No chess on the Olympics each time soon

The Olympic dream remains elusive.

When planning the Olympic Games, the organizers make guidelines for brand new sports. The International Olympic Committee wants video games to be more youthful, greater urban, and more gender-balanced. The World Chess Federation has been struggling for decades for inclusion in the elite circle of Olympic sports. One motive is economic — such sports tend to receive much extra investment at domestic than non-Olympic sports. For instance, in Germany, they are financially supported using the Ministry of the Interior, and Olympic qualification is a primary standard. The politicians want to see athletes from the respective sports activities holding medals on foremost occasions, including World Championships or Olympic Games — preferably in front of tv cameras. The ratio of economic assist between Olympic and non-Olympic sports activities is approximately 10:1. This is comparable or even greater mentioned in different countries.

FIDE changed into founded some years after the give up of the First World War, inside the spirit of reconciliation, on the margins of the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. That is, of the route, what gives the World Chess Federation its French acronym (Fédération Internationale des Échecs). 2024 marks FIDE’s centennial. Wouldn’t it had been high-quality to rejoice throughout the Olympic Games? To hold the dream alive, FIDE and the chess players have put up with quite a few nonsenses like doping checks are finished all reliable championships, regardless of the fact no one is aware of an effective method of doping in chess — all listed and doping marketers are commonly taken into consideration useless. But such efforts seem over again to be useless.

The chess application became directly now not considered. This will be due in part to the reality that chess is not universally recognized as a sport because of its loss of overt athleticism. In Germany, the game’s function as a diagnosed sport has at times been precarious, although chess changed into a founding member of the German Sports Association. It’s also no longer the form of recreation that fills massive grandstands. Sure there are numerous lovers extensively disbursed online, but they’re mostly invisible. And that’s now not what the IOC wishes.

The sports on the shortlist for 2024 correspond greater to the zeitgeist, along with competitive breakdancing. In truth, in Tokyo 2020, you’ll already see new competitions in-game climbing, skateboarding, karate, baseball/softball, and surfing. Maybe it’s time FIDE put this specific dream of inclusion in the Olympics to bed entirely. And drop the doping take a look at.