Ben Johnson does a frequent chess podcast on Youtube where he talks for about an hour to leading figures in the chess world. His latest was with author and IM John Watson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQkTuNnpDA8).
Starting at about the 14 minute mark John Watson said this -
Discuss, as they say.Jon Watson wrote:The personalities at the top of chess are so much better because the financial burdens are less. First of all there's more money and more sponsorship and they can teach.
My generation [Watson elsewhere says he is 66] and before it (especially the one before it), there was so much pressure that it tended to - only the really neurotic types survived and they felt cheated by their lives. They could have done something else with their lives.
I don't think that's true anymore. I find the leading players when I talk to them are much saner and happier. There isn't the feeling you got in the old days of being a chessplayer as being an inferior enterprise.
