1)When did you start playing chess?
At age 8
2)When did you really start getting into chess? And why?
At boarding school, it was encouraged there
3)How often do you play chess?
Most days I guess
4)Do you watch any chess media? I.e. professional tournaments, youtubers, tv shows, etc
Yes, a few twitch streamers regularly
5)How do you think chess has become so popular recently?
People having to stay in more, the popularity of The Queens Gambit
@Ginarook
"At boarding school, it was encouraged there"
Same here.
lol, the same one ?
https://www.ampleforthcollege.org.uk/college/news/news-valley-28th-january
yuk, all boys 
1/ I started playing about three years ago
2/ I started to improve quickly. When I first started I would lose to the computer at level 1, this was before named bots. Within a few months I'd won against level 4.
3/ I play daily games, usually 3 days per move, I have some moves most days.
4/ I watch Agadmator and Coffee chess on you tube and I'm a member of facebook chess puzzle groups.
5/ I think it's cyclical, chess's popularity will wax and wane with popular trends. Also the pandemic has helped online sites, chess.com being one, others being you tubers and facebook groups.
You play chess. You win, maybe do not.
It must not darken your heart. Every game is a win ;-)
Won no single game against my grandfather. But I loved him, and the game.
Age 6
age 14, because I wasn’t allowed to play video games during the summer
often to the point where my parents tell me to play more video games (whenever I have free time)
Not a lot. I used to watch more but now I limit myself to Daniel naroditsky
I think it got popular due to streamers.
1. I started in summer of 1951 @ 13 years old . . .
2. Boring summer 6 friends got library books in San Francisco . . .
3. Two of us played regularly . . .
4. No . . . Bobby Fischer got chess going in the USA . . .
5. I don't think is so popular in the USA . . .
6. Video games are more popular . . .
7. I don't think this is enough for a chess paper . . .
8. You might try my profile . . .
https://www.chess.com/member/richcolorado
1) 1968
2) 1975. Because I developed some skill and consequent success after studying books.
3) Every day that I'm not in the woods or fishing, or sometimes too busy with other things. Sometimes I even play a game or two on my phone when I'm in the woods and not seeing any wildlife.
4) Of course. Following the WCC, as I have every WCC since 2000. Subscribe to several YouTube channels. Active in some FB chess groups and have a blog with over 1300 articles.
5) COVID-19 and Queen's Gambit.
1)When did you start playing chess?
like... when I was maybe 5?
2)When did you really start getting into chess? And why?
About 2 to three years ago.
3)How often do you play chess?
often, but not that often... hmHMhhmhnn
4)Do you watch any chess media? I.e. professional tournaments, youtubers, tv shows, etc
youtubers, and sometimes twitch.
5)How do you think chess has become so popular recently?
queens gambit & twitch 
1) When did you start playing chess?
at age 4
2) When did you really start getting into chess? And why?
Chess is being popular board game and for social tools in my community, so I have to learn chess to be noticed and be accepted in my community.
3) How often do you play chess?
Not so often. When queuing/ finding match in video games (some MOBA/FPS games need a few minute before getting all the players ready) or while in "pause/ rest time of work/ GYM rest" ... based on mood.
4)Do you watch any chess media?
Only "Magnus Carlsen won the match" in the headline of some random news
5)How do you think chess has become so popular recently?
Covid19, Dewakipas, Twitch, Chess Influencers in 2019-2020
Talking about chess's popularity, I Think it's just because of hype in 2019. Not many peoples stick to chess because the lack of entertainment and no character in each chess player. The match start not like Football/soccer & MMA. Chess player just win/lose the match without any effect to the fans. Chess handshake is not really good to watch too, just shaking hand like a stranger (Do handshake in podium/something would be better, like MMA / Football / Badminton/Dota TI / E-Sport, with iconic gesture/song maybe). My point is, chess need to reform to be a good entertaining game or have more exciting event to be accepted in "Olympic"/ Sport entertainment.
Untill now, I didn't see potential in chess to be the best game/sport entertainment. Chess is nowaday just...flat.
Don’t agree. Chess was never meant to be a spectator sport
Chess, more than most spectator sports, makes high demands on the knowledge and preparation of its fans.
My answers may not be super accurate, I'm trying to recall some things from memory.
1. I was told how the pieces moved when I was about 10-12 years old (I'm over 20 years old now) but I never had anyone to really play with other than my dad who I didn't see often enough at the time. I also wasn't really that interested in chess - only curious about it for a bit. There was one time when I was either 14 or 16 that my school tried to set up some chess-playing, but I only played against like one person, lost and never really tried again. I didn't actually start playing chess until 2018 on chess.com (though my account is older than that since I was introduced to chess earlier) but even then I was just playing the game, got a little bit better, didn't really try to "study" chess. I stopped playing after a while.
2. I only started to really get into chess this year, 2021... as in trying to work through chess lessons and actually putting some effort in to improve instead of simply just casually playing a few games. Will have to see if it lasts. I've almost never played OTB chess, except that one time against that one kid at school years back... once. But this year I've started considering joining a chess club, though it'll probably be next year that I'll be more likely to try to join one as this year is almost finished (less than a month left) and I haven't attempted to join a club yet.
Edit: And why? I already considered chess as one of my interests. The reason why is because I want to mentally challenge myself and see how far I get. Other factors include that I'm currently on holiday break & I have one-month membership. The Queen's Gambit show had also impacted me in some ways by making me feel more excited about chess.
3. How often do I play chess? Over the past few weeks, almost every day on chess.com, maybe every 1-3 days - mainly because I want to make the most of the one-month membership I've got to use as many resources as possible to improve. A few months before? Barely at all.
4. No, I don't really watch chess media, but I have recently tried to. I will occasionally give ChessTV a chance. I struggle to actually enjoy watching people play chess and often will zone out and get into this mind-state where I listen but I don't actually follow along - it's just a pretty picture on the screen. Maybe it takes time to get to the stage where I'll actually enjoy watching chess games. I may occasionally check out chess-related videos on YouTube, although rarely.
5. I don't know what helped chess gain its popularity recently, but a few possible reasons we could consider are lockdown due to Covid-19, the Queen's Gambit show, original chess players making a comeback, and maybe schools introducing it to more kids. Whether or not these were reasons/factors for the increase, I can't say I know with certainty.
Edit: Corrected "isolation due to Covid-19" to "lockdown due to Covid-19". Queen's Gambit show, not movie x_x
1974
1994. Grandfather died.
Every weekend
Occassionally
Every day people become more kind.