Searching for Bobby Fischer  

Garry Kasparov writes (in a melancholy, even mournful tone) about the decline of Bobby Fischer, with some sharp commentary on why he might have abandoned the game and what that means for a grandmaster's (and what a grandmaster!) existence.

Related, it seems to me, is Ray Davis's observation about the way chess figured in the Real and artistic lives of Duchamp and Nabokov, specifically his point about the limits of certain games and how we perceive those limits. From the world of chess, Kasparov is a great example of someone who has negotiated those limits successfully -- as an activist in the political world and even (if the link above is to be believed) a contributing editor at WSJ!