About a year ago, I wanted to find a serious activity. Then, chess is a beautiful game, that also train your mind. So i decided to start to learn chess. I can play mostly online, chess isn't so popular where I live.
What first attracted you to chess?
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When I was 10 years old I admired the game
I think when I was about 3 or so I watched my brother & sister play a game. Years later I found those chess pieces (just some old cheap plastic set) and decided that it'd be fun to learn to play.
Dec 13, 2013
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#5
I was as good as Magnus when I was 1 so I was like I guess I'll play this dumb game.
When I was in the 8th grade, I could take a chess class in school for credit. I had never been exposed to chess before this, but it looked interesting, so I took the class. I enjoyed it, and my grandmother made me a ceramic chess set soon after.
The horse.
My father taught me chess (when I was 7). Then after a month or so, I beat him. Feeling invincible, I played against bus and motorcycle drivers.. and lost badly, especially to the Bc4 and Qf7# setup in 4 moves after I start. That loss made me stop playing chess until 2nd year of highschool, when my economy teacher are teaching the first years chess, saying a relation with chess and economy. I was hooked once more, and kept on playing until now, going to tournaments where ever I can find !
Dec 13, 2013
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#10
I'm 14 now. I have known how the pieces move since I was 4 or 5, but never took the time to really get "into" chess until last summer at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan (I went there as a jazz saxophonist). There was a 1500-USCF player about my age up there, and he had brought along a chess set. I played him, and lost every time, but it still got me interested in the game. Now, here I am...
Dec 13, 2013
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#11
When I was 14, I found my uncle's old wooden chess set in the attic, and I was curious, so I learned the moves from the half page article in our Compton's Picture Encyclopedia, and taught the game to my mother, since I didn't know anyone else in our small town who played.
my dad thought me chess and how iy was a good game.
the thing that attracted me to chess was the question:
"why did he/she played that move?"
as i began exploring the answer of this question, i understood the beauty of chess. this attracted me to chess.
I have no bleepin' idea
Brotherly competition! My bro and I will try to best each other at anything two peeps go head-to-head at. Sadly, this is his domain *cries in a corner*
Dec 14, 2013
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#16
I was about six when my grandma gave me her chessboard , full of woodworm holes , it was old even then. I loved the smell of wood , the board and the pieces. I also thought the pieces were appealing , they reminded me of the Kings and Knights of the middle ages.
Dec 14, 2013
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#17
The door rang. It was our jewish neighbour with a chess board and he came to teach me. I was 6. I liked him. He always haggled when he bought something. He died and his wife remarried an idiot.
The sheer depth of it. The almost unlimited possibilities. Knowing that this game has existed for centuries and no one (Not Fischer, nor Carlsen, Anand, etc.) has truly and completely mastered the game. Certainly such players have come close to perfection of the game, but in my opinion no one will ever definitively be crowned a 100% master of it. It's those endless unknowns, the infinite variables, that gave me the chess bug. As enthusiasts of the game, we are but mere grains of sand on an endless beach, and that is why this game has been around for so long and why it's popularity, intrique and sheer majesty haven't diminished in over 1500 years. Sure, modern culture steers many towards that latest video game, or some "party night board game", but nothing has ever eclipsed the game of chess. Those passionate for the game can honestly be said to have a love affair with it, one that can, and most often does, last a lifetime. You can't say the same of that uber-popular new video game that, after 5 years on the market, becomes obsolete and is relegated to a fate of collecting dust on a shelf or taking up space in a landfill. That's why I started playing chess, and why I'd choose it over any other game, whether it be digital or board-based, without even having to to give a moment's thought on the matter. Could you say the same of Checkers, Monopoly or Scrabble? I think not. 
I think we all had that one thing that we saw in chess that was so fun, that kept us coming back. Otherwise who'd play this torture machine called "chess".
But I'd like to know what you first saw in chess that made it attractive.