“Chess is popular despite being hard,” I heard often. “If it were easier / faster / simpler, it could be mainstream.”

My view is: chess is popular BECAUSE it is hard.

Many of us do like using our minds. We like a challenge, we get joy from cracking a complex problem. We like to prepare an opening for two days, and then grind on an endgame over the board for two hours. That’s exactly the fun of it.

So, I think people who express the opinion above don’t really get it. Their vision is too simplistic.

And probably, they don’t do sports either. Because if they did, they would understand that running a marathon, climbing a mountain, or working out regularly is also hard — and yet people enjoy it.

Making it “easier, faster, or simpler” might get you the attention of millions of people… for a few days. But that watered-down version of chess would lose exactly what has made so many people enjoy it for centuries.