Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 14th 2018

This study found that professional chess players had shorter lifespans than those players who had careers outside of chess and argued that this might be due to the mental strain of international chess competition. In the present study, we focused on survival of International Chess Grandmasters (GMs) which represent players, of whom most are professional, at the highest level. In 2010, the overall life expectancy of GMs at the age of 30 years was 53.6 years, which is significantly greater than the overall weighted mean life expectancy of 45.9 years for the general population. In all three regions examined, mean life expectancy of the GMs was longer than that of the matched general population, with gaps between them ranging from 1 to 14 years depending on age. Across the combined sample from 28 countries, the survival advantage over the general population significantly increased over time. While intelligence may be a potential confounding factor given its positive effect on longevity, evidence of the link between IQ and chess ability is inconclusive. Several studies have failed to find a superiority of expert chess players in a variety of intellectual dimensions. A more likely channel is that to attain the Grandmaster title an individual may be encouraged to make necessary health improvements to improve one's cognitive performance. Although there has been some concern that chess training promotes a sedentary lifestyle that may reduce participation of the chess pl...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs