How has chess ruined your life?

We always hear about the benefits of chess, so here is a thread that will provide some counterbalance.

I'll start us off.

If it wasn't for chess, I would have been more focused in school and gotten better grades. I would not have ended up assaulting women and getting into legal complications. I imagine I would be a professor of philosophy at a respected institution.

How did chess make you assault women 

Snatch their wallet

The first outburst happened when I was rudely interrupted and shouted at during a game of chess, making me lose on time in a winning position. The game has fuelled my emotional instability since then.

Chess is a keen way to fritter away large chunks of time.

What is wrong doing that? Answer: nothing.

Really, you expect me to believe that you would use all that lost time more productively? I don't think so.

I know what OP is talking about. My dad taught me chess, and the next day I punched my mom.

The problem is that it's easier to justify chess as something productive. Doing other things make you feel more guilty, and you end up getting to work faster.

Funny. I use chess to stay sane. Precisely because it almost feels productive, I can relax when playing chess. I'd have imploded from stress a long time ago if it wasn't for this game.

Chess has made me probably more narcissistic than I should be. But it does give me confidence a bit. Plus I watch much less porn than I used to, but that's only partially chess related.

Something about the king and queen being so close together with the bishop watching, a horse nearby.

I think it's a filthy game.

Chess is not something productive. It's recreation, just like playing video games or watching TV.

Having lots of free time for recreation is one of the huge perks of living in the 21st century.

If you think chess made you assault women, you are incorrect. You were going to assault women anyway. Stop making excuses for your life's mistakes.

No need to denigrate me.

What, do you think the words "woman beater" are written somewhere in my DNA? We are shaped by our experiences. With hindsight, I can tell that chess had a prominent role in influencing the bad choices I made in my life.

My DNA is shaped by my experiences!

I wasn't denigrating you. We all make mistakes, some worse than others. You said you assaulted women, and you blamed a game for that.

What I'm saying is that playing a game will not do that. You did that. You need to look in the mirror and take ownership of your behavior instead of blaming it on externalities like your choice of recreation. 

If you cannot own up to your mistakes, then you will never improve as a person and just keep making them over and over.

Wise words

It's not that I'm reducing myself to a deterministic machine, looking for some externality to blame for my mistakes. I've moved beyond them, and I'm simply observing a particular bad influence that is often lauded for its supposed benefits.

Yeah, shoulda punched a guy instead.

Chess is an overly feminist game, the big strong queen having to fight the weak, bumbling mans battle for him. I'm surprised man haters don't love it.

It goes against my principles. I wouldn't redirect my anger towards someone who had nothing to do with it just to reduce the legal repercussions. That would be giving in to the opressive, sexist tenets of society.

Wow. Deep.