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.

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.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

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.

Topics like this could kill your brain.

If I named 6 people that smoked their entire lives and didn't die from lung cancer, would that prove that smoking doesn't cause lung cancer? I think not.

6 people is too small a sample to prove anything.

Like writing stupid posts?

Why so defensive? If you don't agree with something I say then counter it by stating your argument instead of calling people stupid or troll. I hope we're all a little more matured than some kid in some high school.

If you look closely, you'll find hundreds of cases where a chess master's life has ended in tradegy, I've only considered the 6 most famous players who were all world champions.

The top 10 of today are all very young, still in their 20s. It takes time for chess to deteriorate a person's mental health by modifying the neural paths. Magnus has already started to show some signs, look at his interviews, he struggles to make complete sentences when he speaks. It's just a matter of time before he turns into the next Fisher. Kramnik is a chain smoker, he was also involved in the toiletgate scandal where it was alleged that he used a computer in the toilet. 

That's a pretty weak argument. 6 people among a hundred thousand smokers is certainly a very small number but, 6 people among 13 world champions is a very huge number.