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Chess and life expectancy – Chess News | ChessBase
By Prof. Christian Hesse and Frederic Friedel
In our final section (there are links to thefirst three partsat the bottom of the page) we will discuss how this and other factors affect the life expectancy of chess players. We asked our readers to guess whether the chess playing part of the population can expect to live longer or shorter lives, on average, than the rest of the non-chess people surrounding them.
There are a number of positive and negative aspects that are connected to the statistical question of whether chess is healthy, overall, or not whether chess players live longer on the average or not. Let us look at some of these factors.
One important consideration is the fact that chess players do a lot of sitting. And they are practically motionless while they do it. That in itself would seem detrimental to longevity. But we must take into account that they are not just sitting they sit and think.It seems obvious that chess players spent more time thinking than most of the rest of the population. And that can be considered good and healthy. Extensive thinking is brain training, and that reduces the risk of dementia, which is one of the leading causes of death.
In the UK in 2022, dementia and Alzheimer's disease accounted for 78.000 deaths, while all Ischaemic heart diseases (which include heart attacks) made up only 69.000 cases.According to estimates from 2019, there were world-widemore than 55 million people aged 40 or older that lived with dementia. And there are studies that show that the risk of dementia is reduced when people occupy their brain with positive thinking. Chess is a wonderful activity to do this.
In 2022 dementia was in fact the leader[source: Alzheimer Research UK}
Another advantage of sitting motionless for hours at a time is correlating itwith the same amountof time spent walking on the street, cycling, driving a car, etc. Clearly people engaged in these activities are,from a statistical point of view, in greater danger of encountering life-span shortening situations.
Now let us compare the average lengths of life of chess players to that of the general public. More specifically, we want to considerpeople with a relevant association to chess, be it that they are grandmasters, international masters or master, be it that they are chess coaches, chess composers, chess referees or chess officials of some sort.
With relevant association to chess, we mean that the person's chess activities are known to the degree to make it to theWikipedia Chess necrology pagewhen he or she dies. For the purpose of reaching an initial estimatewe have focussed on the most recent date, i.e. chess people wo died in 2023, and on men only, since the database for female chess people proved much too small for valid statistical analyses.
It is needless to say that the age at death of a male chess person has to be compared to the life expectancy of the generalmale public in the country where he lives. Since obviouslya chess player that dies at age 70 is above average if he lived mostly in Bulgaria, for example, where the male population has a life expectancy of 68,1 years. But if he lived in Switzerland, where male life expectancy is 81.9 years, he would have died 12 years prematurely compared to the average.
The result of our data analysis is surprising.In spite of all the tension, in spite of all the long hours of sitting at chess boards, and often the difficulties that a life spent to a non-negligable degree in chess brings with it, male chess people have a 2.7 % longer life expectancy than the general male population in their country.
Globally, this life-prolongingeffect is 1.95 years: the average age of chess-related males in various countries at death in 2023 was 73.27 years, compared to 71.32 years as the average life expectancy of males in the countries in which the chess players lived. So chess is good for us.
We assume that a person with a relevant connection to chess will spendabout two hours everyday on the game, from the age of ten over a lifetime of average length. Of course, some people will spend much more time, for example grandmasters. Some will start earlier,others will start later and will spend less time. But two hours on average seems about right. That would mean 46,000 hours spent over an average lifetime. These chess hours lengthen the chess people's lives by 17,000 hours. In other words, every chess hour lengthens life on the average by 0.37 hours, i.e. by roughly 20 minutes. Those 20 minutes are two thirds of a microlife, which corresponds to 30 minutes. And this is the amount by which a risk of onemicromort shortens your life expectancy.
So statistically chess has a negative risk:it prolongs your life. An hour spent at chess lengthens your life by 20 Minutes. With three hours of chess you lengthen your life by 1 hour.
Let us compare this with other things that lengthen your life. If you perform sports in a moderate way for one hour, this increases your life expectancy by two hours. So this effect is more pronounced. However, the effect of the second hour after the first beneficial hour doesnt do you any good anymore. And the third hour after the previous two actually shortens your life expectancy. Furthermore, you should consider that doing one hour of moderate sports every day over a period of 50 years extends your life expectancy by four years. But in these 50 years you have spent a full two years doing sports. So it is best to select a sport that you enjoy.
Just getting married lengthens the life of men compared to single men by a full nine years on the average. This longer life effect of marriages is also enjoyed by women, but it only amounts to six years. On the other hand, in most countries women, on the average, live between three to six years longer than men.
There are many other things that lengthen your life, include living upstairs in a house rather than on the first floors. And also owning your apartment rather than renting it.
