What's the Point of Wasting Hours Learning a Board Game? Women's World

A woman of a certain age wants to know what the point is.  Aren't there more important things to do with our time than try and play a board game well?

I mean, a little recreational fun is one thing but, why have so many, mostly male, players, placed so much importance on learning to play a board game well?  And why view that as some testimony of intellectual superiority?

I can understand spending hours on my doctoral degree but, it seems a waste to me to spend hours of intellectual brain time playing a board game.

I don't get it.

I wouldn't say "many" men. The vast majority of men don't care about chess at all.

I also wouldn't say anyone places "importance" on it. In no particular order:  health, jobs, and relationships are the most important things to the vast majority of people (chess players included). Hobbies are fun because they're not important.

As for "intellectual superiority" that's one of the main misconceptions among non-players. Chess is a skill like anything else. If someone plays a musical instrument or ball sport well you don't think they're intelligent, you think they're skilled. It's the same for chess.

I was referring to the sexism in chess as a sport, and the men who seem to live for chess, seem to be very sexist.  There is quite a bit of banter about how women are inferior because they don't play chess well.

Actually, we don't care all that much, can't stand the general environment in most chess clubs, and don't have the time to devote to a board game even if we wanted to.

Well I don't think chess should be viewed "as some testimony of intellectual superiority" either. It is just a board game and a lot of success in this game comes more from pattern recognition and experience than it does from literal IQ (I say "IQ" specifically because that is what many think of when they hear "intelligence", but this isn't fully accurate as "intelligence" also encompasses "EQ" [Emotional Intelligence] and other criterion). 

If learning chess is viewed as a waste of time, then don't play it! Really, it is this simple. You are correct that time could be better invested if you would rather earn a degree or make money. However, the flaw isn't in these observations - it is from this mindset. 

The flaw is considering chess a waste of time. The chess players who dedicate so much time and effort into chess don't view it as a waste of time. Some of them work on their chess as a hobby. Some of them work on their chess to keep their mind active (common for senior citizens). Some of them work on their chess as a challenge; it is the competition and the challenge that piques their interest. 

I don't believe chess makes people any more "intelligent" in IQ, but I do find it more likely for more intelligent people to find chess interesting (and more likely to play it). People naturally tend to pursue things they deem themselves good at.

There is no denying just how old the game of chess is and how vast and deep the game can go. This entices a lot of people into striving to improve and understand this game and this indirectly takes a lot of time. For many chess players, the time and journey is just part of the experience though; it isn't a "waste" of time, but rather part of the process.

Besides, even if chess ability itself is unlikely to be a full-time source of income, this doesn't mean that the learning process of chess is a waste. Learning chess indirectly teaches many valuable skills: patience, determination, introspection, creativity, self-control and many other traits which easily carry over into non-chess life, so by working on chess recreationally, they may actually be enhancing their lives in other ways partly due to the skills and abilities they acquire along the way.  

p.s. As for myself, I have no current dreams of a chess title or other chess ambition similar. I've met all of my chess goals and chess has always been a hobby for me; chess is a challenge and something to do. To each their own, but if you do not personally get enough "value" out of chess, then simply don't participate in it. I don't hold it against anyone if they like chess or not. It takes all kinds of people to make a world and that is okay

I think it's more the other way around. The banter is that women don't play chess well because they are inferior.

And while it may be "quite a bit" (because even a little is too much) most men don't say these things and (I hope!) most men don't think that way either.

Have you been to many chess clubs? The environment was not too female-friendly decades ago, then again, that was also true of society in general. Things have been changing and if there is still a preponderance of gender in chess, then it is likely effects from decades prior or simply lack of interest for personalities and not because of any discrimination or ill-intent. 

I have a mild interest in chess.  I like to play on the computer before bed but, I canceled my membership recently because I lost interest.

Thanks for the feedback

Do you speak for all women or just women of a certain age wondering what the point of it all was?

A much more worthwhile hobby might have been this:

https://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/capitalist-chess-kill-the-pawns-and-win

All that shows is that men and women have different levels of interest in various fields.  There is too much emphasis placed on quotas in something that is meant to be a hobby or recreation.  Men may be more obsessed generally speaking with chess but 99% are patzers and only those who are truly gifted in the game will reach the elite levels.  Judit Polgar is the exception.  She strived to prove men and women excel equally in chess but failed to take in the interest factor.  You can't force people to be interested in something they aren't interested in.  She herself was extremely talented and came within a hair's breadth of challenging a man for the world title.  Chess is open to women around the world and if one of them ever plays for the world title, I will be the first to applaud her.  

I keep hearing how men make fun of women in chess by taking a comment by a GM here or there and pretending that is the overwhelming attitude of all male chess players.  Don't tell me Judit Polgar is the only woman in the world that could rise above a little criticism and pursue something she enjoyed.  Women aren't that helpless.

I guess I just did not understand why so much value was given to chess.  I was in the chess clubs in the 80s, and the sexism was very bad -- even traumatic.  I was hoping things have changed but, there still seem to be serious issues.

I hope it will get better but the chess world still has a lot of sexism, which drives women away.

True, and research shows that women have less leisure time than men, especially in poorer countries, where women have no leisure time at all.

Playing chess you know a lot of clever men you may choose from. Isn't that enough?