Chess (n.) is a kind of drawing and a mechanical reality.
Chess (n.) is the movement of pieces eating one another.
Chess (n.) is an art — while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.
Chess (n.) is much purer than art in its social position. While having all the beauty of art, it cannot be commercialized.
Chess (n.) is a game with which one creates beautiful problems.
Chess (n.) is a game for madmen of a certain quality, the way the artist is supposed to be, and isn't, in general.
Chess (n.) is a game whose pieces are the block alphabet which shapes thoughts; and these thoughts, although making a visual design on the chessboard, express their beauty abstractly, like a poem
Chess (n.) is a sport. A violent sport.
Chess (n.) is not so much mathematics as it is logic and mechanics; mechanics in the sense that the pieces, move, interact, and destroy each other. They’re in constant motion.
Chess (n.) has all the beauty of art - and much more. It cannot be commercialized. It is much purer than art in its social position.