Jacob Woge supplied the following data collected by the tiny, home-based chess club, Czentovic, which has a rich quiz tradition. One theme was, Chess and Death. Here are the life age of 25 chess masters:
"Note the recurring 64, he writes. To Jacob's list we two player we have known personally and counted as friends:
We have just learned that50-year-old GM Ziaur Rahman suffered a heart attack after his 25th move in his 12th round game at the Bangladesh Championship. He died before he could be taken to hospital.
Ziaur Rahman's final game:
That is when tragedy struck.The sudden death of the popular grandmaster and coach caused consternation throughout the chess world. FIDE published an obituary.
Series by Frederic Friedel and Christian Hesse
Schachgeschichten Chess Stories
This book was published in October 2022. It consists of alternating chapters, with Prof. Christian Hesse writing, in his entertaining style, about mathematical aspects of the Royal Game, and Frederic Friedel writing about his encounters with World Champions, of whom he got to know and befriended around a dozen.
The book has been published in Germanand is endorsed by five world champions (Garry Kasparov wrote the foreword).
If you speak German you canread the first 30 pages here.
The book isavailable from Amazon for 20. Plans for an English language version are under way.
See the rest here:
Chess and life expectancy - Chess News | ChessBase
Chess: England and US win gold at world senior teams in echo of Soviet era – Financial Times
England andthe US both won team golds as a battle for supremacy in world senior chess intensified at Krakow, Poland, last week. The struggle had extra significance due to Americas over-50 squad of former Soviet grandmasters, while Englands teams included a trio who, nearly 40 years ago, had won silver behind USSRgold atthe 1986 and 1988 Olympiads.
The bond among Englands over-65 team went even further back.Four of the five had played together in the England junior Glorney Cup team in 1972, includingTerry Chapman, a consistently outstanding team player, who made the squads best individual score in Krakow of 83 per cent.
John Nunn, the individual world 65+ champion, won in the final round with an elegant 15-move victoryagainst the dubious Ruy Lopez Schliemann.
There was another miniature from Michael Adams, the individual world 50+ champion, who defeated an Icelandic former world title candidate in 19 moves with a tactic reminiscent of the Scholars Mate plan beloved by beginners.
The US took the over-50 gold with 16/18, eight wins and a loss to Italy, who were second on 15 with England third on 14. Thirty-two teams competed. England won the over-65 gold with 16/18, ahead of Israel 15 and France 14. Thirty-three teams took part.
Senior chess in the US is financially rewarding, thanks to the patronage of FT reader Rex Sinquefield, who has made his home city St Louis a global centre for the game. Ninety over-50s competed last weekend for a $13,000 prize fund in the US Senior Open in Illinois, to be followed this week by the invitationUS Senior Championship at St Louis, where the awards total $75,000.
Later this month, the annual British Championships in Hullwill include Senior titlecontests for over-50s and over-65s.There the Senior awards will total just 1,700,with a tournament entryfee of 75. Nevertheless, for the past three years England have dominated over-65 team chess, in which the US have not competed, and held their own at over-50 level, where since 2022 the US team has won two golds and a silver to Englands gold, silver and bronze.
The England vs US competition is likely to become still more intense in 2025, when Gata Kamsky, the 1997 Fide world title challenger, will be eligible for the US over-50 squad, while Matthew Sadler, the leading grandmaster expert on artificial intelligence in chess, who has an inactive Fide rating close to the 2700 elite level,will be a potential England candidate.
Very young players have been in the news recently.Argentinas Faustino Oro is the youngest ever international master at 10, while Bodhana Sivanandan has justbeen selected for the England womens Olympiad team at nine.
Now there is a 10-year-old national champion. Last week, Abdalrahman Sameh Mohamedbecame Egyptian champion, outpacing a mammoth field of 369 players for a winning total of 10.5/11.
Ten wins and one draw, and he should also have won the 11th game, which he drew against the runner-up,who scored 9.5.Mohameds early rounds were against weak opponents, but his overall performancestill clocked in at 2466, international master standard.
The prodigy participated in his first Fide-rated tournament only six months ago, and his coach so far has been his father, who does not play chess. He is now getting help from Egypts grandmaster Bassem Amin, and will travel to Astana, Kazakhstan,next month to represent his country in the Fide World Rapid and Blitz team championships.
Puzzle 2581
Magnus Carlsen vs Richard Rapport, Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, 2018.White to move and win.
How did the world No 1 break through Blacks defences?
