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. 
Chess is too simple.
It only has a mere 8 by 8 grid, no fog of war, no technology tree, no random map or spawn position, only 2 players, both sides exact same pieces, etc. Polytopia addresses these limitations
No passive abilities, CO powers, terrain, fuel, weather, accuracy, range, or effectiveness either. Truly, chess is Advance Wars for babies
boxing is like chess
if you punch your opponent really hard you winThe governing bodies of chessboxing are the World Chessboxing Association and the World Chess Boxing Organisation.
The World Chessboxing Association split from World Chess Boxing Organization
lmao there are competing associations.
I had a friend that would talk about MMA being like chess. There was one fighter he was a particular fan of that also talked this way a lot. Total genius. The fighter and my friend both got into flat-earth shit :/
I just want to watch chess grandmasters do something like play Victoria III or build a cabinet. Do something else smart.
Oh, you're a chess grandmaster? Assemble three pieces of Ikea furniture.
Chess is feminist, the strongest piece is the Queen.
These guys are just sharing there dreams of a society where women are empowered.
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.
Joe Rogan really popularized comparing MMA with Chess, but he would typically break that line out for the most boring-ass shitty fights to try to spin them in a positive light. Like, what kind of asshole actually wants to see a fight that reminds them of a fuckin' chess match? lol
In most cases poker makes for a better analogy as what people are really talking about is the feint/bluff/misdirection strategies at play.
Video games are like chess because the communities are just as toxic
