What does it mean to be top of a field?

here's a really good obituary (or mostly good, the ending was a bit weak in my opinion) from the new york times on bobby fischer. it was striking to me that he was clearly at the top of his field and had a high IQ yet was so clearly on the bottom of the field of happiness. i don't think that being happy and being intelligent are somehow mutually exclusive or something but there are times that i think the 'less intelligent' by our IQ measuring (and even by our subjective observing) are happier. i know that my observations are highly skewed and i only remember the things i want to in order to support that opinion so i'll try to discard that thought for now and move to what i found mind boggling about the obituary.

bobby fischer's mother was a jew. bobby fischer has a high IQ and plays the very logical game of chess extremely well. bobby fischer ranted about a jewish conspiracy against him and wanted jew's to be arrested. bobby fisher was part of a denomination that appears to have connections with sda and practiced many jewish customs.

the logical disconnect seems great from my end but perhaps in his mind not so much. why hate something that is so much a part of you, chosen and genetic. maybe we all hate things illogically but just don't show it to extremes to make it obvious.