Sporting chance

I was not quite sure whether to be annoyed or relieved about the recent High Court decision not to recognise bridge as a sport. On the one hand, it’s a comfort to know that there is now little danger of British bridge and, pari passu, chess being classified alongside activities that feature perspiring individuals running around in underwear. Chess should, in my opinion, be dignified by elegant surroundings, with the players in formal attire, as in the fictional sequence of the James Bond movie From Russia with Love, or the encounters between Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov that were screened by Channel 4 in 1987.

However, with established chess championships going back for well over 100 years, competitions carried out under strict conditions, a stratified title system, millions in prizes for world matches, and recognition by the International Olympic Committee, I think high-level competitive chess should certainly be granted the status of a mind sport.