Chess as official sport

Currently chess is not an official sport in Belgium. How is this in your country?

So is it an official hobby there?

I live in a area where ppl don't even know chess rules. Once i was teaching a guy how knight moves and he was yawning.ヘ(￣ω￣ヘ)

hipno were you teaching me (¬‿¬)

Here in Israel some people know how to play chess, but I'm not sure it's so popular.
Once I told someone that this, for example, is checkmate, and you don't want me doing it, but next second I checkmated him with exact same thing! (¬‿¬)

It is a sport in Portugal, just not a popular one.

I did not know it was not a sport in Belgium or Ireland.
I actually played in the Dublin tournament quite some time ago. Was living in Northern-Ireland at the time..they have clubs that play weekly there + weekend tournaments. But I am not familiar with the Republic.

Whilst I personally dont really care about the label. It can be important when there are benefits associated in being labelled a sport.

Is it known why Belgium and Ireland dont accept it as a sport?
Most European countries simply follow the 'Sports Governed by International Federations Recognised by the International Olympic Committee' And chess is actually recognised byt the International Olympic Committee
www.olympic.org/recognised-federations

and not even provisional, as some other sports like, Cheerleading and Lacrosse.

IMO I don't think chess is a sport, but, of course, that depends on your definition of sport.

There is actually no sport in India other than cricket.

Chess is a sport. The only difference is that you train your brain rather than, say, muscles. But in essence, chess is a sport.