Chess Madness

My review of Joseph G. Ponterotto's Fischer Psychobiography was generally positive except for one aspect --

Chapter 9 - ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GENIUS AND MADNESS - ARE CHESS MASTERS MORE VULNERABLE TO MENTAL ILLNESS?

-- a subject I recognized as 'a standard chapter in 21st century popular chess literature'. The chapter's subheadings are:-

• Mental Illness Among Chess Legends of the Past
• A Neurological Link between Creativity and Mental Illness
• Are Elite Chess Players More Prone to Mental Illness?
• Are Certain Career Paths More Hazardous to One’s Mental Health?
• Well, What Are We to Make of this Data?

After previous lengthy discussions of Fischer and Morphy, the chapter lists '15 elite chess players who may have suffered from mental illness'. To save some time for future researchers on this subject, here are the 15 players (I count 16):-

• Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900)
• Akiba Rubinstein (1882-1961)
• Alexander Alekhine (1892-1946)
• Carlos Torre-Repetto (1905-1978)
• Tony Miles (1955-2001)
• Raymond Weinstein
• Curt von Bardeleben (-1924)
• Karen Grigorian (-1989)
• Gregory Ilivitzky (-1989)
• Alvis Vitolins (-1997)
• Lembert [sic; Lembit] Oll (-1999)
• Jessie Gilbert (-2006; at Pardubire [sic], Pardubice)
• Gustav Neumann
• Johannes Minckwitz
• George Rotlewi
• Aron Nimzowitsch

The list is a fusion (with surprisingly little overlap) of players mentioned in David Shenk's 'The Immortal Game' (Ch.8 '"Into Its Vertiginious Depths": Chess and the Shattered Mind') and Paul Hoffman's 'King's Gambit' (Ch.1 'The Insanity Defense'). As source for the Alvis Vitolins material, Hoffman cites Sosonko's 'The Jump', a New in Chess article later reprinted in 'Russian Silhouettes'.