Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think this rings true at the highest levels of skill for most activities. The better you get, the more specialized your skillset has to become to continue winning, and the less applicable it becomes to other things. Regardless, I think there's something to be said for competing at a high level. It provides more than just entertainment, as some skills do translate if you let them: The confidence you gain by knowing…
I agree as general points. I'll disagree as it applies to Chess. The only way to escalate the ranks in chess is to become a living database. That transforms people. I've seen it and it's ugly. The chess you learned as a kid was a game. This chess is a very different animal. Off the top of my head, a profession that requires people to become a human database is something like pharmacology. These folks have to know a l…
Re: Chess World Championship 2012: A First Win
#51I agree what you say, but chess is not only who is the better database, though. Analytic reasoning (and home preparation) is still what defines who wins among similar "databases".