A friend recently asked me this question. But apart from telling him these trivialities I did not get a convincing answer:
it's a user-friendly game
it trains the memory
it's intergenerational
it teaches you how to concentrate
and so on...
But other games also provide these benefits
In fact, no one puts themselves in front of the chessboard, thinking that they are going to play a game to improve their concentration or thinking that they will be able to play against an older or younger opponent.
In fact, two questions for which I can't find an answer:
why do we play?
why do we play chess in particular?
All animals play. Humans are no different. Play is to practice skills, to assert hierarchy, or just for fun as a pastime.
Chess is a surrogate for fighting, for war. It is richer and more complicated than many other games. The different pieces are reminiscent of medieval warfare. The different character of the pieces give the game extra attire as compared to for example the game of go, which is objectively more complex, but all stones are the same.
the first question's answer(in my opinion):is because we love it.we play it cause we really find it interesting for us.we find chess as a hobby for us.
the second one is:we find chess is so interactive for us.we want to build our minds with chess.idk about u guys but i play chess cause i want to strengthen my mind
Playing chess for me has never been about achieving some status or getting smarter. I'd say I'm driven mostly by curiosity. I play chess because it's fun to apply winning ideas to my games, and it's also fun to figure out why I lose games. There's a deeper puzzle to solve about this game that can't be solved by just playing a couple times. That's what hooks us in. When I first started playing I went to the library and grabbed "Chess for Dummies" to learn about basic strategy and to have a better idea of what to do with the pieces. It worked out great. I was beating all my friends, who probably haven't thought much about the game since. At first, understanding about piece development, central control, pins and forks, etc.. was enough to win a bunch of games. So I just kind of got roped in because there was so much to read about, and the more I'd read the stronger my competition became. (There's also plenty of smart people who figure this stuff out just by playing and have never read a chess book in their lives.)
So the short answer is I enjoy figuring out the mysteries of this game -- why one position is better than another, or why people say one opening is better than another. You have the same army as the other guy, and yet we can decide to trade our rook for a knight and sometimes that gives us a winning position, despite the fact that rooks are overall better than knights, and other times it makes us lose because we misjudged the sacrifice. Sometimes you both have the same pieces, but yours are more active, or your pawns happen to be on the right color squares in a bishop endgame, so you win. Other players push us to become better and to appreciate new things we haven't thought about. Small differences can completely sway outcomes. The fact that checkmate ends the game beats materialism out of us and forces us to see more. We have to weigh the short term vs. the long term and decide if we want to risk the long term disadvantages of our moves.
We find out a lot about ourselves in making these decisions. What is our risk tolerance? How strong are our nerves? How well can we handle losing?
Fun facts: Lasker preferred bridge, Capablanca domino, Karpov backgammon...
It's strange but I get a sense of pride knowing chess and playing it better than my friends. And to my utmost surprise, I feel like I'm slowly falling in love for chess. I used to play videogames (playstation) a lot. I was literally addicted to it few years ago. But now I can say same for chess. I am getting addicted to chess. The more I learn it the more empty and hungry I become for knowing and playing chess.
I play chess because my brother's do
Next level of toy soldiers
Blitz and bullet chess are great fun, but can you really appreciate the subtle beauty of the game when you're making a move every two seconds? Maybe if you’re Carlsen , you can.
We mortals, though, need to take some time to consider move candidates, plan a complete opening, check and re-check tactics, and formulate a long-term strategy. Only then can we truly enjoy the deepness of chess.
It’s only when playing real, thinking chess that we get a look at its elegant complexity. If you're getting a little tired of blitz matches with three minutes per game, why not try a correspondence-style online game with a time control of three days per move? This allows for a depth of analysis that's simply not possible over the board -- no matter how good you are.
Keep in mind, slowing down doesn’t necessarily mean playing with a long time control. It can simply mean using the time you have to think about your move instead of relying on intuition. Time and again, players find themselves blitzing out unsound moves with plenty of time on their clocks just because it's easier to play a move that looks O.K. than to check if it really is.
Though this style requires less effort, in the end it also brings less enjoyment than playing a full thinking game of chess. Take the time to appreciate the finer details of the positions you're playing, and you might find a deeper appreciation for the game you love!
My friends don't want to play board games with me anymore after I scored 65 points in Agricola (4 players, no expansions), so it's just chess now for me.