Why do you play chess?

 Because it is so easy to learn and impossible to master, sweet agony,it is!

I play to improve and be the best player and teacher.  Today I made my 1st chess video pls give feedback http://youtu.be/qsiHqFus8-w

I have excess synaptic activity that needs to be absorbed by idle calculating in order for my head not to overheat and burst into flames.

oh yeah, that too.

I play to make sure my dementia hasn't gotten any worse! :P

I do it because I have nothing else to do.

chess is a fun game that asian parents actually allow you to play xD

lol

Okay, I give up:  why?

There is a serious intensity about chess that fools me into overlooking its frivolity.

                   I do play chess now.

The reason is I want to get better and reach a respectable rating such at 1800. That seem easy to reach if I keep playing players about my same range when I will it increases about 8 to 12 points at a time. That is a slow way to get ther. But am I getting better at chess or just increasing my rating? That is the question on my mind.

Because I love that look on the opponent's face when I make a move that tells him:either you get mated or you give up your queen.

Because I have nothing wlse to do

Because in real life I'm a figurative 98 lb weakling and wuss, but occasionally I get to kick sand in other people's faces (figuratively) - over the chessboard that is. 

Besides it beats the hell out of doing anything useful like earning a living or cleaning up, maintaining and repairing my house.

I figure I put in all this time studying I might as well play a game or two :).

For me, the allure of chess is a combination of two things.  First, there's the charm of aesthetic experience.  In other words, I play chess partly because of the beauty of the game, and because it gives me the chance to create something unique & beautful in the midst of play (something like participating in artistic creativity).  But chess also offers the exhiliaration of competition.  For me, it's exciting to be in a tensional, competitive struggle with someone -- "the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat," as an old TV show once put it.  But in the final analysis, it's probably the combination of these two factors that really lends chess its powerful allure -- the chance to find beauty in an exhiliarating competitive struggle.    

and so that no one knows who I actually am

I play chess because it makes me feel wise! :D

I like to analyze and solve problems, which explains my day job as a software developer. And like Bobby Fischer, I like to feeling of crushing my opponent's will. On the other side, when I'm the one in the process of getting crushed, it's a thrill trying to find a way out of it.