# Olympic Chess **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 16, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525 "2001-08-16T06:05:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/21 "2001-08-16T18:29:53Z")
Adding chess to the Olympics will doubtlessly reduce TV-viewers’ interest in the Games. Therefore, to make up for it, I propose they add: **OLYMPIC GROUP SEX** This will ensure the highest TV ratings in Olympic history. ---
**Author:** ![Joe\_Cool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecb155/32.png) [@Joe\_Cool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joe_Cool)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/22 "2001-08-16T18:40:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bordelond \* > \*\*However, the admission of chess as an Olympic event suggests other endeavors that are being heinously ignored by the IOC as potential Olympic events (from the ridiculous to the sublime): > > \*\*1)QUARTERS \*\* > > \*\*2)PENCIL-CRACK \*\* > > \*\*3)SKEEBALL \*\* > > \*\*4)AIR HOCKEY \*\* > > \*\*5)FOOSBALL \*\* > > \*\*6)BILLIARDS \*\* Let’s not forget Risk, Candyland, and Monopoly. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/23 "2001-08-16T18:59:20Z")
Hey, let’s get the SDMB Diplomacy team into the Olympics! And how come the SDMB Diplomacy games are still on hiatus? I see Maeglin posting here all the time now! Bring back Dip! Bring back Dip! Bring back Dip! ---
**Author:** ![madcowmccoy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5fc32e/32.png) [@madcowmccoy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madcowmccoy)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/24 "2001-08-16T19:09:13Z")
Personally, I’d like to see chess kept out of the Olympic games, but then again, I’d like to see a lot of things taken out of the Olympics. Chess already has a national and international framework for tournaments. Its masters and grandmasters are determined by this. Chess doesn’t really need the Olympics. The Olympics should just be kept to a few core/internationally played sports. For simplicity more than anything else. But again, if synchronized swimming can make the cut, fuck it. Let chess in, too. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/25 "2001-08-16T19:19:43Z")
The thing that struck me was that none of the pro-Olympic chess people even saw the irony of lobbying to be included but then complaining about drug-testing. As one of them said, “What are we going to do, bang the clock harder?” Well, exactly. They test for performance-enhancing drugs for physical things like, y’know, _sports_. Which chess ain’t. If you want to be in, follow the rules. If you think the rules are ridiculous as applied to your case, take a moment to consider that they _were never meant to be applied to games such as yours_. Next up: Olympic gin rummy. ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/26 "2001-08-16T19:29:42Z")
> [@](#): > > And how come the SDMB Diplomacy games are still on hiatus? I see Maeglin posting here all the time now! Mostly because I was gone so long that no one really gives a shit anymore. 😃 Oh, and I lost all of my web space. > [@](#): > > Next up: Olympic gin rummy. Dunno if I can get behind that…but speaking of gin, how about Olympic Drinking? It’s definitely physical. It requires a considerable amount of skill, and a significant amount of training. Not to mention TV viewers would snarf it right down…and maybe puke it back up again. I say replace Olympic fencing, a craptacular athletic and spectator _disaster_, with Olympic Drinking Games. It would make drug testing kinda difficult, though… MR ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/27 "2001-08-16T20:13:32Z")
Well, MAEGLIN, I think I could kick your butt at either gin-based Olympic game. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/28 "2001-08-16T20:24:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Well, MAEGLIN, I think I could kick your butt at either gin-based Olympic game. I smell a challenge. Or maybe it’s just the Hooch. **You lie, Madam.** The age-old invitation to ritual combat. Well, it’s usually “you lie, sir,” but you get the idea. You had better pick your seconds, as only one of us is going to emerge with any brain cells left. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/29 "2001-08-16T21:06:20Z")
_:: Jodi slaps Maeglin with her glove ::_ No, wait. Do I have to do that if you’ve already done the “you lie” thing? Well, in any case . . . _:: Jodi slaps Maeglin with her glove again ::_ Uh, one sec. Was this a challenge to drink gin or play gin? Oh, either way . . . _:: Jodi slaps Maeglin with her glove again ::_ Um, hang on. Are the seconds playing/drinking? Is it two-hand gin, or four? _:: Shrug ::_ _:: Jodi slaps Maeglin with her glove again ::_ I accept! At a mutually convenient time and place, a gin-athon. Of course, with you being on one coast and me on the other . . . . _:: Jodi slaps Maeglin with her glove again, on general principles, and 'cause it’s fun ::_ Back to the OP: What does one have to do, exactly, to have one’s game included in the Olympics? Does the OEC vote on it, or what? Anybody know? ---
**Author:** ![Maeglin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@Maeglin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maeglin)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2001, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525/30 "2001-08-16T21:22:01Z")
Damn, **Jodi** , when you cut loose, you _cut loose_. I’m starting to think that I should bring weapons to our gin bout… > [@](#): > > Back to the OP: What does one have to do, exactly, to have one’s game included in the Olympics? Does the OEC vote on it, or what? Anybody know? Yes. It’s all in the IOC [charter](http://www.olympic.org/ioc/e/facts/charter/charter_program_e.html). > [@](#): > > 1.1 To be included in the programme of the Olympic Games, an Olympic sport must conform to the following criteria: > 1.1.1 only sports widely practised by men in at least seventy-five countries and on four continents, and by women in at least forty countries and on three continents, may be included in the programme of the Games of the Olympiad; > 1.1.2 only sports widely practised in at least twenty-five countries and on three continents may be included in the programme of the Olympic Winter Games; > 1.1.3 only sports that apply the Olympic Movement Anti-Doping Code and in particular perform out-of-competition testing in accordance with the rules of the World Anti-Doping Agency will be included in the programme of the Olympic Games. > 1.1.4 sports are admitted to the programme of the Olympic Games at least seven years before specific Olympic Games in respect of which no change shall thereafter be permitted… > > 4 Criteria for Admission of Sports, Disciplines and Events > 4.1 To be included in the programme of the Olympic Games any sport, discipline or event must satisfy the conditions specified by this rule. > 4.2 Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable. > 4.3 Unless the IOC decides to the contrary, a single event cannot simultaneously give rise to both an individual and a team ranking. > 4.4 Sports, disciplines or events included in the programme of the Olympic Games which no longer satisfy the criteria of this rule may nevertheless, in certain exceptional cases, be maintained therein by decision of the IOC for the sake of Olympic tradition… There is plenty more, if you wish to wade through the charter. MR [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/olympic-chess/76525.md?page=1)