What I read, whereever it was, was specifically talking about gm's during tournament days. Thinking about it now I'd guess the source, assuming it even exists, was talking about stress but writer kind of conflated it with thinking/playing chess generally. The relationship between science and news is pretty lame, but regardless I'd wager a gm in a high stakes tournament chews through more fuel than they otherwise would, just not because of thinking
and I'm pretty sure 6,000 is bullshit regardless. In highschool when I was running track and lifting 3 times a week I would go north of 3,000 semi-regularly but honestly that was kind of a drag if I was also avoiding shitty foods. No way does sitting at a board take twice that for someone in their 30s
I remember reading an article with a Magnus interview. However it was a while ago so dont take this as fact but I think he said something about him needing to be healthy and lay off sugar to allow for his energy to be consistent thought a match. Also I remember reading that these top players were losing crazy amounts of weight. Whats the explanation for that?
Actually, I am burning 2000000 calories a day (2000 kcal).
i think i recall having heard of lasker and capablanca loosing weight during their match
the same in the karpov-kasparov match in 1984 i think
i don't neccesairly think its chess but just the stress in generall. both karpov and kasparov were basicaly not doing anything else than 100% chess for a couple of months, that surely was not healthy
Nice
Fwiw Ben Finegold has been Vegan for a few months, a lot of people say it's healthier to eat that way.
The real calories of course come from moves like f6, just one f6 contains 55% of your daily saturated fat intake and a whopping 2500kcal .
Your standard moves like Nc3, e4, d4 etc all burn between 5-10kcal, so in essence a long game of chess, at classical time controls, with sensible moves is equivalent to doing 45 minutes of steady cardio. The problems arise however with moves like f6 and saccing the exchange. Scientists warn that players who regularly makes these sort of moves risk putting their health at considerable risk with resulting health complications such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
In other words, you can burn calories playing chess but only if you play the right way. The way things are going f6 will probably be banned by 2030.
