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Chess and mental health - Why the stigma?

Chess and mental health - Why the stigma?

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@mghrn55 said
Johnny Depp would be a great choice to play a chess player.
I've said before that Ryan Gosling would make a great choice to play Fischer. He's great at portraying off-kilter characters.

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@vivify said
I've said before that Ryan Gosling would make a great choice to play Fischer. He's great at portraying off-kilter characters.
Agreed to the point that he looks intellectual. But perhaps his head is on too straight.
Depp has a bit of a disturbed persona about him.

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@mghrn55 said
Agreed to the point that he looks intellectual. But perhaps his head is on too straight.
Depp has a bit of a disturbed persona about him.
Watch Gosling in "Lars and the Real Girl", where he plays a painfully shy recluse, who was a lot like Fischer.

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@vivify said
Very true; but he's referring to a flaw that's specifically attributed to chess players: the anti-social weirdo.
To be a very good chess player probably means you tick a few autistic boxes.

You won’t really beat a grand master without total dedication and loads of studying. And very few people have that kind of focus.

And to the majority of people, autism (although high functioning, so low on the autistic scale) can feel a little strange.

All this being said, the girl in the Queen’s gambit seems more psychologically traumatized than autistic.

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@shavixmir said
To be a very good chess player probably means you tick a few autistic boxes.

You won’t really beat a grand master without total dedication and loads of studying. And very few people have that kind of focus.

And to the majority of people, autism (although high functioning, so low on the autistic scale) can feel a little strange.

All this being said, the girl in the Queen’s gambit seems more psychologically traumatized than autistic.
And deep psychological trauma doesn't lend itself to promoting the focus necessary to produce a grandmaster. It certainly CAN be done, but it is by no means easy.


@suzianne said
And deep psychological trauma doesn't lend itself to promoting the focus necessary to produce a grandmaster. It certainly CAN be done, but it is by no means easy.
Well, if say the trauma makes you wary of relationships, you could end up blocking out things like flirting, sex, etc. And thet can lead to a greater focus on other things.

Take the incel community. They’ve managed, by blaming women for their lack of sex, to totally focus on moronity and support trump.

Just imagine if they’d manage to focus on chess!
Which of course they wouldn’t. They’d just end up blaming the queen all the time...


Sorry. Went off on a rant...

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I was heading to be a grandmaster until I turned 12 and realized that girls have very interesting body parts.

Since then I’ve struggled to tie my shoelaces.

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The post that was quoted here has been removed
Not quite sure what you’re answering to there.

If 5% of people are bastards, 5% of chess players will be bastards too.

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@shavixmir said
All this being said, the girl in the Queen’s gambit seems more psychologically traumatized than autistic.
Notice how the character speaks to others in humorless, socially tone-deaf ways, for most of the series. She's cluelessly blunt at times, all common traits of autism. Seemed to be modelled after Fischer.

Of course it's fiction so she matures out of that, unlike actual autistic people. Fischer remained that way his entire life.

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Considering the comments I see on this site I'd say the stereotype of chess players as being a bit loony is pretty accurate.


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The post that was quoted here has been removed
And it is all the better for it.