I’ve been giving this a lot of thought as well lately. I think the people to follow here are chess players: they have to maintain intense mental concentration on a set of difficult problems for games that can last seven hours. Then they have to review the game and prepare for the game the next day, which might be another seven-hour marathon. Chess players talk a lot about the importance of physical fitness for maintaining high-level tournament performance.
Emulating chess players might be more efficient than looking into the research. Maybe someone who is willing to put a lot of time and effort into carefully reading hundreds of studies and doing all the necessary background research could come up with something optimal for their body, but it’s a lot easier to just copy chess players and might not yield much worse results. Chess players are trying to win in a highly competitive system that gives them quick and unambiguous feedback about their performance, after all, which could easily mean better incentives and selection effects than what you get in academic research or individual intellectual’s attempts to optimize their own intellectual performance for goals more far-off and abstract than victory in tomorrow’s game.
Swimming and tennis seem to be popular choices for chess players to stay fit. Obviously the goal is stamina and not muscle, though.
Carlsen revises his opening habitually while jogging on a treadmill which keeps him mentally sharp and physically fit. As Carlsen describes, “These long tournaments are quite tiring and long games are very tiring, especially at the end.” He recently told The Associated Press, “If you are in good shape and can keep your concentration you will be the one who will profit from your opponents’ mistakes.” Adding, “In general towards the end of the tournaments younger players have that advantage so the other players will have to try to equal that by having good fitness as well.” As we get older, it becomes more important for all of us all to stay physically fit to maintain a competitive advantage in a cut-throat world.
Carlsen’s physical fitness supports his style of favoring the middle and long game while he avoids over-thinking opening exchanges. “I do focus quite a bit on the opening,” Carlsen said. “But I have a different goal. Some people try to win the game in the opening. My goal is to make sure I get a playable position and then the main battle is going to happen in the middle game and the later game.”
Frankly, Anand is over 40 and he is surely not the fittest person around. I know he goes to the gym but I’m not sure of his energy levels. After all, Anand is an overweight middle-aged man and that could reflect in his game at some stage
Chess is not a 100 metre race and fitness is a minor issue. However, in a match of high intensity between players with equal talent and skills, fitness could turn out to be a factor. I thought the eighth game loss for Anand was because of fatigue. He defended impeccably after choosing a strange line but he committed a horrible blunder… That move was not for lack of understanding or knowledge. It looked to me as fatigue...
I’ve been giving this a lot of thought as well lately. I think the people to follow here are chess players: they have to maintain intense mental concentration on a set of difficult problems for games that can last seven hours. Then they have to review the game and prepare for the game the next day, which might be another seven-hour marathon. Chess players talk a lot about the importance of physical fitness for maintaining high-level tournament performance.
Emulating chess players might be more efficient than looking into the research. Maybe someone who is willing to put a lot of time and effort into carefully reading hundreds of studies and doing all the necessary background research could come up with something optimal for their body, but it’s a lot easier to just copy chess players and might not yield much worse results. Chess players are trying to win in a highly competitive system that gives them quick and unambiguous feedback about their performance, after all, which could easily mean better incentives and selection effects than what you get in academic research or individual intellectual’s attempts to optimize their own intellectual performance for goals more far-off and abstract than victory in tomorrow’s game.
Swimming and tennis seem to be popular choices for chess players to stay fit. Obviously the goal is stamina and not muscle, though.
So, what is it that chess players do? What regimens do they follow?
I found this here:
And this here: