"The Toxic Pursuit of Greatness in Chess"

Rather long. You can make your own judgments.

https://consortiumnews.com/2025/12/09/hedges-report-the-toxic-pursuit-of-greatness-in-chess/

People who aspire to greatness in any field have to work incredibly hard, make sacrifices and be single minded in their pursuit. They do not lead a normal life and I don't believe chessplayers are more toxic in this regard.

The article has little new, in my opinion, but it does remind me of the possibly apocryphal tale of Akiba Rubinstein speaking to his psychiatrist.
"Doctor, I can see a bee buzzing around my nose. Am I mad?"
"Akiba, you're a grandmaster. So what does it matter?"

wut

" .. famous chess figures such as Bobby Fischer, Peter Winston and Magnus Carlsen .. "

Wait, .. "Magnus Carlsen is a drone?" (And NOT an artist? But Fischer is an artist .. sounds like this person is unable to see the paintings.)

"Chris Hedges: Well there’s a quote in the book, that Fischer is an artist and Magnus Carlsen is a drone. So explain the difference.

Brin-Jonathan Butler: Yeah, I think Fischer has a tremendous romantic relationship to the game, both what he did on the board and off. I mean, not just competing against the Soviets.

Just look at who paid for this article, and draw your own conclusions.

"From the Late Founder and Editor Robert Parry: When we founded Consortium News in 1995 – as the first investigative news magazine based on the Internet – there was already a crisis building in the U.S. news media. The mainstream media was falling into a pattern of groupthink on issue after issue, often ignoring important factual information because it didn’t fit with what all the Important People knew to be true."

https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/tabloids-and-sensationalism