Do people make fun of you because you like to play Chess?

Some mock me for playing chess, some mock me for studying chess, and others could care less.  I seem to get all reactions.

In maybe, middle school, a friend said it was very geeky/nerdy to join chess club and that it doesnt help your social status.

But other than that, I've never seen anyone view chess negatively, especially if they are adults.

In fact, my brother has a chess set in his place, and when guests come, sometimes they demand to play, my brother sometimes tries his best to refuse (ironically), but it's amazing that so many are interested when they SEE the board.

That's the thing about chess---everyone will want to play it if it's handy and in close proximity, they just won't always go after it (like online, or by buying their own chess set). Same with backgammon, table tennis, foozball, darts, pool, bowling.

Also playing chess by yourself, is sort of like ma--you know, everyone does it but few would want to see it in public. They expect a partner.

 How can this be possible ? 

 Did they even know how to play? If not, you should have asked how they could judge something they knew nothing about, and then offered to teach them. If they still kept that attitude, and refused to learn, then you could dump them.

    hmm he doesn't fit the description

in 1970 -71 myself and my classmate used to play chess.We were the school students of a remote village  80 km from Chennai,india.  My father,a small time businessman, used to come home by evening.,just kicked the chess board and chessmen we are playing  to the ditch nearby , and said 'why are you playing a gambling game, go and study your books'. I know still there are some villages in some countries thinks chess is a gambling.

But now i am a, Fide Rated chess player,Fide Arbiter and Chess coach.

my father is now somewhat happy,when my name appears in a local news paper.

K.Thirukkalathy

No it never happens, but then, neither me nor my friends are 11 years old.

And why was that a problem or embarrassing Schachgeek?

And what kind of workplace allows playtime during lunch!??! You guys got a 2 hour lunch or something?! At my place, you sit in your office and eat your lunch alone, and if you're courageous, you might surf the web a bit. You'd be lucky if someone else eats lunch with you (I was fortunate for most days, but some days, screw you go eat alone). Volleyball? At my place, you're in a suit! And this one time, a lower executive ate lunch with you, you find out quickly that they go to an Italian restaurant everyday.

I used to play with my friend after school... and sometimes during lessons . I lived in the middle of nowhere and no matter when school day ended, the first bus left at 3 pm. So I could have like 3 hours before the bus came and nothing to do. My friend lived couple of miles from school so he could have just gone home, but instead he stayed with me at school and we played chess or talked about literature. Not that's true friendship

I dont give a damn what people think!!

Other boys laughed and called me wuss when I was a kid. Teenage girls were embarrassed by my admission when I was a young man. Now that I'm safely middle-aged most people say "Oh! I play chess" when I mention it but you know they don't really (they just know how to move the pieces and some of the rules, usually). They now wish they hadn't spent their youth playing with action figures/dollies.

p.s. See? Much weirder and wussier than a bloke playing chess!

Dude, uber-skinny guys with thick glasses have been hip for about 8 years now.

Um, I think hip guys have been uber-skinny and worn thick glasses for about eight years now.  I'm not sure the relationship is reflexive.

Yeah, but when I pull out my deuce deuce they are strangely quiet.

     Yes, I had the dark glasses in high school and people called me Brainiac and Geek and Four-Eyes(especially when I won the school chess title, although I just
started playing last year after 30+ years and am not so good now).
     So my dad made me start working out to get tough(he was an Air Force Sergeant with a Bronze Star from Vietnam and my Italian Uncle Tony was a Korean War hero).  I had to run and do pushups and situps and played Little League baseball(I just wanted to play video games).
     Then I got some contact lenses and started suntanning at Virginia Beach and Nags Head and bought cooler clothes and stylish sunglasses.
     After that I started playing backyard American Football with some of the
guys on the team and stuck my shoulder into their heads a few times and
watched them gasp for air after my good tackles.  Then I started dating some of their cheerleader girlfriends.  My dad and Uncle Tony couldn't have been prouder.
     True story.  Moral of the story:  Success is the best revenge!!!

True enough, though it seems to me the original post suggested that being frail and wearing thick glasses automatically precluded one from being cool.  For the record, I play chess with a guy who plays drums in a band, and wears a Russian hat, and lives in the hip part of this city, so hipsters and chess can mix (hell, I'm a little of one myself, as much as I try not to be).

As for the topic, the other day a Japanese girl said to me 'oh, that's so old!' when I said I played chess, which was pretty funny.  For the most part people accept it as a simple fact, but then I am impenetrably cool*, after all.

* This is a joke.  Well, but...

Do people make fun of chess because you are playing it?

Well I just started but so far nopee.

Whenever my friends try to do that, I turn the conversation towards their leisuretime activities, appearance, sexual or political orientation and after that we end up in a fist fight and no matter the outcome, I still come off looking un-neardy.

no.

most people say: "its just too complicated, too much thinking.."