When people categorize you as chessplayer

It's true that I spent some time on chess. Still I do a lot of other things. I sometimes watch football and icehockey and do some sport on my own. I do volunteer work and I read different books and so on. Well this is nothing special of course. I could talk about chess a lot to people who maybe only play casual games or don't play chess as all and in that situation it would be understandable for people to categorize me as chessplayer and nothing more.

But I do talk about other things and I am interested about other things. Some people still think me I am all about chess Does categorizing people tell more about the subject than object? Maybe I should avoid the chess topic alltogether even if they asked have I played somewhere recently?

One person ask some things about chess and seems to be interested about the answer. When I talk about something else then he isn't interested much Some other people are bit similar.

Have you had similar experiences or thoughts?

Being a bad chess player, they simply ignore the matter. Your case is similar to a professional athlete there is in my wife's family, some people ask questions about the olympics just because. Morphy even had a problem with that if I'm not wrong.

I find that when people learn that I'm a chess player, they tend to think I plan everything ahead. This is both good and bad. I'm less likely to be given the benefit of the doubt when a negative coincidence occurs, but I'm also given credit for my foresight when fortuitous events work out well.

When that happens I tell them that I am not a chess player. For me a chess player is someone who is really good at it and plays on a (semi) professional level. I just play chess from time to time.

I suppose that pilots and prostitutes face similar problems. ;-)

Most of my friends and family are not interested in chess and I go out of my way to avoid getting into a long discusssion about it with them.  They think anyone who plays one game per week is "a chessplayer."