Enjoyment is the only reason I play chess. I do have an ulterior motive for studying it, though it usually doesn't surface in regular conversation. I study it because there is considerable evidence that regular and intense intellectual extrapolation exercise contributes to lucidity during advancing age. My age is doing exactly that, advancing! The beauty of it is, if this surmise turns out to be untrue, I won't know!
We are in harmony as to our motives for painting. I spent 30+ years doing graphic design and illustration in the service of other people. When I returned to fine art I picked up right where I left off, at least in terms of motivation. All that you said about your artistic temperment applies to me precisely. I do not paint with an eye toward marketing.
Idle curiosity motivated me to determine my standing in the chess community over the course of only 63 rated games. If that were all that mattered, I probably wouldn't have bothered playing the other 18,000 (really) games! Lest you think I may have discovered some way to stretch time, I should qualify that by saying that fully 90% of those games were 5-minute blitz chess, wherein a game cannot last longer than 10 minutes total - the combined times on each player's clock at the start of play. That said, I think I can honestly say that I play chess because I like it.
And I like teaching it to beginners. I once taught 180 kids how to play in five days. I got $500, room and board at a kids' camp, laryngitis, and influenza! I'd do it again in a heartbeat. The look on a fresh face that suddenly "gets it" is priceless. So fine. It's dropped. And just when I was warming up to the topic!
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