I have a old good friend who was rated 2000 back in 1971 an at his top was close to 2100.I have another friend who at his top was around 2100 around 1991.I used to observe the two play blindfold chess an the older player always came out on top.When i tryd my hand at blind fold i came in last doing good to keep upthe moves about 25 to 30 deep.jules was a more positonal player Cecil the more tactical.Both had natural skills if the had worked hard enough to be rated masters.I play online 1 to 3 hours every day an thru hard work now can hold my on with them in chess.Why because i busted my arse.I have played over joshs game lots of talent an while he did work hard a player like joel benjamin or a michael rohde were in the same range but they busted their butts an these are the players we should admire.I respect more a player like jack Peters who tryd so hard to get his Gm norms but was just not good enough if he had had half the talent of a player like josh he would have had his Gm title 25 years ago.The worst thing for josh was fame an money he lost his drive.Hes all HYPE.
Josh Waitzkin's resignation from competitive chess
I have a old good friend who was rated 2000 back in 1971 an at his top was close to 2100.I have another friend who at his top was around 2100 around 1991.I used to observe the two play blindfold chess an the older player always came out on top.When i tryd my hand at blind fold i came in last doing good to keep upthe moves about 25 to 30 deep.jules was a more positonal player Cecil the more tactical.Both had natural skills if the had worked hard enough to be rated masters.I play online 1 to 3 hours every day an thru hard work now can hold my on with them in chess.Why because i busted my arse.
Compared to someone like Josh only playing (not even studying!) 1-3 hours a day is absolutely pathetic. Saying that's "busting your arse" made me literally lol.
I have played over joshs game lots of talent an while he did work hard a player like joel benjamin or a michael rohde were in the same range but they busted their butts an these are the players we should admire.I respect more a player like jack Peters who tryd so hard to get his Gm norms but was just not good enough if he had had half the talent of a player like josh he would have had his Gm title 25 years ago.The worst thing for josh was fame an money he lost his drive.Hes all HYPE.
That's just too ridiculous to even comment on.
Once, I met a 4-year old whose rating is in the 900s! In a tournament, he won 9th place out of 700 people! He must have a gift.
Waitzkin hit a wall, as many players do at various levels. In order to advance, the most acclaimed coach of all time felt he needed to learn to play better defense and improve his positional understanding. If Josh felt this wasn't "fun" anymore, that's his privilege, a personal decision. But that doesn't mean he "coulda been a contender" at all. He didn't have the chops for it.
Perhaps so, or pehaps not. I don't know what kind of expertise and criteria some of the posters are using to determine that he "hit a wall" or "didn't have the chops for it." Very few GM's were "born" that way but had to work their way up gradually.
As for his choice, why deprive Waitzkin of the benefit of the doubt? Lot's of people are multi-talented and eventually make a choice. It doesn't necessarily mean they hit a dead end in the field they didn't choose. When Felix Mendelsohn chose music over a law career, he chose what he loved although he excelled in both areas. When Akiva Rubinstein decided to be a professional chess player rather than a Talmudic scholar, it was not because he hit a dead end in his religious studies. And when Kasparov retired from competitive chess to enter politics, business and coaching, it didn't mean he was all washed up in his chess career.
When you work full time then one to three hours a day is a lot.He must have received a lot of money for the movie the book an the chessmaster computer series etc.Give his dad credit he knew how to market him.point is he was set up with enough money to play in tournaments all over the world had the god given ability but was lazy as compared to a joel benjamin.I have no respect for someone who had the natural talent money an time to become a Gm but has no drive.Only because of his dads marketing skills is he on the chess mastergame.If you need a IM the use someone like a much better teacher like jermey silman.Hes all hype.
One hour a day is a lot? Do you sleep nineteen hours a day or something?
you can harp on me all wish the fact is lots of players with as much or less natural chess skills played well enough to get the GM title.Josh was lazy as compared to a michael rohde or nick de firman etc etc the list gos on.He had money time an youth what he lacked was enough drive.Chess money hes received from all his hype off the money should go to players like joel or a max dlugy.Take jessie kraii i think thats his lasy name way less natural skills but a hard chess worker gets hiss GM title.Josh was lazy compared to these players but makes off with all the chess money which there is to little of to take care of our few native born american GMs.I will buy the chessmaster computer game again only if this lazy player is removed an replaced with someone more deserving like the young Hess Grandmaster.
this whole thread is gettin´very ´girlie´an´that hardly a compliment to our lady friends in the community who seem to be able to deport themselves with a certain amount of decorum 
Hear, hear!
