Chess: a game that's losing it's value?

I'm a senior in High school, and I have been playing chess with the timer and all in school with various of my former and current teachers. But the students that come in and out of the class look upon it as a ridiculous game, even calling it so.

From a spectator point of view, are chess games at all interesting (are they boring to watch in other words) or is chess a game that no one really considers anymore in this age of technology?

To appreciate a chess game, one must be able to play chess. To appreciate a football game you just have to have a butt to place on your sofa. This is why chess is not a spectator sport.

As long as you are enjoying the game it retains its value. PLay over games of the great masters of the past and youll understand what i mean.

I don't understand all this talking about how chess is losing it's importance, blablabla. Chess has always been a game that only few people had a real interest in. Sure, many know the basic rules and can play a game, but most of them have no interest in the game itself, they don't want to know more about it, they don't follow the games by the grandmasters and they don't care if Magnus wins the Candidates or Levon, because they don't even know who Magnus and Levon are. They have heard of Bobby Fischer and of Garri Kasparov, but that's all. And that's ok.

I don't know why chess should become a mainstream-game now, all of a sudden. There will always be some people who like the game so much that they will invest some time to get better and follow the master games, but most people won't, because it's a complex and difficult game. That has nothing to do with value. Is philosophy less valuable because most people don't care for it? It would probably be better if they would, but this won't happen. So who cares.

not really

If you mean that I wrote "Garri" instead of "Garry": sorry, that's the german transliteration of the russian original and, as far as I know, it's the more accurate one.

When I played chess at clubs in the 80's people were saying the same thing: we aren't getting enough members, especially young members, because of all these computer games that people are spending their time with instead of learning chess.

Chess survived that.

Chess survived WOW, COD, runescape and Skyrim.

Chess is a battle-hardened survivor. Chess will press on. Chess will never surrender. Chess will fight them on the beaches, whereever they might be. Chess will never succumb to the dark abyss of a perverted science.

wow

I felt like paraphrasing Winston Churchill. So I did it.

Since time immemorable people have taken pleasure watching athletic abilities pitted against each other... it's biological.. instinctive.  Who the hell has ever wanted to watch an intellectual match?   With the first, you can watch how far, how fast, how high, how strong.  It's easy to see.  With the second, you cannot appreciate the skill involved until the very end.  The majority of people will *never* want to watch a chess game.  It's also the reason why bullet/blitz games are so much more popular than standard; far more exciting.

I am not very good at chess, but have been slowing improving and progressing.  I'm in college. 

The value of chess for me, beyond just mere fun, has been the building of logical and creative thinking skills.  So, I can see how chess can be "useful" in terms of everyday life skills.  It teaches you critical, creative, and logical thinking, as well as patience, perseverance, discipline/hard-work, strategic planning (could be helpful in business or life planning), and a host of other things. 

I've always heard that sports is about life.  And in many ways I can see how chess can be about life too.  But, I also just enjoy it for what is is, lol. 

Chess is a great game.  I don't care if others like it or not. 

I do agree, though, that it can be tough for others to appreciate it without much personal play and study.  It's a more complex game, so it's not as easy to understand and appreciate all of the nuances for many spectators.  But don't let that stop you!  If you truly love chess, then just don't worry about others.  lol

Chess is truly a survivor, but it's kind of bittersweet to know that one day the game will be mathematically solved. 

Here's a follow-up question. 

What about in Bobby Fischer's day?  I was around, but wasn't Fischer a national hero in the US? 

Could the American public today even name the best U.S. player? 

I guess maybe in Fischer's day there was more at stake?  Of course I'm talking about US (capitalist) and USSR (communist) ideological conflicts and the symbolism of Fischer vs. the Soviet Union.  ...But, still, to have a whole country know who you are due to chess is pretty amazing. 

Was the culture different then?  Less TV, video games, etc. possibly at all?  ....And what about in the old Soviet Union?  Was chess "popular" in the USSR back then?

Chess. Golf. Getting drunk.

They're all fun to do. No fun to watch somebody else do it.

Nothing to do with the day, or the age. Chess has always been that way. It cannot lose, what it never had. It is what's known as a Niche-market. Has major appeal to a few, little/no appeal to most.

And it will always be that way.  Two guys staring at some wooden figures on a checkered board will never have mass appeal.

But what 99% of the world thinks isn't important. The pertinent question is, Do YOU enjoy it?

If so, it has the potential to enrich your life for years to come. That just means you are part of that niche. Enjoy.

The reason why some people like chess and others do not is the object of the game and its rule structures.  Chess is a challenging game that teaches a person to think.  Evaluation of what chess teaches as valuable fluctuates from person to person.  Modern day domesticated society is fully immersed in social ethics and actual legal regulations and a person cannot take things by force.  Due to the continual forcing of moves in chess, chess is rewarding in that it allows the players to experience what life is really about when all the layers of domesticated nonsense are removed.  Simultaneously because chess has removed all bs, it is not generally applicable to society or living in it and as such, remains a game, rather than a true trainer of survival in society.  Many people do not find chess as interesting because the majority of the populace actually believes that the status quo in some way represents normalcy and refuses or even doesnt know the question exists of what really lies under the surface of "society".  So of course the majority of people couldnt appreciate chess due to this viewpoint of idiocy and the fact that appreciation of chess exacts a bit of effort of thinking rather than being the patient drone that is applauded in the general everyday work world.  Whether the general population appreciates chess is highly irrelevant when certain markers are used to justify this, such as viewership of certain tv programs or acceptance of pop music stars as producers of "music" when all of these things are as relevant to anything as used toilet paper, ready to be flushed.

Chess is not a game which can be enjoyed by spectators, I think; it can be enjoyed by the players only.

That's what people said about Magic The Gathering and the Street Fighter video game franchise. Guess what. those two survived WOW, COD, runescape and Skyrim as well

Whether chess will survive online elder scrolls - that will be a challenge.

I think chess will always be around. Hwr, it could use some creative marketing to increase its popularity, like poker has done.