US National Spelling Bee!!!

[Varma]

3 out of 10 finalists in this year's "National Spelling Bee" are of Indian origin.

http://public.spellingbee.com/public/re ... shers/html

The competition start today at 8 PM EST (5:30 AM IST, June 5th 2010) and let's hope for a clean sweep of 1-2-3 ABC (in the US) telecasts this event live.

- Varma

[Varma]

14 yr old Anamika Veeramani won 2010 National Spelling Bee Championship, which makes her 8th Indian to win the coveted trophy in the past 12 years. The other 2 kids of Indian origin, Shantanu Srivatsa & Aditya Chemudupaty, finished (joint) 2nd and (joint) 4th respectively.

Since 1999, our kids won the trophy everytime except for years 2001, 2004, 2006 & 2007. That's an absolute dominance by any means!

- Varma

[arjun2761]

Now that it is on ESPN, I think Spelling Bee should be added to the Olympics. With Mens Singles, Womens singles, Mens Doubles, Womens Doubles, Mixed Doubles (and perhaps some quadruples too and maybe some based on position (sitting, standing etc.)) and we would have a gold mine in the Olympics.

[jayakris]

Yeah, then what? We will start calling chess a sport and start discussing it on this forum?

.. Err .. but wait .. Oh never mind!

Jay

[Prashant]

Jay's joke aside, I think the spelling bee is ludicrous. In the first place, I completely fail to see why the ability to spell obscure words is a useful skill, unless one plans to be a competitive Scrabble player later. Or maybe a lawyer - I wonder how many of these kids become lawyers. Secondly, there is a massive difference in the difficulty of words in the same round, so the winners get decided as much by luck as by any spelling skill. If you want to do this properly, make the kids sit in soundproof rooms & all spell the same list of words.

[punarayan]

Varma, Thanks for posting about the Spelling Bee, otherwise I would never would have learnt about Shantanu's success. He happens to be my cousin's son from North Dakota! There are two sides to my family and I belong to the sports nut side. Now I have to look for the rerun on ESPN. Quite amazing!

[prasen9]

I don't think it is of any use whatsoever and just destroys the kid's normal life for it must have taken hours of work to come to this level. Perhaps the only thing it teaches is perseverance, hard work, and how to keep your nerve and think on the feet. You could have gained that through other means. I would not want my daughter to train for this one for sure.

[jayakris]

I agree 100%, prasen. It is the most USELESS competition out there. It proves nothing, and it really is successful because of the "whoa, how much time this kid must have spent to know so much stuff?" curiosity - even though the stuff the kids memorize is almost completely worthless. I admit that people love the fun from that curiosity itself, and also because the kids really look so serious like they are about to die any moment (well, some faint and all that too). Perhaps the simplicity of the game and the perceived "intellectual value" (which is a notion that goes entirely unexamined by the brainwashed viewers) also adds to the curiosity to create TV viewership. The whole thing is ridiculously pointless..

In a way, it is just a game - a game of perseverance and certain specific mental skills. Just like chess, which actually needs more overall mental abilities. If I accept it as a game, OK, then I shouldn't complain though. That is why ESPN shows it, I guess.

Jay

[kujo]

Yeah, then what? We will start calling chess a sport and start discussing it on this forum?

.. Err .. but wait .. Oh never mind!

Jay

Dude. don't go there! The one sport where India has a reigning world champion!! Anand has proved himself to be a true champion by winning the it in three different formats (round robin, knockout, candidate) and defending that title twice.

He went to Bulgaria (of all places) on a 40 hour road journey (pot holes) and defeated the challenger in 12th and final round (playing black) of the championship match against Topalov (5 years younger). That must be like the "rumble in jungle" version of chess man!

I like spelling bee. if nothing else, it shows the tremendous mental capacity to store information, analyze unknown / unfamiliar words by using it's root language and make an educated guess. It showcases a foundation that could be used to build a career in many different fields, including medicine, chess, research scientist (basic sciences, math).

[jayakris]

The one sport where India has a reigning world champion!!

It is not a sport! It is not a sport! It is not a sport! .... There is no amount of arguing that could ever convince me about chess' fitting any reasonable definition of a sport. It is a game, of course, and I give that. But no way for it to be called a sport. No game where somebody can compete without spending any kinetic energy can be called a sport (as even moving the chess pieces is not a requirement on the competitor). No, it is not a sport. Same way as spelling bee cannot be a sport. It is a game, of course....

Jay

PS: Now, don't go into arguing with me that a human competitor does have to spend at least minimum vocal chord kinetic energy to say what piece to move ...

[PKBasu]

Who said that the defining element of sport is physical effort? Every sport ultimately requires a tremendous amount of brain power, including bending the sinews of the brain to flex the appropriate part of the body reflexively (to kick a football, hit a cricket stroke, make a chess move). Chess may require extra brain work, but some part of the brain has to be very well trained to effect brilliant feats in any sport.

Forget about your obsessive hatred for chess, Jay, and celebrate a truly worthy world champion. Only the Americans don't think of it as a sport. I think American Football and Ice Hockey are not sports -- they are merely arenas for barbarism. I'd pick civilized chess any day!

[Atithee]

And some people call boxing a sport.

[Prashant]

Wow, this is really turning into "bash your least favorite sport" isn't it?

Boxing is most unquestionably a sport. Tremendous physical fitness, technique, hand-eye coordination, mental fortitude required. Chess does require a significant amount of physical fitness. 5 hours of intense mental concentration is physically exhausting, and if you aren't fit it is harder to recover for the next day. All the top players have physical training regimens. I think PKB is merely stirring the pot in his criticism of ice hockey but it is every bit the sport that field hockey is.

Now - back to topic, the spelling bee is NOT a sport - or if it is, so is Jeopardy. They require very similar skills.

[prasen9]

Shall I start with golf and motor racing and all these ludicrous "winter" sports ? Chess does require physical fitness though. Try concentrating at the highest level for five hours and then prepare a substantial part of the night and come back the next day, etc. Keep doing that for day after day for two weeks.I would not call it a sport but a game.

[prasen9]

I like spelling bee. if nothing else, it shows the tremendous mental capacity to store information, analyze unknown / unfamiliar words by using it's root language and make an educated guess. It showcases a foundation that could be used to build a career in many different fields, including medicine, chess, research scientist (basic sciences, math).

That is true, but, there are a million other ways to train for those careers that should be more effective than training for spelling bee. I doubt the best in medicine, chess, basic sciences or math ever wasted their time as a kid doing spelling bee. The spelling bee champs should be successful in life just because of their sheer determination and general intellect, but, training for the bee did not certainly make them successful later on, imho (correlation vs. causation, i.e.).