Playing a world champi onship match “takes a year off your life,” according to Mikhail Botvinnik, the sixth world champion, who endured the strain of seven title matches and one exhausting match-tournament.
This should be a warning to current champion Vishy Anand of India and challenger Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, who face off in a title match beginning April 21.
Champions like Anatoly Karpov have been known to lose more than 15 pounds and suffer from insomnia and other afflictions during a grueling match for the highest title in chess.
But winning has a way of compensating. Botvinnik lived to be 83 and Vasily Smyslov died at age 89 last month. They brought the average age of the 10 deceased world champions to 66.8 years.
In contrast, the nine world championship challengers who never won the title lived an average of 62.2 years — or 4.6 years less than the winners.
Genes don’t explain the shorter lives of nonchampions. Paul Keres of Estonia, often called the greatest player who never became champ, died of a heart attack at 59. His older brother Harald, a distinguished scientist, celebrated his 97th birthday in November.