Answers.Body: <p>According to <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-011-9274-9/fulltext.html" rel="nofollow">this study</a> chess grandmasters peak at age 31.4. </p>
  
  <p><a href="http://virgo.unive.it/seminari_economia/Brunello.pdf" rel="nofollow">This study</a> confuses the hell out of me, but there is one sensible chart at page 20, that seems to indicate that you can still improve a little bit in your thirties and generally hold your playing level into your mid-forties. After that the decline becomes noticable. </p>
  
  <p>The slight discrepancy between these two studies is easily explained by the fact that the first only looks at grandmasters, whereas the second examines more than 40,000 players. In fact I would assume that the very top players peak even earlier these days. </p>
  
  <p>I found a very good <a href="http://www.chess.com/blog/LionChessLtd/age-vs-elo---your-battle-against-time" rel="nofollow">chess.com article</a> about this topic. This guy analysed more than 71,000 players and found a rating peak in the late twenties. Until you are eighty you'll lose 200 Elo points on average, which really isn't all that much. </p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2015-07-27T13:08:53.610Z
Answers.Text: Thanks for pointing me to that informative article.  I guess my best chess years are behind me.
Answers.UserDisplayName: CConero
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Answers.Body: <p>There are many exceptions of people performing on a high (and sometimes higher level than before) when they get older. The most obvious are: Boris Gelfand who reached a World Championship match in his forties, Vishy Anand who is currently World No 2 and in his forties, Victor Korchnoi, who reached two World Championship matches in his forties, and many others on the amateur scale. Even at 80 depending on the level you play at there may be room for improvement. It might be worth looking up a coach.</p>
  
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Answers.Text: Good luck! One further anecdote. Miguel Najdorf used to play blitz regularly and maintained a very high strength in his eighties until about eight-five when his blitz strength went into decline.
Answers.UserDisplayName: magd
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Answers.UserDisplayName: magd
Body: <p>Based on documented evidence, at what age would someone normally expect to see his chess results start to decline?</p>
  
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Comments.CreationDate: 2015-07-24T15:07:16.573Z
Comments.Text: "based on documented evidence"?! Do you really think there's been a scientific research solely dedicated to studying decay of brain performance in chess? ... The answer to your question probably is "at whatever age you start losing concentration." Which is different for everyone, see [Viktor Korchnoi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Korchnoi).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ellie
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Comments.Text: @Phonon Sure, there's been scientific research dedicated to studying decay of brain performance in chess. Chess is a nice quantitative proxy for mental performance in general. [This](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7264247) is the first example I found, but I'm sure there are plenty more.
Comments.UserDisplayName: dfan
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Comments.Text: You may want to look at peak ELO ratings of top players and correlate them with the age of the players. Such data are available (alltho' I don't have links ready for you).
Comments.UserDisplayName: Sir Cornflakes
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Comments.Text: @dfan Looks like an interesting article, pity there's no arXiv version of it available!
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ellie
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Comments.Text: Phonon, I know about Korchnoi and Resheveky, but I believe they are exceptions, as there are to any rule.  But I doubt if their later performances approached those of their peak years when they were younger.  I don't think it was a fatuous question.  It was a serious attempt to find out about the subject, since I'm almost 80 and still play weekly, although I haven't played a tournament game in 20 years.  If I thought I could compete successfully, I'd be interested in trying again.  I really don't think denigrating my question was helpful.
Comments.UserDisplayName: CConero
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Comments.Text: @CConero I did not criticize your question unfairly, I just touched upon the specific detail of requesting for "documented evidence", as in it is probably unlikely(not impossible) to come across such research studies, when the question is vaguely posed("decline of chess results"),  and its nature being rather speculative to begin with. I didn't mean that your question is ill-posed, so hopefully that's clarified now. As dfan commented earlier, there seems to be indeed cognitive studies related to chess, so hopefully your specific question, may be tackled in one such study.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ellie
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Comments.Text: @phonon.  Well, I suppose I could have said, "see his rating drop" instead of " decline of chess results",  but I think the implication was clear enough and that it wouldn't be considered "vaguely posed" by most readers.  Anyway, thanks for your clarification.
Comments.UserDisplayName: CConero
Tags: <performance>
Title: What is the effect of aging on chess ability?
ThreadText: # What is the effect of aging on chess ability?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2015-07-24)
  
  Based on documented evidence, at what age would someone normally expect to see his chess results start to decline?
  
