The important parallels of the analogy are that:
* Magnus dedicated his whole life to chess, just as many programmers have done with programming.
* Magnus enjoys the craft of chess, the human elements of creativity and cleverness, just as many artisan programmers do.
* Both prefer to be hands on and don’t enjoy being relegated to managerial / supervisory roles, and would probably move on to something else if they could no longer do the part they love.
* Many outsiders do not have any idea how much time and dedication it takes to reach the upper echelons of a skill like that, and struggle to empathize with those who have done so, and perhaps even feel Schadenfreude to see these folks “taken down a peg.”
Mathematicians have recently been lumped into this category of knowledge workers at risk. Many are grieving gratuitously and suffering a lot of flippancy from Schadenfreude-feeling onlookers.