Chess has well-known links to mathematics and music, but what about believeing six impossible things before breakfast?
Just finished watching the Bobby Fischer film, and how sad it was to see him in the grip of paranoid deluisons. Ironically, this son of a Jewish mother and probably a Jewish father, and one of the most creative minds over the chessboard, came to be obsessed by the most dismal and commonplace fantasies of Jewish conspiracy.
I guess it shows that being intelligent doesn't stop you believing daft things. Being insane helps, but even among the sane, we have other exhibits:
- James Plaskett's lonely campaign to convert Guardian readers to creationism e.g. http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/10755207
- Jeremy Silman's indulgence of (belief in?) astrology: http://jeremysilman.com/astrology/celestial_chess_2.html (I'm not convinced those aren't parodies... Poe's Law in action)
- Nigel Davies entertaining the idea that some Indian faker can survive without food or drink for decades: http://tigerchess.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/prahlad-jani/ [rats, he's pulled up the ladder since... (More)]