Has anyone ever given up chess?

[Gavin Strachan]

Although not a titled player I have given up chess twice. When it comes to anything in life I am somewhat a jack of all trades as opposed to a master of one. Since destroying my achilles in rugby I have stuck to chess, anything to get five mins of piece.

[Mike Truran]

The extra "f" was a little unfortunate!!

[Gavin Strachan]

yes interesting mistake which I have correct. It comes from typing on a mobile in a rush (honest!).

[Malcolm Clarke]

Apologies if in writing this I make points that have already been made in this long thread, but as someone who was involved with London Central YMCA during the 1980's and has also been secretary of the Southampton Chess League for 20 years, I believe that players giving up as an occupational hazard.

Unfortunately we will always lose players when their family and career assume a greater importance in their lives, and when they become more interested in other diversions. I expect that quite a few people who feature on this forum play less chess than they used to, and I know that I myself have reduced my own chess playing activity.

However even though we lose players, we also gain players who show enthusiasm for the game, and want to progress, and we should savour the achievements of this players, rather than lament those who leave the game for reasons outside our control.

[Mark Josse]

If "my era" were 1969-1972, I would cite Adams, Summerscale, Agnos, Mortazavi, Ledger, Hennigan, Morris, Wall, Tozer, Loz, Quillan, Buckley and a string of contemporary FMs (myself, Collinson, Dishman, Piper, Duncan, Laurence Webb, etc).

Edited after responses (below) from Alan and Roger

I have fond memories of this era mainly losses in the 1968 group and there are a number of good players you could add to Jonathans lists eg Rossitter, Sadler, Wood, Carr ,Bowden, Gheorghiou, Sharp, Ward, Stone, Carlin, Watts, Cavendish are a few that spring to mind.
As to the original post i gave up for many years about 12 or so 1994-2006 and never touched a piece in that time . I returned to find the game had forever changed with databases and computers but have slowly got to grips with it again. I had no intention of playing chess again but picked up a book in a book shop one day and got the bug back . I cant play rugby , cricket any more so i might as well shuffle a few pieces around

[Stewart Reuben]

I recently played virtually accidentally in a 9 round open Swiss in Ravenna, Italy. I was intrigued and used ChessBase to determine the last time I played in a tournament not restricted to seniors.
2004 a 5 round weekend event in Coventry.
1999 a 9 round round international open in Trinidad.
I have continued to play in the London and 4NCL Leagues and as an occasional filler. I have never retired from playing chess.
Stewart Reuben

[LozCooper]

James Howell got the GM title and then gave up completely, not just competitive chess, but anything associated with chess.

It was soon after playing under my captaincy for my 4NCL team Midland Monarchs

[LozCooper]

Ah yes, I forgot Quillan. I did forget Dale too, though I might not have included him anyway, since I was listing FMs and above (though why Dale didn't make at least FM level is, I admit, a mystery).

How could anyone forget Dale?

[William Metcalfe]

In the north east IM Dave Mooney and FM Dave Walker totally walked away from chess

[Jonathan Rogers]

If "my era" were 1969-1972, I would cite Adams, Summerscale, Agnos, Mortazavi, Ledger, Hennigan, Morris, Wall, Tozer, Loz, Quillan, Buckley and a string of contemporary FMs (myself, Collinson, Dishman, Piper, Duncan, Laurence Webb, etc).

Edited after responses (below) from Alan and Roger

I have fond memories of this era mainly losses in the 1968 group and there are a number of good players you could add to Jonathans lists eg Rossitter, Sadler, Wood, Carr ,Bowden, Gheorghiou, Sharp, Ward, Stone, Carlin, Watts, Cavendish are a few that spring to mind.
As to the original post i gave up for many years about 12 or so 1994-2006 and never touched a piece in that time . I returned to find the game had forever changed with databases and computers but have slowly got to grips with it again. I had no intention of playing chess again but picked up a book in a book shop one day and got the bug back . I cant play rugby , cricket any more so i might as well shuffle a few pieces around

Rossiter and Cavendish should have been on my list, and Wood too, if he became a FM (but I'm not sure he did). I guess that I forgot those partly because they gave up (Carr too, though I wonder whether he is too old for the 1968-1972 era). Bowden is definitely too old, and Sadler too young, for this era. No idea how I omitted Ward!

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Rossiter and Cavendish should have been on my list, and Wood too, if he became a FM (but I'm not sure he did). I guess that I forgot those partly because they gave up (Carr too, though I wonder whether he is too old for the 1968-1972 era). Bowden is definitely too old, and Sadler too young, for this era. No idea how I omitted Ward!

Was IM Angus Dunnington on your list? His last FIDE-rated game seems to have been for the July 2003 list. Looking (again) at the book I'm reading of his that was published in 2003, he talks at times of how playing serious chess had dropped far down his list of priorities. He apparently stopped playing competitive chess to write chess books, but not sure what happened after that. Ah, I see what happened:

http://www.bcmchess.co.uk/news/dunningt ... 00602.html

"while writing Gambling Online I went so far into 'researching' online poker that I ended up switching professions and turning to poker full time."

Quite a few chess players have gone that route.

EDIT: I'm confused, though, what is this list being talked about here? Is it one of the lists earlier in this thread?

[William Metcalfe]

I hope no Americans went down that route on Friday the 3 big online poker sites got indited so they have had to shut out American players.
So much as America being the land off the free lol

[Stewart Reuben]

I wonder how chess compares for dropping out of high level players with other sports? My gut feeling is that bridge would be better and the more physical sports worse.
Quite a number of the players listed above still play or have returned to the game. Some are ill and I have a feeling one is dead.
Stewart Reuben

[Arshad Ali]

I wonder how chess compares for dropping out of high level players with other sports? My gut feeling is that bridge would be better and the more physical sports worse.
Stewart Reuben

Bridge is a more social game -- even duplicate bridge. And the existential terror of being solely responsible for one's moves doesn't hold to the same extent in bridge as there's always a partner to blame and some mistakes can be excused as resulting from a lack of precise communication. For this reason I think the rate of attrition is probably lower in bridge than in chess.

[Paul Littlewood]

Several of us have virtually given up on chess to play bridge e.g Peter Lee, Jonathan Mestel, myself and intriguingly, Jonathan Penrose, who plays at my bridge club at Welwyn.....although it is very much a pastime for him whilst Jonathan and Peter take it very seriously and do extremely well at National level.