The Tokyo 2020 organizing committee has announced that nine new sports -- represented by eight International Federations -- might be added to the Summer Olympic Games, which are still five years away.

The shortlisted potential sports from the International Olympic Committee-recognized International Federations include such notably recreational pastimes as bowling and surfing, as well as more hands on athletic activities such as karate and baseball/softball.

Earlier this month the committee announced that 26 sports applied to be included in the 2020 Olympics. A few of the sports that did not get shortlisted include Sumo wrestling, tug of war and chess.

The eight international federations representing each sport will have until July 22 to offer further details of their plans to the Olympic committee.

Riccardo Fraccari, the President of World Baseball Softball Confederation, expressed his excitement about his sports being shortlisted via statement. As quoted in the BBC, Fraccari said, "Today baseball and softball -- and the millions of athletes and fans who call it their sport -- reached first base."

Although, the games that are chosen by the International Olympic Committee are often seen as arbitrarily picked, it may strike some as odd that a game like chess was even an option.

But advocates of the mental game may have history on their side.

Peter Rajcsanyi, a public-relations director of the World Chess Federation, made the case for including the game in the Olympics by telling Time magazine back in 2008 that: "In the ancient Olympic Games, the element of cultural and mental activity was present."

The ancient Olympic Games included contests in areas such as music, theater, as well as poetry.

"In the Olympic Games, until the Second World War, there were competitions that rewarded the mental efforts of people in the same manner they rewarded physical efforts,” Rajcsanyi said. "Today, the missing element of the intellectual competition can be reintroduced by the involvement of chess, and perhaps bridge."