Team Vitality, told Reuters. PARIS – Chess is getting ready to make its foray into e-sports with teams recruiting top players ahead of this summer’s Esports World Cup (EWC), hoping to attract new audiences as the game continues to grow in spectacular fashion.

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Time controls are also enforced in correspondence chess competitions. Time is usually alloted per move in online correspondence chess. Chess players must also adhere to strict rules when playing against opponents.

• With the hype of the first American World Champion since the Legendary Bobby Fischer, it does not seem that crazy to think about that possibility.
• Chess.com, the largest chess website in the world, will be the official platform for the tournament in Saudi Arabia, bringing years of experience in organising online events.
• At its core, the game revolves around the central objective of achieving checkmate against the opposing king.
• It was refreshing to watch a competition which rewarded strategic smart thinking, rather than backstabbing, attention-seeking or Spandex-clad physical feats.
• In football or basketball, you get better when you get into shape.

9 As usual when things become institutionalized, certain people are pushing their own agenda. If you can enhance your performance by improving your physical condition, it is a sport. In football or basketball, you get better when you get into shape.

From 1951 to 1968, all World Champions and their challengers were from the Soviet Union. In fact, Moscow was the host for all the championship matches. While there is no set-in-stone definition for sport, most sources agree that it is “an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment”. Some definitions also include a set of rules as a characteristic of sports.

French grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, the 2021 blitz world champion, signed a one-year deal with European powerhouse Team Vitality, one of 10 Esports teams to feature at least a chess player in their roster. To counteract the game’s geeky image, producers ramped up the theatrics. Chess was billed as “the king of games” and “war on a board”. Players were given gladiatorial nicknames such as ”Killer Queen” and “Smiling Assassin”.

A sport is routinely known as an activity involving physical excursion and skill where an individual or a team competes against others. By this definition, chess does not fit the criteria of a sport, as it does not involve physical exertion. Chess players are very fond of explaining that chess is physically exhausting. While chess does not obviously use physical exertion like basketball, football or soccer, chess, the physical exertion stems from the mental exertion from playing.

Just imagine Fabiano Caruana winning the World Championship title before the 2028 games in Los Angeles. With the hype of the first American World Champion since the Legendary Bobby Fischer, it does not seem that crazy to think about that possibility. And because the country holding the Olympic games can choose some sports to be part of, there is still a slim chance. Even if you know you should hit a long-line shot in Tennis, chances are you miss it.