Curling, aka “chess on ice”

When surfing the TV for something interesting to watch the other evening, I came across a broadcast of the winter sport Curling. I always enjoyed watching the Olympic curling teams, so I stopped surfing and watched the game between the U S and Japan. Not really knowing much about the sport, I became aware that pushing stones across the ice toward a point some distance away required some deliberate cogitation rather than a chancy push, with fingers crossed for luck. Consequently, I went to the internet to learn more.

Curling is a game of strategy, tactics and skill. Its a sport played by both men and women. It has been an Olympic sport since 1998. There are both men and women tournaments as well as mixed teams with 2 women and 2 men per team. Its a sport in which players slide stones on a sheet of ice toward a target area of segmented 4 concentric circles. Two teams, each with 4 players, take turns sliding heavy, polished granite stones called rocks, toward the circular target called the house. Each team has 8 stones with points being scored for stones resting closest to the center called the button. It can be played aggressively or defensively. Aggressive play puts a lot of stones in play and can be exciting, but also very risky but with great reward, as opposed to defensive play.

The process of sliding the stone across the ice sheet is called 'delivery' and its trajectory is influenced by two 'sweepers' to make the stone turn or curl. The typical rate of turn is 2 ½ rotations before resting. Sweeping reduces friction underneath the stone and decreases the amount of curl as debris is swept from the stones path.

Curling images also can be found in movies and ads, sometimes without the viewers realizing that they are looking at a bona fide sport.



Old Fashioned Curling Stone