Einstein called chess a waste of time, what do you think?

Aristotle always had great foresight - that's why he was so highly regarded for 1500 years. 

About the poem, wasn't it originally "and eternity in a game of 0 1 bullet"?

Einstein discovered that chess was a waste of time - but also that time is a misperception and an illusion - so it's basically a waste of something that doesn't even exist - I think I could live with that.

Can't believe Einstein supposedly said in the article that he only played chess "once or twice as a boy" why would he have said that? He was an avid chess player, was friends with world champion Emmanuel Lasker who was also a professor of mathmatics, and supposedly even won a game or two off of him out of the many they played. 

What up with that "I only played a couple times as a boy" line?

You're right, I changed that poem a little bit xD pmsl

Too good to be left un-quoted

what kind of drugs do you consume good sir?

I'm sure I once read a very short story about an alien race who wanted to slow down our development, but without using any violence, so invented chess and the crossword puzzle to keep our best intelligences distracted. Obviously it didn't work for Einstein :-)

The aliens also invented football to distract everyone else.

Nice one!

It's an open question, though, whether our better players would contribute to "our development" in a world with no chess. 

And what counts as development? Developing chess is not development?

And when talking about development, don't people normally develop the fields that attract them more?

And in a world without chess, maybe somebody, someday, would invent chess? :-)

@Krudsparov fantastic answer!!

A beautiful and very relevant song!!

Did Albert ever stop beating his wife ?  I guess he didnt feel that was a waste of his time ...

Einstein "claimed" it was a waste of time for him, but did he believe that it was a waste of time for anyone else? Playing professional basketball would be a waste of my time because I am 47 years old, and 5'9" tall. I would be tremendously ineffective. However, for someone else, the prospects are entirely different, and clearly not a waste of time for those who do excel at it...

the rest are all sock puppets. oooooooooooooooooooooooooo

well at least you are not questioning whether or not it was the morally correct thing to do, Reb.

It doesn't count any more, he's dead.

"Emanuel Lasker was undoubtedly one of the most interesting people I came to know in my later years. ... I am not a chess expert and therefore not in a position to marvel at the force of mind revealed in his greatest intellectual achievement - in the field of chess. I must even confess that the struggle for power and the competitive spirit expressed in the form of an ingenious game have always been repugnant to me. I met Emanuel Lasker at the house of my old friend, Alexander Moszkowski, and came to know him well in the course of many walks in which we exchanged opinions about the most varied questions. ... it seemed to me that chess was more a profession for him than the real goal of his life. ... the chess playing of a master ties him to the game, fetters his mind and shapes it to a certain extent so that his internal freedom and ease, no matter how strong he is, must inevitably be affected. In our conversations and in the reading of his philosophical books, I always had that feeling. ... I liked Lasker's immovable independence, a rare human attribute, in which respect almost all, including intelligent people, are mediocrities. ... I am thankful for the hours of conversation which this ever striving, independent, simple man granted me." - Einstein (1952)

Einstein was frustrated, he knew he could be one of the worlds best players if he wanted to be and invested the time, but he was on this planet for a mission and couldn't spend the time on it.  Like lots of very smart ppl who love chess, they know they will never play at their full potential.  And the time needed to git gud is just not worth expending vs what else they could be doing.  This is probably where this comment is coming from not a general comment on chess, if anything it shows his admiration for the game.

Einstein never said "chess is a waste of time"

The OP made that up.

I challenge him to post the so-called quote.