No, I think there are casual and hardcore games, and harcore and casual players too. Game sites are calling chess video games casual games because they think that videogames that recreate the reality, simulation games, are casuals. Games which create a new reality or are just not based on the reality or fictional are hardcore.
Chess is the best example of a "before video games" hardcore game. I dont think is easy to play, is very deep and very competitive. It also (the board game) represents a non existing reality (medieval battles).
Kasparov once said about his profession "my hands are full of blood, I am a fighter"
So as a board game it is a hardcore game. As a video game it is casual because you dont have to know anything else but the rules of the real game. If a casual gamer, like I am sometimes, believing the reviews or recomendations of expirienced gamers follow the advice of playing Metroid Prime Corruption is gone to have a hard time. I discovered that in order to fully enjoy that game, should have played the previous versions, which I didn´t. It is the Hardcore game for definition, it is based on an alternative reality or fantastic non existing world, and you are supossed to have knowledge about all that. A chess video game? You just have to know the real chess, which a lot of people, not neccesarily video gamers, already know how to play.
So in conclusion, as a board game is hardcore.
As a video game is casual, but it can be played in a hardcore Kasparov way.
