Why do you like chess?

Probably because chess has gotten a reputation as being something for clever people with high IQ. Nothing could be further from the truth.

People tend to think of chess as a matter of outsmarting the other person. Often it is  a matter of seeing more than the other and has nothing to do with being smarter or using tricks.

Of course you can be losing and by an oversight of the opponent still win but this has more to do with the opponent not being careful enough. Indeed the game is a game of errors and the true opponent is you.

Last year my mother was diagnosed with cancer. On top of it, my father almost died of a prescription drug side effect that left him with impaired cognitive function. While all this was going on, I was working 6 days a week, 8-12 hrs a day. I always wanted to play chess. For one, no one I knew liked it. My friends had other hobbies, like card games, etc. Second it was notoriously hard. Third, I just couldn't see myself enjoying it that much.

Around that time I had bought Angry Birds and went on a bit of a playing frenzy with that game, but I got bored after a while. I guess I just decided to get a free chess playing game on my ipad and try it out for the hell of it. I remember playing a few games and thinking to myself:

1. how cool the game seemed

2. how impossible it was, and how could anyone ever make sense out of these moves?

I don't know if you remember, but the first time (at least I) saw people playing chess, and even though you know how the pieces move, there is a mind boggling complexity to it that leaves you wondering how the hell did they know how to do that and where is it (the move/ game) going.

But, I kept with it and after a while (like two weeks..lol) I knew I had a new hobby, and a while after that, I knew I had a sort of obsession. That obsession has not wavered at all, but gotten more intense.

So, when I think back on it, why I started playing, its very obvious to me. When I play chess, all the problems in life sort of get put on hold. I don't think about them, or worry about anything when I play. Its like meditation. The mind is clear and focused. I noticed that my mood and anxiety improved dramatically to the point my wife noticed it. Its pretty impressive considering everything I was, and still am, going through.

I've had so many hobbies in the past. All of them I knew, right from the start, that I would eventually lose interest in. Its sad to get hooked on a new hobby only to know that you will eventually give it up. All of them I did. With chess, it scared me a bit, because this was the first time in my life where I found a hobby, something I love so much, that there was/is no doubt in my mind I'll ever get tired of it or give it up.  Not with chess....not with me. Its got a hold of me. Its therapeutic and helps my mood, and helps me deal with bad hardships in a positive way.I like this site and the people here too. Its just great fun

That's why I play.

Still with all that media coverage about Carlsen amazing perforance, it don't change people at all, ofc it may reqruit some few kids none and then but the adult population still have this arrogance towards chess.

chess players can be associated as weirdos you know it. Atleast in my country. 

Famous quote

"The agony of defeat and the thrill of victory"

wich is weird, in many asian countrys it means you have culture and are smart.

'cause chess is logical

kids playing ludo look like they're having much more fun, so did you mean a retarded form of ludo ?

Hey this is Norway, we are arguable on the top about the arrogance and everyone is heavily affected by the law of jante. In Inida yeah it can be totally different of whats accepted and not.

In his case, he lacked the push he need, until he joined the military.

I love chess because I can see a lot of differents types of ideas. Creative ideas, depper ideas, finesse ideas, agressive ideas, cowards ideas, fool ideas, fun ideas etc... In someway chess is a gateway to own's mind and personality and it's the same respect the mind of other people. Every move don't have a feel, but they are moves charged with them. 

Many players study and work hard to improve, and succes or fail and start again to training. We will be better in part because we are chess players. 

To me chess is poetry on 64 discrete squares. I's sometimes lyrical, often symmetrical and always unpredictable. Like life you can win sometimes with luck but you cannot survive on luck....the more you study chess the less you seem to know and when filled with theory, the practical application bites you where the sun doesn't shine.  When you get drubbed ( and every chess player knows the feeling) you want to give up the inane practise and rationalize that it is not important ( and it is not).....but when in a deep battle where your wonderful move is countered by your opponent's equally brilliant reposts,  and you become part of a titanic struggle and after you come through all the brainsweat successful...that one moment of triumph, that one sweet victory. makes it all worthwhile...until you lose to a player rated 300 points below you..'oh the horror....the horror',

I BLEEP, chess

I love chess because it's so unique and fun. You can never stop getting better too.

It's like a video game you can never beat.

(Lol, yep, true Atomic_Rift) ...the reason I like chess is because I love it and maybe to prove something to my opponent and maybe because it improves my logic. Oh for Pete's sakes, "I love chess but I dnt know why?" :-)

you can have a new adventure evryday of your life and still not play them all.....

andy andy mr clifton

has a pic that's quite upliftin'