Checkmate of Leisure! Virtual Communities Regarding Chess

The aim of this study is generally to understand the behavior, culture and attitudes of chess players with a netnographic approach. In order to have knowledge about chess players in a virtual community, netnography was used for data analysis and interpretation. In this regard, two forums and two Facebook groups on the internet related to chess are included for research. In the selection of virtual communities, the criteria for having the most members and comments are taken into account. As a result of examining the four chess virtual communities, the shares made are grouped under four main and eight subcategories. The four main categories are "Critical Paradigm", "Hedonism", "Serious Leisure Based Chess" and "Information Transfer and Publicity", and the eight subcategories are "Tournament and Championship", "Interaction", "Reward System", "Management", "Culture- and Art- Based Chess", "Events", "Practice and Implementation" and "Leisure Transformation". Finally, each emerging main category is divided into two subcategories. Each main and subcategory provides a general overview of the culture, behavior and attitudes of chess players. Thanks to the sharing, individuals are able to exchange ideas with each other in chess-related matters. They also help each other about to contribute chess, sharing perceived shortcomings and making suggestions on a variety of topics. In addition, the most important benefit they can make is that individuals can improve themselves in chess and carry on to higher levels