Carlsen-Caruana Chess World Championship

[Peter_Spaeth]

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

Sport implies by definition the exertion of muscles, including the muscle between your ears. QED

Furthermore if pawns weighed five hundred pounds each, would it not be a sport?

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Chess is a game. It is not a sport, or quasi-sport, IMO.

We had this exact discussion on the main board, I believe, with regard to the three chess players in the N162 set.

Either way, Polgar's achievement of defeating a reigning male world champion is unique.

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

We had this exact discussion on the main board, I believe, with regard to the three chess players in the N162 set.

Either way, Polgar's achievement of defeating a reigning male world champion is unique.

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

Not without them dawgs.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

Didn't a woman win the Iditerod?

I have no idea.

If so, maybe I should have said Polgar was the first, and not the only.

[frankbmd]

Originally Posted by barrysloate

I have no idea.

If so, maybe I should have said Polgar was the first, and not the only.

Libby Riddles won the 1985 Iditarod followed by the great Susan Butcher who won in 1986, 1987, 1988 and 1990.

Judit Polgar, born in 1976, didn't become a grand master until 1991.

It looks like Polgar was the third, not the first. Sorry, Barry.

[Peter_Spaeth]

She spent 87 hours in temperatures plunging to -50 degrees, tended sled dogs who needed emergency rations, and endured blizzards so bad that the competition had to be stopped twice so the competitors could take shelter. Libby Riddles earned her place in history the hard way — by being the first woman to win the Iditarod — the 1,100-mile trans-Alaska dog sled race often referred to as “The Last Great Race on Earth.”

A bit tougher than sitting behind a chessboard.

[barrysloate]

Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth

She spent 87 hours in temperatures plunging to -50 degrees, tended sled dogs who needed emergency rations, and endured blizzards so bad that the competition had to be stopped twice so the competitors could take shelter. Libby Riddles earned her place in history the hard way — by being the first woman to win the Iditarod — the 1,100-mile trans-Alaska dog sled race often referred to as “The Last Great Race on Earth.”

A bit tougher than sitting behind a chessboard.

Playing a Ruy Lopez against Kasparov is much tougher.

Well I know I read that Polgar's achievement was a first, so there must be some technicality here. Perhaps depending on dogs disqualifies her as being the first to defeat a male, since Iditarod is a team sport. What do I know? I'm just some hack trying to sound smart on a chatboard.