100% of the world view chess as a board game.
Naive people think that they can make a living out of it. The tenth best GM in the world makes $150,000 a year and he has a 2700+ rating and there are about 1300 GMs worldwide.
There isn't money in chess unless you are a prodigy. Most people play chess because they love the game. I think people assume that they can make a living out of chess, but they are missing the point of the game; creating something beautiful and challenging yourself to continually be better.
99% of the world doesn't care about chess and view it as a board game. why do some people get so serious about it and want to become GMs and make a living out of it?