Why Chess is a Waste of Time and Intelligence – Yes

@Praveen_bhat97: Yeah, sure. Playing and (mostly) learning chess makes you better at chess, so you can solve harder puzzles and play on higher level. Got it. Chess also got a lot of depth but I doubt it really is a concern for most hobbyist players like me. What I lack is the clear connection between getting better at chess and getting a "sharper brain" and "raised awareness" in general. Does it even happen? Any significant difference between players and non-players or between chess and starcraft players?

@User823911: OP was active on this site between 1 jan 2017 and 3 apr 2017, with last games in 14 mar which is same day as he posted this thread. So maybe a throwaway troll account or, most likely, someone newbie who wanted to become good at chess quickly to show people how smart he was, failed at that and then went with copypasta of some clickbait article to prove that those grapes are sour indeed and he never wanted to eat them at all. So he did quit chess.

But why the only options when someone criticize chess are "quit chess" or "fake news"? I love the game and place it on my top 3-5  games of all time but I still love to argue with both people who think some board game is the devil and can make people go cray-cray as well as pseudointellectuals who think chess makes everything better.

Chess indeed helps. Anyway, I’m reporting trolling

There's one in every crowd.

Well Chess is kind a waste of time. Its just a game, it wont make you smarter, its logic doesnt apply in real life. So imagine if you study chess for 10 000 hours. Yes you wil lget better in chess, but thats it. It has no other benefit in your life, you can really invest your studies in much different areas. For me I play chess just to chill as a game as I would play League of LEgends, DOTA 2, etc. But I rather invest time to study languages, reading books, I take programming course. This is stuff that makes you smarter, it will even make you money. But investing time to study chess unfortuanelly it is true, it is waste of time 

Playing chess (as an official player) can earn you money.

Pretty sure you can earn more and almost as likely from DOTA2 and LoL, biggest difference is that there are no freelance esport coaches so you would need to create videos instead. Majority of players will not see any money at all from their investment... and that is ok as long as they didn't start chess with the goal to earn money. It perfectly fine as a hobby, same as any other game but with much longer life cycle.

Truth finally said aloud

Mmmm... we must not make a bundle of all the grass...

Don't want to speak for anybody else but my main and only beef with chess "proponents" is when they make chess the answer and solution to everything without any evidence or sound logic to back it up. 

Fine game, easy on my top 3 list of favorit games to play in almost thirty years. Can be good as mental exercise, just like almost any other game where you are active and have to think. Can be a career, specially now when when you can coach digitally or try streaming (glhf with competition though).

But no, chess will not magically make you smarter or teach you some deep life lessons which you couldn't learn in almost any other activity which you participate in systematically and seriously. 

Capablanca died from a stroke. That doesn't have anything to do with chess.

Kobe Bryant died from a helicopter crash. That, similarly, doesn't have anything to do with basketball.

This original post is littered with such attempts - incorrectly concluding that correlation proves causation.

This is called a failure of logic.

That's a bit of a stretch of the imagination, you know. It might have everything to do with chess. People who don't exercise and eat and drink too much suffer from strokes. Seems there's a fair bit of evidence there, to the effect that chess players don't live a healthy lifestyle?

Lets be real, OP looks like clickbait copypasta from someone who tried chess, didn't get far and felt hurt by lack of success. This isn't even correlation != causation failure, we would need at least some stats that more chess players than average die of stroke or go crazy.

Instead of "people buying ice cream cause sunny weather, here is statistics for ice cream sales plotted with weather over the year" we are stuck with "people buying ice cream cause snow in because one time I bought ice cream in december and it snowed outside".

For the past 35 years, half my life, most people I come into contact with have been chess players on the one hand and antiques, antiquarian books, collectibles and second hand dealers on the other. I can think of four chess players I've known who have died by suicide, right off the top of my head. Maybe more. Others are what might be called "not normal" and have had lapses regarding their mental health. Can't think of similar on the other side of things. I believe that chess players often put themselves under mental pressure which they can't handle. It isn't intelligent to put two and two together incorrectly but it's just as incorrect to fail to put two and two together. Indeed, maybe the latter group are duller and more naïve than the first group.

At least the first group are trying.

Hello, Dmfed

Please pardon me for being ignorant regarding some of the acronyms used on this site.   Please tell me what "OP" means?

On a related note, I noticed another acronym used on another post -- "KOTL".   Do you, by any chance, know what "KOTL" means as well?

Thank you, Dmfed

@BlissieBearrie: OP means either Original Post or Original Poster, aka the first post in this thread or the user who started this thread. No idea about KOTL, some kind of forum game/role play I guess.

Thank you, Dmfed 😊

I believe KOTL means "King of the League" or KOTH ("King of the Hill").

Same

Is King of the Hill played by gibletheads?

I agree with the OP. If chess stretches certain areas of the brain or whatever, why don't grandmasters put their muscled up brains to use doing something other than playing a board game?