RikkiTikkiTavi, Post #59: Looks like somebody wants his social skills to be praised 
I agree with you on a lot of points; for instance, I think obsession, and love for the game, is a significant way to become a Super GM, although not necessarily the only one. However, to have so much focus on that one area of focus they are passionate about is simply very impressive to me nonetheless. Obviously you have to divide your time in some way: If you become good at everything, you might not be remembered for anything because you didn't do anything exceptional.
As far as the social goes: I wouldn't say being unpopular means you have bad social skills. All you have to do to be unpopular is to like to do things that are unpopular, difficult to understand, or narrow. Most people may naturally struggle to connect with you in that case; if your mannerisms and interests are exactly what people like, then being popular will be effortless, because you can be yourself and everything flows from there. If they aren't what people like, then you will be tempted to be more socially constrained. Pretty much every extrovert likes to do a variety of things, as this makes it easy for them to make all sorts of connections, with lots of different people. That's not necessarily a skill -- they just happen to have varied interests.
George1st, Post 30: Oh, yes, the criticisms based on practicality. Let's start here: If Magnus's obsession with chess is ridiculous, then how is dedicating one's life to music, art, or performing (they can only pretend to save lives!), any better? We have this thing called specialization -- yes, back in the neolithic era, most people were forced to be farmers or gatherers, to actually keep people from starving to death. As we got a surplus of food, we could specialize and discover other peculiarities of life. Were the Greek philosophers, or the artists and thinkers of the Renaissance "losers?"