On the Impossibility of Casual/Fun Chess Play?

Does chess seem like a game that cannot be played for casual fun?  It seems to require all out attention and focus, where a single missed move can lead to one being checkmated or losing a major piece(s)/advantage.  In other words, it requires constant intense focus and putting in work.  At least for me, it feels like work.  Whereas, when I'm playing a different type of game (maybe Monopoly), there's more of an ability to relax (for me, at least).  Any thoughts on this topic?

Sometimes i find the fact that it requires your full concentration relaxing as it takes your mind off other stuff :)

I never concentrate...

Do you really think grandmasters who checkmate other grandmasters in less than a minute playing bullet are sitting there "concentrating" really hard, really fast?

My guess is they aren't even really calculating all that much... as much as they are recognizing familiar positions.

In fact, from what I've heard, they rely more on recognizing patterns of winning moves in positions they've seen and studied before, than the beginner who must sit there calculating everything because they haven't learned it yet.

Maybe it's true what that one special forces guy said, "The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat." Or something like that.

Then again, I'm still just learning the moves, so I could have it all wrong, but at least I'm having fun.