by Marlin Bressi

Created on: November 27, 2010

It is a very common misconception that chess is somehow connected to intelligence.  Society paints chess players as intellectual giants, towering high above the rest of us mere mortals when it comes to brilliance.  The reality is that mastery of the game of chess makes you no more of a mental giant than the mastery of any other game.

Chess is a game of calculations and mathematics; a sport which requires the use of a very specific portion of the brain.  The same can also be said for billiards, which is also a game that relies on similar mental processes.  Billiards, after all, is nothing more than mastery of angles and geometry.  So why do we consider people like Bobby Fischer or Garry Kasparov to be geniuses, but think of guys like Willie Mosconi or Efren Reyes as nothing more than pool sharks or hustlers?

Those who are exceptionally gifted at chess are not dissimilar to the idiot savants who are unusually adept at utilizing one particular area of the brain, resulting in people who can play the violin or piano by ear, yet who cannot tie their own shoes or prepare their own meals.  In fact, some might even say that since savantism is a developmental disorder, many so-called chess geniuses may be, in one way or another, mentally handicapped.

This point can be proven by the inability of many chess "grand masters" to conform to conventional society.  Take Mr. Fischer, for instance, many times arrested and an outspoken Anti-Semite and alleged pedophile, he spent the last years of his life evading the American legal system.  "The Greatest Chess Player of All Time" apparently wasn't bright enough to have a valid US passport.

Let's not forget about other Grand Masters who couldn't get their own lives in order.  There's Mikhail Tal, a World Champion, who died at the ripe old age of 55, his health ruined by alcoholism and drug addiction.  There's Wilhelm Steinitz, another World Champion who died in a mental asylum and battled syphilis in his final years, along with several mental breakdowns.  The legendary Emanuel Lasker died as a pauper.  

Even those Grand Masters who did manage to stave off lunacy, sexual deviancy, and chemical dependency rarely made it to old age.  Capablanca died at age 53, as did Alekhine.  Petrosian died at age 55.  Zukertort was only 45 when he died.  Paul Morphy was 47.  Sarratt was also 47.  

Is chess a waste of time and intelligence?  The evidence, I'm afraid, speaks for itself.  

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