MARK RUBERY CHESS

Roberto Baglione, a nutritional scientist from Argentina, systematically studied the eating habits of grandmasters – 72 of them. His paper culminates in a catalogue of dietary instructions for serious chess players

Here are a few extracts of his findings…

High-level competitive chess is considered a demanding sport, not only mentally speaking but also, physically. A tournament chess game can take more than seven hours under stressful conditions for players.as a result, it will be necessary not to limit preparation to hours of study on the board, but to extend it to a more complete program involving physical training and an adequate nutritional plan for the demands, among others.

66.7% of the surveyed Grandmasters ate at least three meals a day and 36.1% often skipped breakfast.

Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day because of its direct impact on the mental (and physical) performance in the morning. It has a direct effect on the glucose concentration in the brain and liver, and supplies a number of nutrients that are essentials to produce neurotransmitters, chemical messengers which act over neuronal cells communications. Among the reasons why breakfast is skipped, the most common one is that some players study chess until late in the evening and then get up after breakfast time.

The majority of Grandmasters avoided overeating or having food of difficult digestion before the games, while the rest preferred a regular or habitual intake.

It is known that after eating, the bloodstream of the organs involved in the digestion process rises and, consequently, the blood and oxygen supply to other organs, as the brain, decreases. If the quantity of food is voluminous or of difficult digestion, consequences will be even more severe or last longer, and people may feel sleepy and tired, less alert and focused, and prone to make more mistakes in relation to attention and search tasks.

During games, a great number of chess players (95.8%) ate some sort of solid food or fluid, while the rest did not. The most preferred solid food by Grandmasters included chocolate (80.5%), fruits (14.6%) and cereal bars (9.8%). Regarding types of fluid, main preferences were water (72.1%), coffee (42.6%), tea (29.5%) and fruit juice (23.6%).

From a qualitative point of view, these liquid and solid foods choices can be considered as satisfactory, for their supply of glucose, water and other nutrients, and their adequate digestion times.

Thus one can conclude that the following guide might improve your next tournament: Chess players should try to have breakfast daily.

Avoiding “heavy foods” or foods of difficult digestion before games must be adopted as a regular habit for chess players. The last “main” meal before a game has to be had at least three hours in advance.

The best strategy for hydration is to drink small quantities at regular intervals, instead of greater quantities at a fewer intervals.

WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN

To play for a draw, at any rate with white, is to some degree a crime against chess. (Mikhail Tal)