I also think chess has some relation to gambling but I might be tripping lol. I started chess few months ago after watching queen’s gambit and I have played over 1800 games since then. I used to play chess when I was little but now I am actually learning different openings and defenses. This is a good brain activity but when you lose the game, you become obsessed with what you did wrong and you want to keep on winning same like slot machines. you win once in slot machine, you think you are invincible and you will beat the slot machine every time but it doesn’t happen. Same theory in chess, you will beat one person but the next person will play better than you and you lose a game, then you want to play another one and once you are on the winning streak, you feel like a champion and you stop playing for a while lol. I only play chess during my leisure time or break time with set amount of time given to each player like a blitz game or a 5 minutes game. Games keep adding up. We should organize some event and play chess tournament one day, only few of us from this forum. I feel like chess might be the solution. We need an addiction and chess is probably not a harmful addiction ( debatable) but be mindful when you play too much, you will see dreams of chess pieces moving around and you will be pre selecting your moves on the wall, during the sleep, on the door or any flat thing you can find lol. Interest in online chess peaked by 500% after that queen’s gambit show was released. Chess releases the tension to some degree.
