How many people think that; Chess is just a Total Waste of Time in Life!

Chess is a matter of vanity.

Alexander Alekhine

Whichever way you look at it, chess is as addictive as hell.

Chess will forever be one of mankind's most hedonistic creations. 

Chess will forever be one of mankind's most hedonistic creations. 

Can you imagine the relief it gives a mother when her child amuses herself quietly for hours on end?

Klara Polgar

Chess is not relaxing ; it's stressful even if you win.

Jennifer Shahade

Chess is not for the faint-hearted; it absorbs a person entirely. To get to the bottom of this game, he has to give himself up into slavery. Chess is difficult, it demands work, serious reflection and zealous research.

Wilhelm Steinitz

Yes. I can, absolutely -- but maybe even more joy than relief, that her gifted daughter had found something engrossing, challenging, satisfying, and benign to do in her "free time."  

Still, I'd also encourage her to join the family frequently, in other, less intense, more playful, group activities.  

(Not Monopoly, though.  Even in the healthiest families, that always ends with somebody knocking over the board and stomping out of the room, loudly excoriating someone else for their sheer "spite!" in refusing to sell Pennsylvania Avenue even though it wasn't doing Them any good at All! ...... ... or maybe that was just my family ... never mind.) 

I haven't always been sure coz as we all know Chess is one game that takes too much time and emotion out of us!!

Chess is an alternate universe to live in for a while...

Nice -- it does seem to engage a whole different, more elegant part of the brain -- at least most of the time.  

But then, one notices those ordinary, familiar thoughts and feelings intruding ... "oh, No, what a foolish thing I did"...... "Aha!  How clever I am!"   "Revenge!  Revenge at last!" ... "Another loss?  I really should study the game sometime .....nah, too much trouble..."

(Hard to stay in that pure alternate universe for very long, isn't it?)

"I failed to make the chess team because of my height.   If only God would give me a clear sign to stop playing chess. . . like making a huge deposit in my name at a Swiss bank."

lol -- and great solution, kaynight! -- so, can I make the chess team if I lie about my age?  Wait -- are those age and height requirements actually lies, themselves?   Liar's poker --  so why not liar's chess?  Why does my head hurt now?

Pointless discussions on Chess.com Forums about whether chess is a waste of time is surely a bigger waste of time than chess, and so is contributing to such pointless discussions, such as this contribution...

True. I agree to the point that every day you would learn something new. But honestly hobby player is wasting time here.

Fischzauber is wasting my life.   i outta here.  

surely the answer is personal. your life is split into thirds. third work, third sleep, third whatever else floats your boat. and if chess floats your boat? then no. it's not a waste of time. but often the recreational third has other pressures. is it productive? depends on how you value your recreational time. do you want to spend two thirds working?

Isn't it fun to see how very Long this kind of forum can sustain 2 completely different lines of discussion?  One quite "serious" and one almost stupendously "silly?"  -- with most of us just following one line and simply ignoring the other?  ... uh-oh... maybe This comment bridges serious and silly -- gosh, sorry, hope I haven't ruined everything.

Finally.  A sensible, true, definitive answer! -- and I'll bet you're not alone! (giggles)