Before the pandemic, I played 1 season of chess in my local chess league, and I loved it. It's a great excuse to spend a couple of evenings a month going out,

Before the pandemic, I played 1 season of chess in my local chess league, and I loved it. It's a great excuse to spend a couple of evenings a month going out, meeting new people, and considering interesting positions in interesting games. We normally played 80+20 time control (each player has 80 minutes for the game, with an additional 20 seconds added to their clock after each move), which gives way more time for in-depth analysis of the positions that you can get with the default time controls on lichess. Chess becomes a negative experience if you put too much importance on winning, which I have done a couple of times. If you can make winning important enough that you try hard, but not so important that losing is crushing, then I think it's a great hobby.