Game of Thrones or Sport of Kings?

[steepholm]

I just asked this on FB, but would be interested in opinions here too.

I've never understood why Formula 1 is classed as a sport. Or, if it is, why chess is not so classified, given that both are sedentary activities characterized by periods of sustained concentration. Or, it's a question of quick reactions as well as concentration, why are marathon sessions of Street Fighter 2 played from the comfort of one's sofa not seen as a sporting activity?

Is there a real distinction between sports and games (albeit with the possibility of an intersection between the two sets), or is just a question of historical happenstance which activity acquires which label?

Comments

[cmcmck]

F1 is not sedentary- those guys lose pounds in weight during a race!

[steepholm]

Like a chess match played in a tropical glasshouse, then? (Assuming that they're losing weight through deyhdration rather than through shitting themselves, which would certainly be my condition.)

[cmcmck]

Handling one of those cars is physically demanding- the bikes even more so.

[steepholm]

I wouldn't deny it - but I'm still curious as to why some physically demanding tasks are seen as sports and others not, even when there is an element of competition involved, rules, etc. (Say, a dancing competition.)

[cmcmck]

Well, morris dancing isn't a sport, but I have personal experience of how physically demanding it is! :o)

[kalypso]

It's this generation's take on chariot-racing, isn't it? Which I think has been classified as a sport at least since the Bronze Age.

Part of my mind insists that chess is a sport - at least at the top levels, which I believe require certain levels of physical fitness, despite the sedentary image.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It doesn't directly address your concentration, but F1 also demands some measure of physical strength, stamina and dexterity, being two hours of concentrated driving at the most demanding level - very frequent cornering, overtaking &c

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

This is true. Of course, many things involve those qualities without being considered sports (e.g. being a professional dancer), but perhaps that's part of it. Sport may be a "fuzzy set."

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Dancing on ice is considered a sport; dancing on wood is not. Very strange.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

From what I've heard and seen of it, it's extremely physically demanding to just hold a Formula 1 vehicle on its course and not have it fly about senselessly so that seems kind of sportive but of course, the good old mind is the best sport and doing anything creative the truest sportsmanship of all. I hate games of almost all kinds though I used to be good at some at school, I just can't seem to see the point in fighting imaginary fiends when Real Life is so overfilled with menacing meatspace ones such as drug mafias and their disciples though I guess that's kind of sporty too for they need a well-functioning nervous system but then, so do poets and lovers, ballet dancers and Lippizano horses.
Chess is only fun to watch for the sporty leg-shake most players cannot stop, I used to know a Swedish master of chess who was so extremely boring I had to throw sweets at his head.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

As a spectator sport, F1 seems to consist of long periods of boredom punctuated with short periods of terror - a bit like being in the trenches was said to do. I do enjoy chess as a human drama, though, and wonder in fact whether you wouldn't enjoy this series, though since it's on radio you have to imagine the leg shake.

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Most disconcertingly wonderful, thanks for the link but disturbing as an experience nonetheless for Carlsen looks a lot like my Brotherheart who happens to love chess and used to bring me to play it which I sometimes tried to do just to please and be with him but it only ended with reproach: "you don't really care about losing your figure" which is true in both that sense and the other one Carlsen denies doing either (as a football player) simply saying "fair enough" about not being God-sent, in his humble opinion. I did have to look away to imagine the leg shake and concentrate on what Carlsen said. My brother had to get himself his first chess computer, poor boy, from being tired of his ignorant sisters (our brunette one couldn't be bothered either, probably because Indians from the Wild West did not come into it or onto the board) but soon tired of its limits and built himself another, better one then programmed some more, which is basically what he still does except play EVE, I suspect. He only got good at programming thanks to me, or us, of course, by way of understanding that not every head works the same way and being capable of thinking himself into the position (if you'll excuse yet another boringly blonde pun) of The Other, a rarer meatspace conclusion (not to say "gift") than one would perhaps wish. He also has more money than I do so I can see clearly where I went wrong and that not even in a vintage F1-Ferrari though I'd prefer a skyblue Jaguar (XK 120) anytime. I hate human drama too, did I mention that?

[lilliburlero.livejournal.com]

Strangely enough, this very discussion (sport vs game, rather than F1 vs chess, though chess was the game that sparked the discussion) has just been proceeding in my sitting room. Someone cynically suggested 'marketing strategy.'