Hi Margaret,

Don't ever change. Stay just the way you are.  You'll do fine.

There are humans who whether by training, choice or instinct are cut out to be the five star generals of life.
They don't agonize at all (or for very long) about collateral damage.  To make an omelet you've got to break the eggs.
Do you break the egg because you must or because you hate the egg and yearn to see it shatter?  That is a difference that matters.

And after that it becomes a question of balance.  When the long fight is over do you settle into life as a Colin Powell--a statesman IMO--or as poor Bobby who didn't fare very well at all.

Open your mind, do your job excellently and remember that you are Margaret Wells.

Yes Margaret, you can still win! First, I think Bobby Fischer was a bit demented, but Chess is a very particular kind of competition.

When doing hard things, especially creative hard things, you are not only competing with the people who are alive but also with the great dead and you can't break their ego's - they're dead. You're competing to succeed, to do what they didn't manage to do, and to do it better; not in order to break someone's ego.

On the other hand note that the question was what's the moment of greatest pleasure. What is the most fun when beating someone at a game, and in that case you can see how seeing their ego's break, especially people with enormous egos, that could be pleasurable for him. There is a kind of deep pleasure from succeeding, but perhaps that's what one might call joy, while pleasure from winning, from beating someone, a momentary happiness, and perhaps that comes from seeing the opponent crumble. I can perhaps see that.
In any case , I don't think you need to enjoy the ego's breaking, maybe you will just have less fun winning, and more deep joy. You do though have to have an extremely competitive spirit.

Linda, I think what I'm saying is true even for generals.