> I wonder if this guy is slowly going off the deep end like a number of other past chess masters. He's been such a great example for aspiring players for a while now but I can't help but worry.

I don't know much else about him, but nothing in this story reads to me like someone going off the deep end. It sounds like someone who picked a perhaps-unfortunate hill to die on, though if you aren't willing to take risks to argue against silly rules when you're at the top of your game then when will you, but not someone losing his faculties.