Do you know any ex-chess players? How did they manage to do it? Have they found happiness on the other side? I searched chess.com forums for this, but all I found was http://www.chess.com/forum/view/community/im-shankland-quitting-chess and within three days he found out he couldn't manage to rehabilitate either. Help!

I have tried chess patches , and am currently attending  chess anonymous meetings , i will beat this evil addiction !

Quitting chess is easy.  I've done it lots of times.

Waitzkin?

Yeah, Waitzkin, he quit like 10 years ago. His departure still makes a huge impression on all of us... because since he left, nobody else has gone

It's one month later. Did anybody keep their new year's resolution and quit chess?

Quite possibly, though they may not have been logging on

Oh, I quit a year ago already. I've only been playing tournament games ever since, in tournaments I joined before I quit chess. I might take up chess again once I'm through with those...

In the past many GMs retired from active play. Botwinnik, Rubinshtein, Tarrasch, Fischer, Spassky, Gligoric... to name a few. Two of the biggest talents that devoted themselves to other professions were Srecko Nedeljkovic an MD, and Andrija Fuderer chemical engineer (they both died last year).

The need to quit will sometimes be felt by those who are over indulging in this excellent game. Just like facebook you can dabble if you wish. Unlike facebook your grade may well be reflected by the time you indulge yourself in chess. GMs and other professionals are in very deep water; they have commited themselves, by their own choice, to chess and inevitably this will push other things out of their lives

We all have regrets in life if we are honest, and some may be sad at what retrospectively they consider to be their wasted time. There is not much space in a lifetime to be really good at anything. My solution to the problem has been to become a dabbler at most things, as for a longtime I have been aware that the night cometh.

 Not really encouraging, is it?

Living will kill you in the end.

+1

I've never quit chess but I have quit playing MMOs, which for me was a similar addiction to the way people over-focus on chess. I spent a few years trying to quit. I'd make a big deal out of it, say goodbye to friends, delete accounts, and then troll the forums and chat with friends from the game. When I finally did quit I didn't say goodbye, didn't explain myself, and quit talking to my friends from those games. 

If you want to quit chess you need to quit everything that is related to chess. Your chess friends are gone. No more reading chess news. Don't even follow the world championship match. Certainly, don't post about it on a chess website. Let them think you died.

If chess is hurting your life, then good luck and I hope to never hear from you again.

chess can kill you, just look at Fischer, Morphy, Lowenthal and Capablanca, just to name a few.....

Over 30 years ago I reached a point where I realized that I needed to spend a LOT  more time studying and playing chess if I wanted to reach a high playing level, but I was also going to university and needed to work to survive.  Since I couldn't support myself playing chess, work and school won out.   After that, much of my time was taken up by work, travel, other hobbies, and a family, so I didn't have much time for chess.

But several decades after walking away from chess I find myself with a bit of time on my hands, once again a chess addict.

I quit for several months in 2011.