Are we all just silly people to spend so much time on a board game?

Go is so beautiful though. It is like painting a picture with your brain: calculations, style, shape, personality all come to life on the go board.

To say that go is a waste of time is like saying painting or music is a waste of time. Today I reviewed a game from 1954, a game that took place over 30 years before I was born and by replaying that game I painted the picture that these two players made. That conversation they made with those stones is something to be respected.

Is there anything more worthwhile than clicking those stones on that wooden board in a beautiful garden?

Sport, art, board game or what ever you want to call it, go is one of the finer things in life.

That depends on the definition of viable.

Sponsors were there quite early, pretty much since the beginning some arab sultans payed people to play matches for them to enjoy.

I think living of just playing was rather late (earlie 1900 maybe?). I know for sure that the strongest player before the first World Champion (Steinitz) was mainly a maths teacher and a chess player second.

Even today just playing does not support a lof of players and they have to resort to teaching/publishing or other means.

For those interested:
http://www.chess.com/article/view/making-money-in-chess

I wonder how "sport" is defined in different languages. Not being a native English speaker I looked up the Oxford dictionary (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/defin ... rt?q=sport): "An activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others for entertainment". Some other dictionaries refer more to general activities with "esp involving physical exercise". In my Finnish dictionary the physical side is also emphasized, but sports involving animals or motorized vehicles are mentioned; mind games are not. I believe in many languages the term is mostly associated with physical activities.

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I remember reading in (title may vary) Illustrated Dictionary of Chess how (IIRC) Karpov lost something like 8kg during a world title match due to stress. I would qualify this as "physical exertion." I agree that in most languages it is connected with real, strong physical movement, but we should not deny the effect mind games have in the body (or how a fit body affects mind games.)

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Geek of all trades, master of none: the motto for my blog mostlymaths.net

Go at the 2010 Asian Games
Go at the 2013 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Asian_Games
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_at_the_ ... Arts_Games

Does the term mentally exhausted mean anything if you're trying to talk about "physical exertion"? You could go an entire day without doing much strenuous exercise and still be exhausted. From my non-knowledge of biology, doesn't the brain use up the most of our energy?

No, though it is the most energy hungry organ using around one fifth of your base metabolic rate. Physical exercise uses a lot more.