Chess Players Who Gave Up the Game

 

Kim Steven Commons (1951- 2015) was a teenage chess prodigy and an International Master who had won the California championship once and the American Open twice.  He was a member of the victorious USA team at the Haifa Chess Olympiad in 1976, having the best score of the event.  He gave up chess to become a real estate agent.  He has a B.S. in physics from the UCLA.  He later moved to Arizona where he owned a music club and a sports bar.  He died of a stroke at the age of 63. (source: Leatherman, "Club Red Owner Kim Commons Passes Away," Phoenix New Times, June 24, 2015]

Jim Cross (1930-  ) was a rising chess master from Glendale, CA.  At 18 he won the California State Championship and tied in the U.S. Junior Championship.  But when his chess mentor, International Master Herman Steiner died of a heart attack at the age of 50 while playing chess, Jim decided to give up chess.

Maxim  Dlugy (1966-    ) became a Grandmaster in 1986.  By the 1990s, he gave up professional chess to become a Wall Street securities trader and an artist.  He had answered an ad by Bankers Trust and was hired and became involved in hedge funds.  .  Eventually, he became a principal of the Russian Growth Fund.  In 2005, he was arrested in Moscow on securities fraud charges and was facing 10 years in a Russian prison.  In December 2005, all the charges against him were dropped.  He did play in the 2006 US Chess Championship in San Diego and had a plus score. He new runs a chess academy in New York.

Oldrich Duras (1882-1957) was one of the top players in the world from 1906 to 1914.  He then met and married a wealthy woman and withdrew from chess, becoming a civil servant and, occasionally, a chess journalist.  Duras requested ½ year off to prepare and play in chess tournaments, but his employer refused his request.  During his retirement, he became involved in chess problem composition and was ranked one of the finest problemists of his day.  He was also a writer for Ceske Slovo.

Reuben Fine (1914-1993) was one of the best chess players in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.  He gave up chess to become a psychoanalyst, earning a doctorate in psychology.  He devoted himself to a New York psychiatric practices and book writing.

Robert James Fischer (1943-2008) was world chess champion from 1972 through 1975.  After the 1972 World Chess Championship, Fischer did not play a competitive  game until 1992, when he emerged to play Boris Spassky in a rematch.  After that, he did not play any more competitive chess.

Andrija Fuderer (1931-2011) was one of the strongest Yugoslav players in the mid 1950s.  He then turned to chemical research, earned a PhD in chemistry from the University of Zagreb, and retired from serious chess play.  He became a famous inventor and patented a compression process for refrigeration.

Albert Beauregard Hodges (1861-1944) was a former U.S. chess champion.  He won it in 1894.  After accomplishing his life's goal of becoming the U.S. chess champion, he announced he was retiring from chess.  He then became an accountant and businessman and gave up chess.

Garry Kasparov (1963- ) was world chess champion from 1985 through 2000.  He announced his retirement from competitive chess in March 2005.He cited the lack of personal goals in the chess world as his retirement from chess. He came out of retirement in 2017 to play in a St. Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament.  He finished 8th out of 10 players.  He is presently a political activist and devoted much of his time to writing.  He is currently chairman for the Human Rights Foundation.

Ignaz Kolisch (1837-1889) was one of the strongest chess players in the world in 1867.  In 1867, he won the strongest chess tournament of the year, in Paris, ahead of Steinitz.  He them met Baron Albert Rothschild and became involved in banking.  He gave up chess and became a millionaire in the Viennese banking world and became a baron himself.

Vladimir Kramnik (1975- )was world chess champion from 2000 through 2007.  In January 2019, he announced his retirement as a professional chess player.  He stated that he wants to focus on chess and education for children.

Lisa Lane (1938-    ) was U.S. women's champion in 1959-62 and 1966.  She withdrew from the Hastings Reserves tournament stating she was in love.  She gave up chess in 1966, got married to Neil Hickey, and started a natural food business and gift shop in Pawling, New York.  Lisa stated she quit the game partly because she was annoyed with being identified as a chess player.

Joel Lautier (1973- ) if a French GM who won the French championship twice.  He retired from chess in 2009 and works as a businessman in Russia.

Paul Morphy (1837-1884)  was considered the unofficial world chess champion from 1858 to 1860.  By 1860, he retired from active chess competition and tried to make a career out of law.  He was unable to successfully build a law practices after the Civil War.  His visitors and clients were more interested to talk about chess than their legal affairs.  Morphy gave up competitive chess, considering the game unworthy of pursuit as a serious occupation.

Srecko Nedeljkovic (1923-2011) and Vera Jovanovic Nedeljkovic (1924- ) were one of the strongest husband and wife chess playing partners.  He was an international master and she was one of the strongest women players in the world.  In the 1950s, he gave up chess to become a medical doctor (working with Dr. Michael DeBakey, a world-renowned cardiac surgeon), and she gave up chess to be a physicist and ship engineer.  Their son became President of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Belgrade University.

Jeroen Piket (1969- ) is a Dutch grandmaster who won the Dutch championship 4 times (1990, 1991, 1992, 1994).  He retired from chess in 2001 to become the personal secretary of billionaire Joop van Oosteron (1937-2016).  He is now an independent advisor to high net-worth individuals and families.

Judit Polgar (1976 - ) is considered the strongest female chess player of all time.  She announced her retirement from competitive chess in August 2014.  Her Judit Polgar Chess Foundation aims at improving children's problem solving and critical thinking with the help of chess.

Ken Rogoff (1953-    ) became a Grandmaster in 1978.  He then retired from chess, earned a PhD in Economics from M.I.T. in 1980, and became the chief economist at the World Bank.  He is currently a professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics at Harvard University.

Gersh Rotlewi (1889-1920) was one of the strongest Polish players from 1909 to 1911.  He took 2nd in the 1909 Russian championship, behind Alekhine.  In 1911, he took 4th place, ahead of Alekhine, Marshall, Nimzovitsch, Vidmar, Tartakower, and others.  The next year, at the age of 23, he dropped out of chess and never played again.

Carlos Torre (1905-1978) was one of the strongest players in the world from 124 to 1926.  He defeated Emanuel Lasker and drew with Capablanca and Alekhine.  He then had a nervous breakdown from the stress of chess and the social gathering invitations.  His fiancée left him and married another man, and his teaching offer at the University of Mexico was turned down because Torre did not have any academic credentials.  He gave up chess in 1926, never to play again.

Josh Waitzkin (1976-    ) was one of the most promising juniors in the United States.  He won the National Scholastic Chess Championship 8 times.  In 1994, he won the U.S. Junior Championship.  He was the subject in the book and the movie called Searching for Bobby Fischer.  He then gave up chess and became involved in martial arts.  He won the World Championship Tai Chi Chuan twice and won 13 National Championships.