As far as the majority goes, I see a steady never ending stream of under achievers in life and stressed out frustrated people playing/learning chess.

Chess should be fun, what's going on with chessers?

As the majority I 

Me! I am having fun with chess! And if it stops being fun then I stop doing it; playing on FICS got boring for me so I stopped playing there.

Fun!!!!!!!   

I enjoy it, but I'm not sure if I'd say it's "fun".

I definitely think almost all of us get pleasure from the game. However, at the same time there can be a love-hate relationship that goes on, perhaps for some players who want to become very strong players, because then their happiness comes, to an extent, from their results rather than the fun of playing itself. They may love the game, but at the same time demand they move up, which can create some stress. It also might make them focus more on the game than they otherwise would, in a desperate attempt to improve as much as possible.

In this way, the complexity of the game can be more frustrating than fascinating. That's why I try to find fascination and beauty in all of the complications, rather than get annoyed simply because I can't fully understand all of it. Sometimes all it takes is just an elegant puzzle, or a good tournament, to remind players of why they are playing in the first place -- indeed, sometimes it's easy to forget!

I love the game, when I play I am relaxed, enjoying myself, challenging myself, and teaching myself many new things.  I think of chess as an art, probably because I'm learning it at the same time as I am studying the violin, but I do indeed think of it as "fun."

I enjoy playing chess. Oddly enough it's a great stress/annoyance reliever for me to be able to just sit down and focus on the puzzle of a game. That said, it does get annoying when I lose, especially when it's because I made a stupid mistake. Though I much prefer an elegant, complex game where both players are walking the knife edge between checkmate and being checkmated, whether I win or lose, to a game where I win because my opponent slipped up 5 moves in and lost their queen.

I agree with Linuxblue1, if it isn't fun why bother? At times when it gets to be a chore I just stop for a while and then it's fun again. On chess.com the secret for me is not to have too many games going at once.

I personally know very few Chess players. I love Chess,,and have since I was a kid. I know I'll only be an average 1200 to 1300 player,,,but I don't care,,it's fun!! Even when I lose,,,I learn something,,so it's all good!! I used to have some friends who play Chess,,,but they never wanted to play,,cause they didn't want to have to think!! haha that's what makes it so fun!! 

Here.

Two.

Seriously. You should play chess only if you like it.

Well I for one have a LOT of fun with chess. I won't say "playing" chess, though that's a large part of it, but solving tactical puzzles, watching videos, reading about the game and its personalities, etc. I have always found chess to be fun.

What's not fun? Dropping $500 in entry and hotel fees to play in the World Open and then getting your behind handed to you by some little 12 year old wunderkind. That's why I don't do that anymore.

No, I don't particularly LIKE losing, but it's really no big deal. I currently keep 12 online games going at the same time. Lose one? Just immediately start another one. Win one? Ditto. Ratings points? Hey, I'm 400 points higher now in online that I every thought I'd be, so it's all a win as far as I'm concerned.

Without seeming to completely say your o.p. has no merit, I see a great many people @ chess.com who have fun regularly with chess. Some of it centers directly around the game, but also as a catalyst, chess seems to be like a bonding agent or just getting us to mingle somewhat. Looking at the other side of the coin, I see many people here express negative sentiments that I generally find synonymous with unhappiness. I have to say inspite of this observation, I never thought of chess as an exciting game when I first discovered it, but it could be fun. I found the stress it could bring could take away some of the fun, but I realized that like many things, you have to learn to enjoy the good with the bad. I think some people haven't learned that yet. It takes time to see what you look at as a stress or inconvenience as something to appreciate...

I'm having much more fun with this game now than I used to.I used to stress so much over getting stronger and stronger,studying and studying my brains out...what bodybuilders would call "overtraining".Now I'm much more outcome independent....I don't care if I win lose that much....oddly enough this attitude has made my chess stronger.b4 I used to get angry and break stuff when I lost...now I just laugh at my stupid mistakes and go do something else.it's all in the attitude.

I agree; of course at times it can be a bit annoying when a mistake is made, but at the end of the day, I'm only playing for fun, so there's no point stressing about it. Taking it too seriously would definitely make it less fun for me.

Wow - i didn't know there were so many uptight players out there. It's a game and it's fun! when you lose its still fun...it's a game! :) nothing better than a good over the board game with a friend and a beer

Logging off........I only found a possible one other that was not frustrated and angry in an unhealthy way. I have been here four at least 5 hours... : ((((((

I know few chaps here that never get bent out of shape...perhaps you should hang out withthem between moves......

I have fun here, forums, notes, different kinds of games, and friends :D

Dupont Circle is a well known chess spot in the US.