Chess and mental power after 45

[Paul Cooksey]

Much coverage of the study suggesting brain power starts to decline from 45 today. From The Independent, from the scientist who led the study:

Leisure activities also mattered. "If you play chess and can plan six moves in advance then you are probably going to be all right," Ms Manoux said.

Which is encouraging itself, and another good marketing opportunity.

In passing, can anyone report on how Tim Woolgar is settling into the job? Not seen anything from him yet, a press release on this story would have been nice.

[Derek Pugh]

This results of this study don't seem at all surprising to me. The idea that mental abilities don't start (even to a small extent) to decline until after the age of 60 on average seems very counter-intuitive (when one considers the age of world chess champions, when mathematicians do their best work etc).

[AustinElliott]

I'm sure it's been discussed at length on other threads, but one of the reasons world chess champions are young (late 20s early 30s, at least until the advent of K&K) is arguably more that as players age they lose the 'hunger' to keep studying hard and striving to get better, or at least to stay as good. The bios of various world champions make this very clear - Spassky and Petrosian stand out as notable examples. And people in their teens and 20s have tons more time to concentrate on chess (or other stuff!), being typically unencumbered by need to earn much of a living, family esp kids, jobs at levels carrying lots of responsibility etc etc.

When you look at players who either HAD to keep playing into later life to earn a living (e.g. Lasker), or whose chess 'desire'/obsession remained undiminished as they got older (Smyslov, Bronstein, Korchnoi), or who continued to work just as hard into later life (Korchnoi), it is notable just how good they stayed for many years, even right into old age.

Also notable that nowadays people stay generally healthier for longer, which also impacts on their ability to do cognitive stuff.

I think personally I would expect the ageing of chess players to manifest mostly in terms of physical fatigue after several hours sat concentrating.

So... I'm not actually that surprised by the study results. What they actually show is how relatively small the decline in cognitive function is, even if it's real. And remember that it is compensated in many complex human activities (including chess?) by accumulated wisdom (?) and experience. Personally I'd take a 50 yr-old hospital consultant treating me over a 34 yr-old just-qualified one every time.

Of course, I'm saying all this because I turned 50 in the Summer, and am trying to work out if I can still play chess at all, having returned from several decades (sic) of not playing...!

[Alex Holowczak]

Personally I'd take a 50 yr-old hospital consultant treating me over a 34 yr-old just-qualified one every time.

At secondary school, some people I know went to Universities to study for medicine degrees. It scares the hell out of me to think they might actually be doctors in future... But not as much as the thought that they might even have to operate (for example) on me in future.

[Andrew Stone]

And people in their teens and 20s have tons more time to concentrate on chess (or other stuff!), being typically unencumbered by need to earn much of a living, family esp kids, jobs at levels carrying lots of responsibility etc etc.

They may have been true and is probably true for teens still, but many in their 20s now have to work very hard to pay off student debts, to save for a deposit to buy what are still expensive houses and may be studying hard for professional exams. Some people in their 40s and 50s have made some money and now have decided to downsize their careers freeing up more time for chess. I can think of a number of people this may apply to but I can't be sure of this. In addition if you have had kids quite early they will not be needing (and definately not wanting) attention by the time someone reaches 40 or 50 I guess.

[AustinElliott]

And people in their teens and 20s have tons more time to concentrate on chess (or other stuff!), being typically unencumbered by need to earn much of a living, family esp kids, jobs at levels carrying lots of responsibility etc etc.

They may have been true and is probably true for teens still, but many in their 20s now have to work very hard to pay off student debts, to save for a deposit to buy what are still expensive houses and may be studying hard for professional exams. Some people in their 40s and 50s have made some money and now have decided to downsize their careers freeing up more time for chess. I can think of a number of people this may apply to but I can't be sure of this. In addition if you have had kids quite early they will not be needing (and definately not wanting) attention by the time someone reaches 40 or 50 I guess.

Yes, fair point. Earlier comment of mine rather coloured, I dare say, by my own experience of being young and fairly carefree though my 20s in the 1980s, and a knackered and overworked parent of young kids in my 40s...!

Of course, the first 'wave' of British GMs (born in the 50s, except for Keene in '48) all went to Univ back in the days when it was essentially free, and in the case of Nunn, Mestel and Speelman stayed on at Univ to do (presumably funded) PhDs. Though I wouldn't downplay the amount of work involved in a PhD, even in those less pressured times, Maths isn't a lab-based subject, and I would suspect they all had a fair bit of time to spend on chess.