Not that kind of go.

Well, there are two types of chess players:

1. Those who play as a profession, as well as for fame and for money.

2. Those who gather in a park everyday to play a game or two to pass the weekend hours.

If you are talking about chess not being more popular amongst #2, then I agree.

People of this busy era are simply overlooking the joy of just playing a game, instead of taking it seriously like one's life depended on it. It doesn't matter what the board game is, it is the joy of playing with another person that counts. 

They simply forget the joys of sitting down with the eight-year-old girl who comes to the part every day to play a game of chess; or being able to laugh when her three-year-old brother puts a pawn in his mouth when she tries to teach him the game. The people think that everything should be serious - something that they were taught by their parents and grandparents.

Therefore, when they try to remedy this by creating very dumbed down games, such as Uno, Monopoly, Poker, and etcetera to try to get families to rebond, they fail, because their (the families, as well as the people in general) philosophies are simply not inclined toward such a change.

poker and Monopoly are stupid?  really?

ratatouie out

Monopoply is very simplistic, with only a small amount of strategy.  You can learn everything you need to know in a day, and who wins the game isn't based so much on skill, so much as luck in the dice rolls.

Poker also involves a fair amount of luck, but there is a lot more skill in it than monopoly will ever have..

Still doesn't mean they're dumb...

and jail

and the cool fake little money (can't forget about that)

Chess is kind of old-fashioned - I'd like to see a hybrid of chess and hungry hungry hippos.   Imagine the new layer of complexity as you'd always have to watch for a hippo suddenly emerging to eat one of your pieces.   I haven't worked out all the rules just yet, but I am working on a prototype!

What about "Chessly Winks"? Certain squares have miniature catapaults, and if you can launch it into a cup, it's a capture.

Sure hope this guy's avatar name isn't his weight loss goal for WeightWatchers.

Get some meat on your bones.  Try beef.  Lots of it.

I haven't played chess for over 50 years. A friend convinced me that this would be a good way to rejoin the fun I used to have playing in school with friends, so I joined chess.com today and look forward to learning, but sense the spirit is perhaps a bit elitist and not as casual as I remember it years ago. I feel that many folks are "put off" by just that attitude and the deadly seriousness of the competition and feel uncomfortable in an environment where they may not be welcomed as intellectual equals. I hope I'm wrong about that here.

My experience is that there are two kinds of chess players:

1. Those who play for "fun".

2. Those who take it deadly serious.

The first type...just enjoy. Hardly ever improve.

The second type...the fun comes from hard work, always improving.

I'm in the second camp. But, I also find some fun in places like this forum...where you may joke around, duke it out, be an elitist, a jerk or whatever you prefer.

I think you can take your move making seriously but still have fun. If you take yourself that seriously, that you can't have any fun playing this, then you are driving yourself down Bobby Fischer Way and its a dead end street...

nameno1had: I think you can take your move making seriously but still have fun. If you take yourself that seriously, that you can't have any fun playing this, then you are driving yourself down Bobby Fischer Way and its a dead end street...

Well, this Bobby Fischer thing is the extreme. I'm saying that if someone wants to be, for example my goal, an A player...there is a lot of hard work and study. Achieving such a goal is the fun.

Most people would like to be better but aren't interested in doing the work, remain a C or less...don't like that at all...but they find there fun there.

So, I'm saying something quite different from you.

I babble incoherently and say things to people that don't make sense after reading their posts that don't make sense to me, so that I can maintain...otherwise I am a really about to go over the edge...

Why isn't chess more popular?

"Easy to learn, a life time to master"  the reason is in the second part of the statement.

I think chess would be more popular except that, it requires more thought and time to be truly good at, than most folks want to use. If it were an exciting video game, I am sure its popularity would soar. Inspite of some potential nail biting, I don't consider it an adrenaline junkies type of game. That is what most of the youth seem to be into these days and most adults would say they don't have time for any type games.

Monopoly has a board and pieces, so obviously it is based on chess

welcome to the real world; i'm not a great player either but I still find it fun. as long as i can keep learning and improving my game, I'm okay with it. Don't worry about people who think you are not their "equal." they may not have much else going for them, other than bragging in forums like this