How Many Calories Do Chess Players Burn

Chess players train for many hours, include physical exercises in their workouts, and undergo medical examinations like soccer players and other athletes. Have you ever wondered how many calories chess players burn during a game that can last for several hours? Read on to find out the answer to this question.

How do professionals play chess?

It’s not just “games” in the park on the bench, but serious events with a strict schedule – even for children.

In many countries the children’s championship has nine games, one a day, with no days off. Each player is given 90 minutes to play, plus an electronic clock adds 30 seconds after each move. That is, children can play for five hours a day. Still need to sort out the game and prepare for the next, that’s an extra couple of hours.

Adults, on the one hand, have a gentler mode. For example, in a chess crown match they play two days and rest once. And many prestigious tournaments have rest days. But adults lose more energy per tournament because:

• There are usually more games in their tournaments.
• There is usually more time per game in their tournaments.
• Preparing for new opponents is much more serious than in children’s chess.

What does energy do?

The average high-level chess game lasts 3-4 hours, sometimes more than 5. That is, you can spend more than 1400 kcal, while the daily rate is about 2-3 thousand. Where does the energy go?

At rest, the human brain expends about 350-450 kcal. Obviously, the brain works much more intensely during a game. Plus the work of the heart increases. During a game, the heart rate can reach up to 160 beats per minute!

Is it possible to spend less energy?

If you count fewer options at the board or play faster, you can. But it reduces the quality of the game. For example in rapid chess, where 15 minutes are given for a game, the accuracy of moves is lower, mistakes are much more numerous. So there’s no way for professionals to avoid strain.

Another question is whether it’s possible to provide optimal conditions? Lighting, temperature, even the quality of the chairs all affect a player’s fatigue. There have been cases of loss of consciousness due to poor ventilation of the room.

But if the playing hall for opponents is the same (it is unlikely that some chairs are more comfortable than others), then the physical condition is on the conscience of the athletes themselves.

What needs to be coached?

The main problems begin at the end of the game and the end of the tournament, when fatigue increases. That’s why the first thing you need to do is pump up your endurance, otherwise you might fall asleep at the board.

You still have to work on attentiveness, concentration and speed of decision-making. But in general, when a chess player reaches the professional level, these qualities are already well developed. So further work is simply a matter of honing the skill.

How to train?

Tennis is very popular among chess players. Table tennis trains attentiveness; tennis on a larger scale trains endurance and decision making.

To withstand the load without losing focus, you need special training. You have to be prepared comprehensively, not only in terms of chess. You need to improve your stamina and overall fitness.

Often on weekends chess players try to play soccer. The quality is not the best, but it’s the fact of doing it that counts.

Most players do cardio workouts. First and foremost, running, and Magnus Carlsen even works out with a trainer. It seems that the world champion takes his training most seriously. In 2017, he felt that holding the chess crown was becoming increasingly difficult, and he turned to the Olympic Training Center in Oslo.

Magnus also drank too much orange juice – this led to high blood sugar levels. As you know, such problems can lead to weight gain, but Carlsen turned to specialists in time. Nutritionists suggested that instead of drinking sweet juice drink a mixture of chocolate and plain milk, which contains much less sugar, but more calcium, potassium and protein.

The Norwegian keeps a vegetarian diet and gets his energy before long games from a portion of pasta. It is also known that the chess king has completely given up drinking alcohol.

Unfortunately, there is not as much money in chess as there is in soccer, so special diets and training are available only to a few. But progress is being made, and various studies are being conducted to improve the players’ performance. For example, one of them studied at what angle the head should be held in order to reduce the strain on the neck and increase the flow of oxygen to the brain.

The day is not far off when the world chess champion will be an athletic athlete. Because there is no other way.

How many calories can the brain burn?

In 1984, the World Chess Championship was abruptly canceled due to the extreme exhaustion of Anatoly Karpov, one of the main contenders for the championship title. During the previous five months and dozens of matches the great chess player, who was not overweight, had lost 22 pounds, and the organizers of the competition feared for his health.

Karpov was not alone. While no chess player has experienced such drastic weight loss since, elite players can burn up to 6,000 calories in a single day – without any exercise.

Is the brain responsible for this massive energy absorption? And does this mean that if you think a lot, you can lose weight from it? First we need to understand how much energy the brain normally uses.

How many calories does the brain use?

Even when the body is at rest – besides breathing, digestion, and maintaining body temperature – the brain uses 20-25% of the body’s total energy!

This amounts to 350 or 450 calories a day for the average woman or man, respectively. As a child, the brain is even more voracious. At the age of 5 – 6, the brain can use over 60% of the body’s energy.

The brain never really rests. Even when we sleep, it still needs fuel to support our body functions.

Hungry brain

The brain consumes energy, mostly in the form of glucose.This actually makes the brain the most “expensive” energy organ in the body, even though it only makes up 2% of the body weight in general.

Humans are not unique in this regard. Even very small mammals, such as the tiny tree shrew or pygmy monkey, give as much of their body energy to the brain as humans do. True, they have it larger in proportion to the rest of their bodies.

Most of the energy goes into enabling the neurons in the brain to communicate with each other through chemical and electrical signals transmitted through special cellular structures. Passing ions through cell membranes is considered one of the most energetically expensive processes in the brain.

Brain fitness

Since the brain is such a tireless energy eater, does this mean that the more we make this organ work, the more energy it will absorb – and the more calories we will burn?

Technically, the answer is yes, in the case of complex tasks. Complex tasks can be considered those that the brain cannot solve using previously learned algorithms. Such activities might include learning to play a musical instrument or developing innovative moves during a strenuous game of chess. The concept of “difficult,” however, varies from person to person.

When you train to learn something new, your brain adapts to increase the transfer of energy to those areas of the brain that are activated during the training. Over time, as we become more proficient at a particular task, the brain will no longer need to work as hard, and it will expend less energy.

How much thinking does it take to lose weight?

Amid the enormous overall energy consumption of the brain, which performs many tasks at once, the energy for even non-standard tasks is comparatively small. Most of what consumes brain energy is what happens “behind the scenes” of our consciousness. We are unaware of much of the activity going on in the brain; it is not related to conscious activities such as learning and inventing. In other words, learning a new task or doing something complicated is not really the most time-consuming part of the brain’s work.

But if so, how do we explain the case of the chess player Karpov? It probably comes down mainly to stress and reduced food intake rather than mental exhaustion. Increased heartbeat, rapid breathing and perspiration – in combination, these effects contribute to weight loss better than chess itself. In addition, players sometimes have to sit through a game for eight hours at a time, which can disrupt their eating habits.

So, the verdict is this: unfortunately, mental activity alone will not get rid of excess weight. But if you decide you’re lacking inspiration, a slice of chocolate can really stimulate your brain.