Because I want to understand the games played by higher rated players.............
Why do you want to be good at chess ?

ilusmte wrote:
Because I want to understand the games played by higher rated players.............
Good answer, as long as it's honest . Waiting for others..

For chess specifically, I simply have several friends better than me. Some of them I have never won in a game of chess against; being "worse" than someone (or several people) in a competitive environment is quite the motivator to improve. By no means am I feeling direct peer pressure (some of these people do not even know of my current attempts to improve at chess), but certainly being the worst player in a group does wonders for sparking motivation towards improving. By no means do I consider myself a "bad chess player" (although my rating is somewhat humbling compared to others), but of course I still strive to reach the level of these elite few in this "group." Isn't that at least a bit funny? I have no desire to be some world champion for chess, but I do strive to reach levels I am not yet at - at what level satisfies this? I wonder what reasons others have for playing chess?

Because I enjoy the game of Chess. I find it to be an amazing game. I want to get better and understand more aspects of the game so that I can be able to teach family and friends who don't play or know or understand the game the basic gist's and ideas and concepts of the game and maybe bring them to begin playing Chess. Hard to do that when I need to get better myself.

I have understood at 48 years old that my memory isn't good as I was young. So I am playing chess to train my brains. And because I like it.
Why I want to be a better player? I like win.
Or simply improve, why do you need it? What's your motive?