Is chess supposed to be fun?

Known thing is: chess is a struggle against oneself. Everything is there right in front of your eyes. No dices, no cards, all is in plain sight, yet, something in you wants to overlook things, something in us wants to see the nice and not the ugly, something in us plans to live by denials and myths about what we can, what we are, etc.

And so, chess is the cruel mirror that never wants to tell us we are the prettiest unless we deserve it for good.

It's not a thing about "fun" but more a thing about satisfaction. Are you in overall more lucid, more in self control than previously? If yes, you feel better, if not, you feel worse.

And it's the bite of the worse, we want to avoid, that pushes us, more than the reward of the better.

Chess is a brutal and violent martial art, and trying to force childish concepts such as "fun" into it, is simply foolish.

And chess is also a good training for many matters of life, such as how to learn from past mistakes instead of repeating endlessly the same errors.

As always, it depends on how you see things. I don't see chess as a brutal and violent martial art : if I saw it that way, I wouldn't be interested in playing it.

I think it's the reason why chess players often don't understand each other : many see this game in a certain way, and think that everyone should see it that way, and only that way. And they sometime get angry when they are faced with an opponent who interprets it in a different way from theirs. Almost as if it were an offense to dare to consider Chess something different from how they conceive it.

Chess is definitely fun for those who see it above all as an interesting game that engages the mind, and later as a competition ( but never bloody ).

You sure can think and feel the way you want with online chess. Try sit 4-5 hours a day during 9 days in a row in front of rated opponents who wants your certain death (figuratively speaking), and you'll tell me if you're still so at large with your opinion on the matter.

I've only tried it once. It was a tournament intended for beginners looking to earn the right to participate in rated tournaments. I too sat for hours ( 2h x 40 moves + 1 h to the end ) for 8 days.

Extremely intense experience, extremely hard-fought games, extremely stressful even from a physical point of view. Yet I have never felt like a martial fighter who fights "brutally and violently" against a person who I felt was an enemy to be beaten up. Not even metaphorically. No, I just can't see chess like that. As someone once said, "I fight against your pieces, not against you".

I experienced it just as a competition, an intense competition. The only violence I experienced was that of the emotions I felt, but these emotions were not directed towards the opponent. There are many words I could use to describe that experience, but "brutal" and "violent" are not among them.

Of course, I don't dispute that many, especially in tournaments, see chess the way you say ( I remember that even Kasparov said something like that ). I only claim that it is not the only way. Especially at my amateur-level ( which is that of at least 90-95 % of the players ) chess can very well be seen as pure fun.

if you hate losing, chess is not fun

Try to find joy in the beauty of a well-executed tactic, a clever combination or a strategic maneuver. Appreciating these moments can make the game more enjoyable.