6 masters who proved that chess kills your brain and your life - YOU ARE WARNED

1. Paul Morphy - Regarded as the first unofficial world champion, within 2 years of playing international chess, he went nuts. Chess rearranged his neurons and he was never the same again. He spent the last 10 years of his life wandering aimlessy talking to himself. He died a beggar.

2. Willhelm Steinitz - This was the first official world champion but he died in an insane asylum, broken and flea infested. Chess manipulated his brain and destroyed his emotional quotient. He was eventually left to the dogs.

3. Jose Capablanca - This guy never did a day's work in his life. Everything came to him easy in life. He was such a genious at chess that he did no training, he read no book. All this developed in him the biggest egos the chess world has ever seen. All he did was eat gourmet meals, flirt with the best looking ladies and play poker smoking home made cigar. Eventually he died when he was analyzing a game in a chess club in New York when an artery in his brain burst due to high blood pressure. He was wearing a $1500 suit when this happened. 

4. Alexander Alekhine - This guy spent 12 hours a day playing and analyzing chess for over 40 years. After beating Capablanca in the world championship match, he took his life for granted and became a drunkard, he used to arrive for a game stinking of alchohol. Once, he even peed in his pants during a game because he was too drunk to stumble to the toilet. He was assasinated in Portugal, his dead body was found hunched over a chess board.

5. Mikhail Tal - He was a genius over the board at spotting tactical combinations, his games are shocking. But, he was also a chain smoker and a drug addict, he executed masterpieces over the board under the influence of narcotics, he saw his own things on the board. He died prematurely at the age of 50, he looked like an 80 year old man. He died of kidney failure due to his lifetime indulgence in vodka, drugs and ciggarates.

6. Bobby Fisher - This person needs no introduction, he was arguably the greatest player of his time. But for the last 30 years of his life, he was the chess world's mad uncle, an embarrassment that cannot be expressed in words. He eventually died of kidney failure, he refused all his medicines.

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So, a question to all those who want to take chess seriously -

Do you really think its worth it to sacrifice your life, your happiness, the well-being of your loved ones just to achieve a superfluous title like a GM? Go to college, get a degree, get a job, live your life.

Oh, this thread is for people who take their chess seriously. Well, I'm off the hook... (Actually, Capablanca's lifestyle sounds pretty good...)

Many of the players on this list can be pegged as having the intelligence-boosting version of the DARPP-32 gene, which scientists today say may lead to both enhanced cognitive abilities, and a higher risk of eventual schizophrenia.

(Google "Genius Insanity Gene" for some interesting research!)

To be world champion and an all-time great ... Yes. I am about a third of the way their chessically and all the way there psychologically.

The other issue with "greatness" and "madness" is that the former often precedes the latter.

Most people read about how all-time greats in any field achieved what they did and they read stuff about thousands of hours of study or practice, will to succeed, never giving up, etc., but in reality much of this is garbage.

The real truth is the ones with "greatness" are so crazy that they weren't going to do anything else other than what they did, regardless of whether they would be successful (most fail), but the "great ones" live to tell their tale and couch their success in more normal terms to the rest of us ("hard work", "perseverance", "never give up").

That is very true Danny.

There is no connection between their lifestyle and their chess abilities whatsoever. Alekhine was an alcoholic for his whole life, Capa was the type of guy who lives live the way he did and dies exactly that way, and Tal was simply an addict who never even considered stopping.

Luckily I am safe. I don't have a life or a brain.

I want to reply but chess has killed my brain.

That hasn't stopped the rest of us from weighing in!

You, sir, have a point.

Many could be added to this list.

Starting by adding all world champions, and adding names of strong players who never became world champion like Keres, Korchnoi, Rubinstein, ...

Since i will never be that good, i have nothing to worry about.

You're right about the first part, not so sure about the second.

According to my last psyche evaluation i should be ok.

Tell me about it.  I heard he was very popular with the ladies.

Pillsbury and Rubinstein would've made much better examples, but this goes to show you that trolls these days can't be bothered to put in the effort like they used to.

Wasnt Pillsbury a viction of his own demise?  aka syphillus.

Which he got at a chess tournament.

If thats true, i didnt know that.