Playingchess

After Deep Blue beat world champion Garry Kasparov in the late 90s, there was very little interest in chess. Artificial intelligence had beat human intelligence in yet another complicated field of reasoning.

I got to watch people playing and Central Park once. Just amazes me how fast these people can play. They can finish the game at a time I decide on my third move. I play backgammon online sometimes, that I miss playing against someone that may play a different strategy then a computer. How about poker? Anybody host a poker game with friends?

Yes I do

I haven't played chess in years. I'm not sure if I even remember how to play, it's been so long.

No. Nobody ever plays chess anymore.

I've owned a handful of chess boards, but it always seems like the pieces get lost or the board gets wrecked in one way or another. Online chess just seems easier to set up and easier to get down to chatting. It's just make chess more convenient.
I can't say whether or not chess with a physical chess board are becoming more or less popular, but it's not strange either way.