21 Oct '08 00:37>1 edit
Originally posted by greenpawn34I was reading in Shenk's book The Immortal Game about the history of mental illness in strong chess players. A few examples [if memory serves]:
Hi Wormwood.
In his last 20 years Fischer was not a well man both in body and in mind.
Although it is unseen a mental illness is still a disability.
Surely you cannot hold that against him?
Just rejoice in what he done for chess when he was a well man, not
at what he did and said when he was unwell.
If he had not been famous all of his ramblings and rantings would
have been ignored.
- Akiba Rubinstein went schizophrenic or other similar illness
- Curt Von Bardeleben [loser of a famous game with Steinitz] committed suicide jumping out a window
- Raymond Weinstein, a promising new US player around 1960, was rumored to be schizophrenic and jailed for assault. He later killed a fellow inmate with a razor blade.
And that's to say nothing about various other world champions and strong players with various unfortunate personality traits - Steinitz's mudslinging in his chess magazine, Staunton's insulting and later ducking of Morphy, Alekhine's allegedly hitting on the female help at dinners and bad table manners [so notorious that one popular theory is that he died choking on a piece of meat], Kasparov's breaking and reuniting with FIDE at his own convenience, etc. etc.
In short, many of the world champs seem like they weren't very likeable. Probably Tal had the best personality, but I'm sure now that I have mentioned his name there will be some anecdotes to the contrary. 😛