And what did he say?

<In a recent Wall Street Journal editorial, Kasparov attributed Ficher's mental decline to the fact that he left chess. This is wrong. It's like saying John Nash went downhill because he left mathematics. The mental decline makes the genius abandon his trade, not the other way around.

Many articles about Fischer don't make the obvious point: he is a paranoid schizophrenic. The onset of schizophrenia is typically in one's late 20's. Bobby's long Nash-like hiatus began in 1972 when he was 29. WHile we cannot know whether Fischer hears voices the main symptom of schizophrenia, we can observe signs of psychosis in his behavior: Fischer's tirade against the dirty Jews, the fixed world championship matches and the thieving storage facility in California are typical of paranoid schizophrenia. And as Hans Ree said, even someone who doesn't know English can sense that something is wrong by hearing Fischer's tone of voice-he is too angry.>

<There are different types of schizophrenia. Paranoids are the highest functioning. Fischer is a paranoid, but Nash is not. This is why Fischer, unlike Nash, never thought he was going to become the Emperor of Antarctica. And this is why Fischer's tirades usually have some basis in reality, however tenuous.

I am reluctant to send you this letter because I do not want Fischer to read it and hate me. I began playing chess in the 1970's. Fischer was my chess hero then, and he still is. To my knowledge, Bobby Fischer has never hurt a fly, and his shortcomings have a clinical cause. Kasparov has many faults but lacks that excuse.

My guess is that his sentence (p.5):

<By 1989, the world could see that Kasparov was an even better player than Fischer had been in his prime.>

Yeah, good observation. But still, it's <American> culture that's rejected chess. As Rachels himself popints out, GM's are more highly thought of in Europe.

So he's explained why Americans want chess to be a sport (so that America will "go out" with us).

But is it a sport or not? If it's not here, it's not in Europe either, where GM's are appreciated. Rachels says that physical activity is a necessary condition of sport. And I tend to agree with that. My first reaction was to say that chess is a pastime, not a sport (the difference being the lack of physical activity).

However, thefreedictionary.com's definition of sport muddles this a bit:

1.
a. Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.

2. An activity involving physical exertion and skill that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often undertaken competitively.

<3. An active pastime; recreation.>

D'oh oh Number 3.