You have to be a walking database to be good at chess the same way you have to be a walking database to be a good programmer: hundreds of patterns small and big, thousands of tricks and some learnt by heart information. After all that comes creativity. Chess is very similar in this respect. As to it not being useful... well one thing is it's competitive activity. That teaches you about winning and losing and dealing with it. All the thing which comes with it: dealing with luck, seeing hard workers coming out on top, realizing you are not very special snowflake and there are hundreds people as talented (or more) than you. It's quite a skill. I am for one very grateful I learnt about it when I was a kid by doing competitive chess.
It's a lot easier to make a living as a programmer than as a chess player. Also, winning and losing as a programmer doesn't apply (except at a hackathon or similar competition).
Winning and losing apply to everything in life. I think people who were exposed to competitive activity as children deal with setbacks way better. That being said chess is not exceptional here - about any sport would do as long as compete, train and are part of the team.
As to making a living as a programmer being easier - no argument but it doesn't relate in any way to my post.
"Winning and losing apply to everything in life" is nonsense. As well say winning and losing apply to nothing in life.
Certainly learning to lose is probably a good thing when you are a youngster, but "everything in life" sounds miserable to me, and perhaps only reflects your worldview, and is not in fact an absolute as you suggest.
