I've played chess on and off for years now, and it still amazes me that so many intersted in chess are some what strange. I guess that includes myself. The individuals I have met in chess clubs, and at chess houses are some on the oddest ducks on earth. Why is this? Bobby Fisher is a great example of a strange but wonderful person. The list goes on and on, and that is one of the many reasons I love chess.
Yeah... I think it's related to the commitment of time and energy required to play the game well. There have been a few people (Capablanca) who played chess at a high level without apparent effort, but for most there's a major commitment involved. And the better you get, the more appealing the game becomes - you win more often, the games become more beautiful. I think Alekhine once said there wasn't enough time in one lifetime to experience everything the game can offer. So many chessplayers end up a bit underdeveloped in other parts of their lives.
Also, I suspect that chess, especially at the higher levels, poses some psychological risks. A chessplayer has no one to blame if things go wrong, and they often do, so people come up with all kinds of rationalizations and ego-protection mechanisms.
I wonder if that's what happened to Fischer. All the things that made him such a great chessplayer - his focus, his perfectionism, his strong ego, his unwillingness to compromise, his near-total reliance on his own judgment - all those things also had dark sides, and he pays the price today.
I also wonder if Morphy quit because he saw those risks. Or maybe he thought it was just a waste of time...
I read this in a book, and can't remember the players name from the late 1800's or early 1900's I think.. but he went mad. He would stack women's shoes and dance around them naked for kicks. This proved to take up a lot of his time and his game fell off.
Anyone want to let me know the real story, since I read that about 10 years ago and forgot most of the major points of the story.
I myself have always thought "Anyone who thinks they are normal are probably insane, and vise-versa".
Phla-
Originally posted by PhlabibitThe player you refer to is the Pope.
I read this in a book, and can't remember the players name from the late 1800's or early 1900's I think.. but he went mad. He would stack women's shoes and dance around them naked for kicks. This proved to take up a lot of his time and his game fell off.
Anyone want to let me know the real story, since I read that about 10 years ago and forgot mo ...[text shortened]... ways thought "Anyone who thinks they are normal are probably insane, and vise-versa".
Phla-
He forgot most of it too.
Linda
Originally posted by Phlabibit"Paul Morphy, the mid-19th-century unofficial world champion, and the only American to bear the title before Fischer, was found dead in a bath surrounded by women's shoes. Morphy had descended into a world of paranoid delusions: he believed people were trying to poison him and friends were attempting to destroy his clothes."
I read this in a book, and can't remember the players name from the late 1800's or early 1900's I think.. but he went mad. He would stack women's shoes and dance around them naked for kicks. This proved to take up a lot of his time and his game fell off.
Anyone want to let me know the real story, since I read that about 10 years ago and forgot mo ...[text shortened]... ways thought "Anyone who thinks they are normal are probably insane, and vise-versa".
Phla-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,3862866,00.html
I read somewhere else (Chess Cafe?) that this is just a legend. Don't know...
There is a set, weird people, and a set, chess players. The union of which invites the notion of weird people who are chess players. As the number of weird people increase, so the number of weird chess players. Since normal people who don't play chess are outside the two sets, and specifically outside the union of the aformentioned sets, by observance it may be concluded that a lot of weird people play chess. Inasmuch as chessplaying might in itself be designated weird to the mutually exclusive non-chessplaying set, the appearance, then, is that all chessplayers are weird, whether or not, infact, they are weird.
The limit as chessplaying level approaches grandmaster indicates that a mind dedicated to chess has little to do with reason itself, meaning that the weirdness level approaches infinity at the upper limit.
But I digress. Someone get me some more Prada's!