Checkmate: Top Chess Players Live Longer

Chess players live up to 14 years longer than the general population. from www.shutterstock.com

In 2014, a chess competitor collapsed during his final match of the Chess Olympiad in Norway. Within hours, another was found dead in his hotel room. Earlier, a chess grandmaster died of a heart attack while playing a tournament game in Finland in 2000. Within the same year, another player died after having a stroke during his tournament in Berlin.

These incidents led many to believe the stress of playing chess could be harmful and even fatal. So we decided to test the theory that playing chess at an elite level elevates the risk of premature death.

What Does the Science Say?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, few studies have been done on mind sports and risk of premature death. We found just one study on chess players conducted in 1969 that found professional chess players had shorter lifespans than amateur players who had careers outside of chess, but it involved just 32 players born before the 20th century.