  **Tags:** performance
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: "based on documented evidence"?! Do you really think there's been a scientific research solely dedicated to studying decay of brain performance in chess? ... The answer to your question probably is "at whatever age you start losing concentration." Which is different for everyone, see [Viktor Korchnoi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Korchnoi).  
  > **username_2**: @Phonon Sure, there's been scientific research dedicated to studying decay of brain performance in chess. Chess is a nice quantitative proxy for mental performance in general. [This](http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7264247) is the first example I found, but I'm sure there are plenty more.  
  > **username_3**: You may want to look at peak ELO ratings of top players and correlate them with the age of the players. Such data are available (alltho' I don't have links ready for you).  
  > **username_1**: @username_2 Looks like an interesting article, pity there's no arXiv version of it available!  
  > **username_0**: Phonon, I know about Korchnoi and Resheveky, but I believe they are exceptions, as there are to any rule.  But I doubt if their later performances approached those of their peak years when they were younger.  I don't think it was a fatuous question.  It was a serious attempt to find out about the subject, since I'm almost 80 and still play weekly, although I haven't played a tournament game in 20 years.  If I thought I could compete successfully, I'd be interested in trying again.  I really don't think denigrating my question was helpful.  
  > **username_1**: @username_0 I did not criticize your question unfairly, I just touched upon the specific detail of requesting for "documented evidence", as in it is probably unlikely(not impossible) to come across such research studies, when the question is vaguely posed("decline of chess results"),  and its nature being rather speculative to begin with. I didn't mean that your question is ill-posed, so hopefully that's clarified now. As username_2 commented earlier, there seems to be indeed cognitive studies related to chess, so hopefully your specific question, may be tackled in one such study.  
  > **username_0**: @phonon.  Well, I suppose I could have said, "see his rating drop" instead of " decline of chess results",  but I think the implication was clear enough and that it wouldn't be considered "vaguely posed" by most readers.  Anyway, thanks for your clarification.  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_4 on 2015-07-25. Score: 1
  
  According to [this study](http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11357-011-9274-9/fulltext.html) chess grandmasters peak at age 31.4.
  
  [This study](http://virgo.unive.it/seminari_economia/Brunello.pdf) confuses the hell out of me, but there is one sensible chart at page 20, that seems to indicate that you can still improve a little bit in your thirties and generally hold your playing level into your mid-forties. After that the decline becomes noticable.
  
  The slight discrepancy between these two studies is easily explained by the fact that the first only looks at grandmasters, whereas the second examines more than 40,000 players. In fact I would assume that the very top players peak even earlier these days.
  
  I found a very good [chess.com article](http://www.chess.com/blog/LionChessLtd/age-vs-elo---your-battle-against-time) about this topic. This guy analysed more than 71,000 players and found a rating peak in the late twenties. Until you are eighty you'll lose 200 Elo points on average, which really isn't all that much.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Thanks for pointing me to that informative article.  I guess my best chess years are behind me.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2015-07-31. Score: 0
  
  There are many exceptions of people performing on a high (and sometimes higher level than before) when they get older. The most obvious are: Boris Gelfand who reached a World Championship match in his forties, Vishy Anand who is currently World No 2 and in his forties, Victor Korchnoi, who reached two World Championship matches in his forties, and many others on the amateur scale. Even at 80 depending on the level you play at there may be room for improvement. It might be worth looking up a coach.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_5**: Good luck! One further anecdote. Miguel Najdorf used to play blitz regularly and maintained a very high strength in his eighties until about eight-five when his blitz strength went into decline.  
  
  ---
  
  