I've seen some other quotes out there that reflect similar ideas, though this is the first one I could find:
“Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.” -- Raymond Chandler
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This book is filled with contradictions but I thought the author Joseph Heller had a good point here when he wrote,
"Yossarian had stopped playing chess with him because the games were so interesting they were foolish."
I like it because it shows that chess can be so complicated and interesting that one starts to question why they spend that much brainpower, effort and time on something that is only a game.