What defines a sport?

Chess is considered a sport, while poker isnt, now why is that?
Is there a definition for sports? Should there be one?

This is something that I've also thought about and debated for a long while - due to my passion for video games. I'm a very competitive video gamer, and I believe that video games, under the right circumstances, could be considered a sport. My parents have always disagreed, so we talk it over often.

As for the original post, the only reason why I think Poker isn't a "sport" (which is just my own, honest opinion on the matter) is because there is no team work and no deliberate choices to be made. For example, the poker players are usually just playing for themselves, since alliances are usually discouraged, and the result of the game is entirely based on chance, no matter how well you know the game. It's still a game, however. I never said it wasn't. I just don't think it's a "sport". Get me?

Golf is not nor ever will it be a sport.

Desolous wrote: Golf is not nor ever will it be a sport.

well technically it is, but i personally dont think so

No more than another good walk spoiled, as teddy roosevelt put it.

He who has the money and influence defines the name. Game or sport is based on how much money can be make by the rich and influential.

OH, another thought...

What is the network draw for commercial time worth? Oh yeah, I said that...rich and influential!

Some sports are judged subjectively instead of scored empirically, but as long as its human 'performance' being judged it still seems a sport. This indicates to me that sports need to be about human performance within a framework of rules. When I look at poker firstly there is a large amount of luck integral to the game, but also the human performance seems more like acting then exertion - granted long games would be exhausting too, so perhaps really long games are the sport of poker, while short ones are gambling. Chess on the other hand is a battle of minds with no/low margins of luck and so the performance of chess is actual mental exertion only.

Golf can be such a pain that it seems like playing it is blind luck as well, but they play so many holes in competition (72 holes over 4 days) that it absorbs/removes that influence of luck to get individual results that allow comparison at the end to determine who played better (in theory perhaps).

Its one of the reasons I do not like watching soccer, the scoring is so low and referees so bad that the outcome often seems like its more based on luck - but I wont go so far not to call it a sport LOL, if only because it is a direct physical competition with rules outlining how performance can be applied.
:laugh:

Phortis Nespin wrote:

He who has the money and influence defines the name. Game or sport is based on how much money can be make by the rich and influential.

That is true of Yachting. I work for some wealthy people who seem to think that it is a sport. Same with Polo and Dressage.

I guess whatever floats your boat (I did a pun).

I would say maybe...

Competition based on specific rules and regulations, which requires the participants to pit predominantly their physical capabilities against those of others.

It is difficult though. I can see places where holes could be picked in that and I suspect that you could never form a definition that could not be refuted or disproved in some way.

I would say that a sport is any kind of physical activity that requires skill of any kind to excel at said activity.