Click here for solution
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Chess: England and US win gold at world senior teams in echo of Soviet era - Financial Times
2024 U.S. Junior, Girls’ Junior, and Senior Championship Preview – uschess.org
This years U.S. Junior Championship, Girls Junior Championship, and Senior Championship all kick off Tuesday, July 16, at the Saint Louis Chess Club (SLCC). Stay tuned to Chess Life Online for round-by-round coverage, featuring annotated games and highlights, of each round. Read on below to see what to expect from this years tournaments.
Image Caption
courtesy SLCC / Austin Fuller
There will be a new U.S. Junior Champion by the end of July, with last years winner GM Abhimanyu Mishra opting not to defend his title. Of this years competitors, only GM Christopher Yoo has previously won the tournament (back in 2022), with several runners-up also joining this veteran group of juniors.
Indeed, eight of this years competitors are at least 16 years of age, and six of those eight have played in at least one previous U.S. Junior Championship. In descending order of rating, GM Andrew Hong (19) looks to improve on consecutive second-place finishes and reigning Denker champion GM Arthur Guo also looks to improve on his share of second from last year.
IM Justin Wang is tied with Yoo and Hong for most previous appearances in this tournament, but has never finished above a tie for sixth place. Rounding out the top half is IM (and GM-Elect) Andy Woodward, one of the two 14-year-olds making his debut this year.
GM Balaji Daggupati may be seeded sixth by rating, but also earned a share of second last year (and a share of fourth in 2022). Qualifying for the first time, on rating, is IM Jason Wang (17), and Jason Liang (16) returns after last years debut.
The final two players are the other 14-year-old IM Brewington Hardaway and the 2023 U.S. Junior Open champion, Nicholas Ladan.
Image Caption
U.S. Girls' Junior champ Alice Lee is interviewed by WGM Begim Tokhirjonova after her victory (courtesy Crystal Fuller/SLCC)
The big question for the U.S. Junior Girls Championship is whether anybody can catch last years champ, IM Alice Lee. The 14-year-old is certainly a veteran of this event, oxymoronic as it may sound: this is her fifth consecutive appearance in the invitational. Indeed, only two players are older than her in this years youthful field, as well!
Following the top seed (by rating), is 15-year-old FM Zoey Tang. Tang is appearing in this tournament for the third straight year, and is looking to improve on her share of third place in 2023 and strong showing in the U.S. Cadet Championship earlier this summer.
14-year-olds WIM Iris Mou and FM Rose Atwell follow Tang on the ratings list, and are the only other two returning competitors in this years field. Mou finished in clear fifth place, while Atwell finished tenth and will occupy a much different role as one of the older and higher-rated girls in this years field.
The six newcomers are: Jasmine Su, WFM Yassamin Ehsani, WFM Megan Paragua, WIM Omya Vidyarthi, and wildcard WFM Chloe Gaw. At 19 years old, Ehsani is the oldest competitor in the field by four years! Paragua, in contrast, is the only pre-teen in attendance, clocking in at the age of 11.
Image Caption
The last man anybody wants to see across from the board right now: Melikset Khachiyan (courtesy Lennart Ootes/SLCC)
The roster for the U.S. Senior Championship shares more than a bit of overlap with the official delegation for the 2024 FIDE World Senior Team Championship. Four of this years gold medalists are picking up in St. Louis less than a week after their tournament in Krakow concluded.
Among them is the defending U.S. Senior Champion GM Melikset Khachiyan alongside GMs Igor Novikov and Alexander Shabalov. Also in this years field is GM Gregory Kaidanov, who was a part of the 2023 FIDE World Senior Team gold medalist squad, as well as GM Vladimir Akopian, who was planning to travel to Krakow before last-minute logistical issues.
Other familiar names include the return of GM Larry Christiansen, who sat out in 2023, but returns for his fifth championship. If that sounds like a lot, it turns out that GM Joel Benjamin is one of four participants playing in his sixth championship. Considering this event is only in its sixth iteration, thats quite an accomplishment for Benjamin (and Kaidanov, Novikov, and Shabalov).
The three remaining players are the relative newcomers, with only IM Douglas Root (2023) previously appearing in this event. The two debutants are GM Jesse Kraai (the 2023 U.S. Senior Open Champion) and wildcard GM Julio Becerra.
Quick Links:
Follow our coverage of the 2024 National Championships Official Website Replay all games onChess.com:Senior (link coming soon) /Girls' Junior/Junior Replay all games onLichess.org:Senior/Girls' Junior/Junior (links coming soon) Follow live commentary with GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Christian Chirila, and IM Nazi Paikidze on Twitch or YouTube
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2024 U.S. Junior, Girls' Junior, and Senior Championship Preview - uschess.org