Why is chess considered nerdy

A nerd is who you are. Quitting chess won't change that.

When someone uses the word nerdy, they mean "smart, but undesirable for some reason." But I consider chess desirable and worthwhile. Intelligence is what gives you the ability to be good at anything. Smart people could certainly become athletes, as it's basically just another game + physical training; they could learn the techniques well and master their exercises, etc. -- it's just that it takes work like anything and they may prefer to spend their time with something else.

Dear lord man.....

Why not?

Just fight back. It doesn't hurt that bad and the more you fight back the more confidence you'll get.

I would rather be a nerd than the alternative.

I do martial arts in addition to chess. This is enough to discourage people from calling me a nerd : )

Seriously though, since "nerdy" is usually what narrow-minded people call unusually intelligent people, I would consider it a compliment to be considered a nerd.

If you really don't want to be labelled as a nerd though, I would reccomend this--do some sort of sport in addition to chess. I know many of us here on chess.com would consider chess a sport, but most people don't. I've found that if some really athletic person asks me "So, do you do any sports?", they really aren't impressed if I reply "Not really... But I do play a lot of chess!"

I'm such a nerd that even when I used to do martial arts I was the nerdiest kid in school; let's see someone beat that.

The problem is that wherever I go sportswise, everyone is a jerk, at least on the chess team people there are a lot of nice people.

Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic is an avid chess player.
He served on the Croation anti-terrorist unit.
He is also a world renowned Kick-boxer and Mixed Martial Artist.
I'd like to see the person that would call HIM a nerd haha

Who are you talking about?

Chess is one of those things that almost anyone does but the players are still considered some kind of inside group of people.

Some others include Vasiliy Alekseyev and Alexander Karelin.

I learnt how to "play chess" (how to beat people with the Scholar's mate 10 times in a row) and some judo basics more or less at the same age. I quitted judo and went on with chess.

People ask me that a lot! Luckily, I have Extreme Mountain Unicycling in addition to chess ;)

I consider buying this t-shirt "chess is not a crime"

I know it refers to Bobby Fisching playing chess but it has more message to it than that.

http://www.cafepress.com/chesstshirts.12350976

I would never hide the fact that I play chess.

I am going to get one of them.

THERE IS NOTHING NERDY ABOUT PLAYING CHESS. I WOULD WEAR THE SHIRT IF I HAD IT.IVE BEEN PLAYING CHESS FOR OVER 30 YRS. BACK IN THE 80,S I BELIEVE IT WAS CONSIDERED MORE NERDY THAN IT IS NOW BACK THEN THERE WAS NO ONLINE CHESS. AND WERE FEWER PLAYERS I WAS A MEMBER OF THE U.S.C.F. BACK THEN AND FORMER HIGH SCHOOL STATE CHAMP AND IM PROUD OF IT.I QUIETE PLAYING FOR YRS. AND NOT QUIETE AS GOOD NOW AS I WAS THEN,BUT IM STILL PROUD OF BEING A CHESS PLAYER AND I DONT THINK ITS NERDY AT ALL.

Don't worry about it. Isn't being a nerd considered cool these days?

A bigger concern is why there aren't more nerdy women playing chess.

Sounds cool!

Only nerds play chess.

surely the more pressing question is whether chess-boxing is considered to be nerdy?