Dear Mr. philidor_position,
I too, am sad to see Mr. Waitzkin leaving the global chess-community. However, I do appreciate Mr. Waitzkin for choosing how to live his life.
It's not like every anti-chess dicision would be bad, though I can see how things might seem that way. Taiji is a wonderful thing as well.
It amazes me when people think it's odd for someone to lose interest in something, then want to try something else. People are never locked into one thing in their lives. Some people want to experience many things. People do get bored with things and go on to other stuff.
I think Hentener is getting his argument wires criss-crossed.
Josh not rising up to the potential other people see in him is something that might bug you and you have a right to rant about it.
Then suddenly, he's a lucky bum who doesn't deserve his ChessMaster money?
His success as a teacher (via Chessmaster) in making learning chess fun for a zillion kids out there who can't afford a coach cannot be questioned. I don't see CM asking Roman D. or Joel to take his place. Evidently ChessMaster's CEO has less business acumen than you do.
I'd like to see any of the other "better" players out there come up with a chess training software of their own, assuming they even WANTED to.
"But they didn't have a movie about them, it's so much harder for them to do it or get investors" => Now who's being lazy?
Being angry about an unsubstantiated "lazy theory" you have about him and then attacking his PROVEN role in a software that did a lot to promote chess is your God-given right ... but when you share this opinion with the rest of us who have a better grasp of reality, you really look silly.
Not being the next Bobby Fischer was a good choice and is a blessing. Look what happened to Fischer. Ask yourself, would you rather have Josh Waitzkin's life or Bobby Fischer's?
we has all got our own lives, Ricardo; mine ain't bin no bed of roses, but I still never spent a single minute hankerin' after anybody else's
I've all ready stated this many times, but I don't think he was lazy at all. I don't know crap about chess, but just by reading his book he wrote when he was 18 called "Attacking Chess" I could tell he wanted to get to the GM level so bad he would have sold his buns to the devil for it, and worked for it for the next several years, but was finally forced to admit he just didn't have the talent to reach the very top level.
Not being the next Bobby Fischer was a good choice and is a blessing. Look what happened to Fischer. Ask yourself, would you rather have Josh Waitzkin's life or Bobby Fischer's?
What happened to Fischer (and Morphy) had nothing to do with chess. On the contrary, chess provided them with success and admiration. Fischer's mental deterioration occurred after he had already left competitive chess. How many successful chess greats have suffered from psychosis? The only other I can think of is Steinitz, but again, that happened after he was way past his prime as a chessplayer.
we has all got our own lives, Ricardo; mine ain't bin no bed of roses, but I still never spent a single minute hankerin' after anybody else's
Nor I.
Thanks for sharing this.
ALL this love for as compared to other players such as Jack Peters or a Joel Benjamin or tf you wish to see an example of hard work an CHESS Drive check out last years B-group Spice tournament for the IM at age 40 fought his heart out an won his last Gm norm.Or a Larry Kauffman who at age 60 won the senior world championship to become a grandmaster.Someone like Peters if he had had Joshs natural skills an easy money due to his dads markiting skills would have made it in to the world top 25 players.With his money he could had the best coach an time to play in all the GM norm events that other top players who had to beg for support an do it on their on.OK i give him this hes most likly made more money off chess than any other American chess player an as compared to these players who went as far or well pst him with less money but they had DRIVE to be a GM this is sad that so much of the little chess money in America went as now compared to the others this lazy as a chess player that is young man.I think hes in his early 30s so come back play become a GM then an only then will i show you any love as all the other posters slop all over you.
Really though, what is there that says that he has this extraordinary skill? Because he managed to become IM? That doesn't really make him a candidate for World champion. Because he won the US-kidschampionship? Heck, one kid wins that every year and I haven't seen a new Bobby Fischer every year from US.
Hype and nothing else.
Well put.