On Sep 18, 10:14 am, " wrote:
THE HISTORIAN IS RIGHT

Nice to see Larry Parr and Neil Brennen agreeing for once.

Yet players were penniless and people held them in low esteem. "Chess
is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can
find outside of an advertising agency," sneered novelist Raymond
Chandler.

On Sep 18, 9:54 am, The Historian wrote:
On Sep 17, 8:19 am, " wrote:

One can certainly debate whether chess is a waste
of time and intellectual energy (Raymond Chandler once
termed it the greatest waste of talent save for
Stalinist apologetics),

"Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find
outside an advertising agency." I believe that's the quotation you
meant.

For a contrary view, I like this brief poem by Lord Dunsany,
currently featured on the home page of www.chesshistory.com:

To the Memory of R.H.S. Stevenson

One art they say is of no use;
The mellow evenings spent at chess,
The thrill, the triumph, and the truce
To every care, are valueless

And yet, if all whose hopes were set
On harming man played chess instead
We should have cities standing yet
Which now are dust upon the dead