If it is somewhat like chess in mechanics, that's one thing.
What I mean is the "MMA grappling is like chess" or "Overwatch is like chess" or even "crypto day trading is like chess." What they mean is it's a big boy very serious very smart interest for big boy very serious very smart people. 
I hate that, especially because I've recently noticed just how silly and chuddy the largest and loudest parts of the chess community, especially its fandom, really are. The pretenses of detached gravitas really ring hollow when some jerkoff like Kasparov runs his mouth about how he read The Gulag Archipelago and became enlightened. 
My big problem with chess bros is how predetermined the game is. Every move has been discovered. Which is fine, if that's your thing. But it also exists in like a hermetically sealed vacuum. Reality is too entropic for chess to translate 1:1 for whatever scenario you have at hand. Give me a chess where half your pawns are suffering from dysentery and we can talk about how it'll make you a great war leader or some shit.
It's a fun game, I don't mean to sound too harsh, but I think that people who think it's some skeleton key to unlock the universe are huffing farts.