The Ultimate Mind Game

In Cricket mad India, other sports are almost completely sidelined and are given only a few paragraph in almost all the major News papers. One of the games which has been receiving some amount of coverage of late is the ultimate mind game - Chess. This has more to do with India producing the first truly individual world champion in any sport in the world. But for Anand, this game of the common man would never have received the following it commands in India.

The game of chess is often misunderstood by people who do not follow the game keenly, terming it just another past time or hobby. Regular followers of the game however love it to no end. Why does this happen? Why isn't Chess considered a sport by one and all?

Is it because it is a game played almost without any emotion? Is it because it takes almost 4 to 5 hours for a standard game to be completed at the highest level? Or is it because it is difficult to predict the result , unlike in field games?

One other misunderstanding among non-chess people is that it is a game for older folk who just like to sit around doing nothing. Far from it, most of the present day as well as past generation players are known to exercise strenuously for 2-3 hours so as to keep the mind from tiring.

So why doesn't chess command a following like other field games? This is question which requires a good debate! Any takers?....

Category: Chess , Chess Thoughts