Is Chess an Actual sport?

The answer is fries.

Look in the newspapers. Where do you find the chess results? In the sports part. Any further questions?

@Sarg0n chess is never in the NZ sports pages :P which papers do you look at?

#1 Here you can go to a local park and bet money on your own games. I don't know if you can bet on other people's games.

@biscuitfiend That's the real answer.

Define sports is the correct answer. To me it is not. Not physical activity nor skill is required. As to what pages the results are: Typically no where. Very few newspapers publish board game results.
IOC considers it as sport as open up door thas chess people are stupid enough to "promote" chess to Olympics. Given how boring is chess game to watch not gonna happen. But I OC people sure like free hotel nights and dinners.

The question is:

The physical movements of the body (walking?) or a competition man versus man with all parts of the body?

You decide.

Be more selective about the betting places you go to. Mine recognizes chess championships as a sport, and they also don't suck.

Well chess is a sport, it is recognized as such by official bodies. @jonesmh Yes chess is a game as is football handball and basketball, all of them are also sports, the terms are not mutually exclusive but it depends on how you would engage with it.

I think the problem is that "AMERICAN" people have a different mindset on average. They don't like thinking about things as sports because of either physical interpretations, or they don't respect the game in question. The average person outside the US tends to go toward favoring things like chess as a sport. But that also goes toward my comment about ratification.