Thread would not be complete without congratulating Magnus Carlsen on winning the World Chess Championship 2021.
I also happened to think of another sport that is very intellectual and that is boxing. Properly done boxing, the type of knowledge that only the few masters like Cus D' Amato would have. The actual science of boxing, Boxing is actually chess with live pieces. It's one trainers intellect over the other. The greatness of a boxer is a)the greatness of his trainer and b) the ability to do what the trainer tells him to do.
Yes there is heart and all that but essentially both trainers are using their intelligence to have their piece(fighter) move correctly to be put in a position for an eventual attack and capture of the kingdom(belt). Using faints, diversions, baits, attacks, angles, retreats, bluffs. protecting certain vulnerable areas, it's all chess, That's why Mike Tyson could have been perhaps the greatest fighter that ever lived had Cus D 'Amato had lived and the team kept Mike under enough control to not have legal problems.
Tyson you can tell has characteristics of savants. Talented savants can have some amazing ability and be completely antisocial everywhere else. Tyson was a boxing savant. Countless stories tell of him at 14 years old watching boxing loops from the 1930s. For HOURS!!!! He knows the most obscure fights that boxing historians barely know. Cus' was teaching Mike chess. All this shit about Tyson being with women and not having his "eye of the tiger" are to blame for his decline after Cus died are bullshit, Mike was doing the same shit as a young teen when he snuck out of the Catskills and robbed and fucked and drank and did all the shit with his Brownsville Boys. Cus just covered all that shit up, because he had such a valuable Chess piece.
Chess is the art of war. If you are at war, you are playing Chess. And most people are at war in my opinion. Whether with someone else or with themselves. Thus most people are playing Chess.
