Is chess a sport? If not, then why not?

[Rob Thompson]

Paul,
I think there is a very base interpretation of what constitutes a sport (which is not necessarily wrong). It basically asserts that there were a number of things that we had to do to survive such as
1. Escape predators
2. Get food (meat)

By and large we do not have to do these things in developed countries any more. However, we still recognise the attributes that made people sucessful at doing these things. We can now compete at them for pleasure and that we call sport.

I think you need to add
3. Wage war
to this list. And then it will be complete. I think more sports come from training for war than hunting

[Richard Bates]

I think more sports come from training for war than hunting

If sport is a substitute/proxy for war, then chess was a sport up to about 1989

The Cold War of course being a war unlike any that had gone before, and chess in many ways being its most appropriate proxy (albeit a battleground self-chosen by the Soviets).

[Paul Griffiths]

Paul,
I think there is a very base interpretation of what constitutes a sport (which is not necessarily wrong). It basically asserts that there were a number of things that we had to do to survive such as
1. Escape predators
2. Get food (meat)

By and large we do not have to do these things in developed countries any more. However, we still recognise the attributes that made people sucessful at doing these things. We can now compete at them for pleasure and that we call sport.

This is a very nice and logical description but the definition of sport is nothing if not slippery and of course there are exceptions like golf or synchronised swimming.

and Richard.... up to 1989? So it depends on where and when I played? So I had 6 months playing chess as a sport in Hong kong in the mid 1980s