Certainly something odd is going on with chess. Music, math, and chess are the only subjects that produce authentic prodigies - I've met prodigies or near prodigies in all three, and they are distinct personality types - chess players tend to be very aggressive, musicians very "remote" and self-contained in an odd way (lacking a better word), and the math-type prodigy - I can only call it humorous! I think it must be related to autism in some way.