Quote:
Originally Posted by Takeda Shingen
And that is a very good way to describe his deterioration. Being so far 'inside' the game ultimately drove him mad.
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They explain it quite similiar in the film. They point out that the high level of abstraction in chess forces the chess player to indeed deconstruct his reality-callibrated mind, and to put it together again in a different way that can handle this enormous abstraction (after just the first white and black move you already have 400 possible positions, and after that the variation tree explodes totally) - but is not well-equipped anymore for handling reality. They also said that a good chess player necessarily needs to be a paranoid, always being on guard against threats and traps set up by his opponent.
From there, paranoid schizophrenia is not far away. So is megalomania. They refer to first world champion Steinitz, who at the end of his life (he was over 60 when becoming world champion) claimed to not only play against God, but to beat him.
As I said, the film is very good, but it tells a very sad story. They said that after the famous sixth match in Rejkjavik, Spasski rose from the board and applauded Fisher in admiration, although just before they battled against each other over the absurd demands Fisher constantly set up as conditions to continue the tournament. True sportsmanship by the Russian, ignoring the political pressure and the personal animosity for a moment! I looked up the match this night and took almost two hours over it. Beautiful, simply beautiful:
http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1044366