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> The ability to play chess well is the sign of a wasted life Wasted in what sense? Aren’t we all playing made up games and solving artificial problems at the

• BeetleB 5y ago
  > Most GMs probably aren’t doing it to make money, they get a similar thrill from it as, say, a mathematician gets from understanding and solving deep math problems. Very apt analogy. Most math faculty members in my department stopped being productive in the last third of their career. After a while, it just gets old. Proving yet another theorem no longer excites them. At least they collect a decent paycheck, though.
  • manquer 5y ago
    Most faculty also teach as well, their paychecks for most part are well earned. The reason the contributions usually drop for mathematicans is less to do with losing interest and more that they simple don't have the mental capacity they did in their 20's and 30s into the 50s . Maths is very tough field to do research in.
• manquer 5y ago
  The comment is from the world champion of 1850s . Being professional back then was considered equivalent to gambling. Professional sports or hobbies wasn't thing till early to mid 20th century. The early Olympics even had amateur only rules. There is more to life than being a chess player or a mathematican. His point is more to do focusing/obsessing on a single narrow subject, given morphy's own experience I would say he is more than qualified to make that comment.