Chess: A Game or a Sport?

Originally posted by KneverKnight
Good ones! I read that Einstein was a friend of Lasker's and didn't enjoy the combative spirit he saw brought out in Lasker by chess.

thanks kneverknight!

you are correct about einstein not liking chess.
in the foreword (written Oct 1952) to Dr. J. Hannak's excellent book, Emanuel Lasker The Life of a Chess Master, Einstein writes:

I am no chess player myself, so I am not in a position to admire his [Lasker's] mental powers in the sphere of his greatest intellectual achievements; indeed I have to confess that I have always disliked the fierce competitive spirit embodied in that highly intellectual game.

Lasker also was rather critical of Einstein's theory of relativity and i believe that forward is the only place in which Einstein addresses this issue.

Einstein concludes with

I shall remember with gratitude the pleasing conversations I enjoyed with that incessantly eager, truly independent and yet most modest of men.

in friendship,
prad