NM ozzie.. if you want to take it seriously. .. it is called table tennis. The local players down the block in a garage play ping pong.

I take fishing very seriously, I'm sure the ego fits in somewhere there too! Chess on the other hand is just a hobby.

They are both games of skill, where luck plays no part (you might call an opponents mistake lucky for you) I consider a sport like table tennis requiring only skill, no luck involved. Whereas sports like bowling, billiards, darts, golf , luck can play a role, albeit a small one in a particular match.

Why is chess taken so seriously?

When people work hard at something for years, they take their performance seriously. This is true for anything in life, not just chess.

Alternatively, beginners who have not worked hard yet, take it seriously because they think it has something to do with intelligence.

Why do people take themselves seriously ? It will have something to do with why most chess players who take chess seriously, choose to do so...

An error by the opponent is absolute luck!  It's precisely what I was referring to with my "move 44 blunder example".

If I am White, everything I do with the White pieces is all pure skill.  I have absolutely no control over what moves Black makes.  A blunder by Black is pure luck on White's part.  If you take the same position and play the White side of it 50 times against 50 different opponents, your ability to play the position is pure skill, but whether or not Black makes a bonehead move on his next move is total luck on White's part.

The same can be said from the opposite side.  When it comes to the owner of the Black pieces, all of Black's moves are pure skill from her perspective.  Screw-ups by White are pure luck for Black.  If White blunders on move 29, and Black wins in 42 moves, White can not say he was "unlucky", he simply screwed up.  Black, on the other hand, got lucky that White decided to blunder on move 29.  Skill was required to finish White off, but receiving the opportunity was pure luck.  White could just as easily played the right move, and then no matter how good of a player Black is, he may have only been able to achieve a draw because of perfect play by both sides! 

I never said that you knowing or not knowing the right move is luck.  That's skill.  The luck factor from your perspective is that White Blundered (assuming you are Black).  You have a lost position after 43 moves.  If you go based on pure skill the rest of the game, White will win with perfect play.  Still at that point, all Black can control is Black's moves.  For Black to re-gain the opportunity to win that game, it requires the "luck factor" of his opponent screwing up.  The owner of the Black pieces does not control White's brain at all.  So all White blunders are luck for Black (and poor skill for White).

I don't notice anyone taking it too serious at chess.com? With the short time constraints everyone likes to play with the game is reduced to complete folly. It's like a Benny Hill sketch.

Yeah, it's chess, not chess thing!

The helplessness of some of you people in the face of trolls is bizarre.

ofcourse games like poker are skill, and the good players will always win in the long run. im sure serious/professional poker players also take alot of pride in their game and hate losing just as bad as chess players. but at the lower/more casual level i feel people dont hate losing as bad as they do in chess. ironically poker players at that level are more bothered by getting sucked out on than making a terrible play or call. 

The shuffle of the cards, a roll of the dice, the bounce of a golf ball can all be called luck. I have arguments to dispute this claim. Luck is a "concept' made up by our mind to explain what is not understood. There is no such thing as Luck!

Like many games chess can be a very nice and interesting experimentation in life. Experiments in performance, in common sense, in attitude, and so on. 

However it can quickly turn very, very bad, if you start tying chess ability to your serious real life qualities you attach to someone ("Tom, what a fine gentleman, winning chess tournaments vs John, oh that guy, what a patzer, not to be taken too seriously without further evidence"...."I must win this game to prove what a great fellow I am"), and people can do it without noticing.  

Chess can quickly turn into a type of superstition if you let it, with people drawing things from chess results that don't reflect reality. For example, I'd never called Morphy a great man, but of course he was a great chess player. Your chess rating doesn't matter. Except as experimentation and a little whimsical "pride".  

Chess is some hardcore stuff. 

how would it not be - its war and very small judgments etc can lead to win or loss - you need to be focused, not make mistakes, believe in yourself to be consistent, confident etc. - its a test of human strength

i also think this is why people like to play blitz, to an extent - it takes a bit of the pressure off, as if you lose its just a blitz game, its not a serious game where you can take endless criticism for a loss

interesting you bring that stuff up, because in this new book im reading, mindset (psychology of success), the author lays out two types of people - those who like to learn / expand themselves (growth mindset) vs. those who define themselves by wins over others - the latter is dangerous but is everywhere in chess - i think the game can be pretty brutal if you think of it that way, but i think more people are on that side of the coin by far

The All Blacks Haka dance is their attempt to psyche their rugby opponents out. Depending on the players, chess can be one long Haka.

I think it describes very well the 2 mind sets at each end of the spectrum. However, I do think there are shades of grey in the middle, where some people just sort of float along, in limbo so to speak Don't care about winning or losing or expanding their mind. The great masses of sheep.

Sheep are smart, they stay away from getting addicted to gaming.

If there is no such thing as luck, explain the following to me:

1) What skill did I use in my Freshman year of college on the night of Monday, January 24th, 1994 to actually win the jackpot with N-36 on the 54th ball of the major coverall?  I tap the dabber the right way on the table to make the whole room shake and cause the machine to spit up the N-36 ball?  It was all luck! (just like getting to that point of being 1 away after 53 numbers called!)

2) If you have a lost position after having made your 53rd move (You are Black), then what skill did you use to achieve a winning position after White's 54th move?  Did you kick him in the shin and it bumped his hand over to touching the wrong pawn, and with touch move, he's now lost?  I don't think so, it's call Luck!

3) Who has started the vast majority of the games in Indianapolis at the Quarterback position for the last 4 years?  Oh yeah, it's called Luck!

If there is no such thing as luck, what are you trying to claim?  The BS that some people make about pre-destination?  Hate to tell you this, but there is Free Will, and since you have zero control over what other human beings do with their "Free Will", anything that results from a decision made by someone other than you is "Luck" from your perspective!  If you don't control it, and it impacts you, it's called Luck!

In Blackjack, if I shuffle the deck, and deal you a 7 and a 5, and I have a Queen showing, you can use the skill of calculating the percent chance of winning if you take a hit versus if you stand, and if I just shuffled the deck, the laws of averages say you should take a hit.

However, whether that hit you take results in you getting a 2 (14, just as bad, if not worse), a 9 (great, 21!), or a Queen (BUSTED!) is sheer luck!

Also, whether my down card is a 6 and the next card is a 9 (meaning you'd win no matter what you do), or whether my down card is an 8 and the next card is an 8 (meaning hitting wins for you and standing loses), or whether my down card is a 5 and the next card is a Jack (meaning going against the odds and standing wins for you while hitting loses), or whether I have a Jack face down and the next card is another Jack (meaning you lose no matter what) is SHEER LUCK!

Your decision to hit or stand may have a still factor to it, but the outcome is still LUCK!