HalfPawn: I have read that many of the greatest chess players of all time had really strange quirks. Paul Morphy had some type of fetish for women's shoes. ( I have heard that he like to dance around them!?) Alekhine was almost destroyed by alcohol. And one GM- I have forgotten who it was supposed to be- is said to have nearly bankrupted himself for "brain food" i.e shrimp or was it oysters? So, if Karpov was having sometime of nervous breakdown at a World Championship match- it would not surprise me at all.