I'm curious. I heard somewhere that the brain really peaks at 25, but I bet it's different in different areas. In chess, experience has got to play a part, too. I don't mean to flog a dead horse, but it makes me wonder where Magnus Carlsen will go. It's possible he could burn out like Morphy, but I read an article that was talking about how he's not the type to do that.

Where do you think chess players peak and start going downhill?

Carlsen will not burn out for a while.. with todays technology your probably gonna be strong until 30ish.

I think chess players peak around 22-30 and start going downhill after that.

     Did Morphy actually burn out?  I thought he just didn't have any strong competition to keep him sharp.

wow 35... I STILL HAVE TIME YESSSSS

Ivanchuk, Gelfand, and Shirov will have some thoughts for all of you "35-ers" . . .

Many strong players have retained much of their strength in later years:  Mieses was competitive into his 80s, Smyslov made the Candidates' Matches in his late 60s, Gligoric finished 3rd in the Yugoslavian Championship at 72, Lasker won the New York 1924 Super-tournament at 55, and was able to finish 3rd at Moscow 1935, the only undefeated player at age 65.

I strongly suspect the 50-ish Kasparov could still make some noise if he wanted to, as well . . .