Age of Decline

Is your ability to play chess in decline? At what age did you peak? (Without indicating your current age of course.)

"For most grandmasters, the drop is between 100 and 200 rating points. Others, though, retire rather than let their rating plummet."

"One picked age 27 as his peak year."

Will you quit now to preserve you chess.com rating forever? 

http://www.latimes.com/features/puzzles/chess/la-ca-chess2-2009aug02,0,5390170.story

Advertising: If in decline join Exclusive Offset 701-1100: 100 games completed before you drop below 701. 

My rating is hardly that important.

you never know when you peak, im sure i can teach a 40 year old to play chess and get him to a 1500 rating. how old was he when he peaked?

i havent experience old age so i wouldn't know, but i dont think people reach their full potential even when their ratings "peak"

From a ( quick and rough ) study I did on World Champions it is clear that ability declines from age 34 onwards.  I asked in another thread when the peak age was.

From Chessmetrics:

On average for these top players, mid-20s to mid-30s were their best years. There tended to be a slow decline from mid-30s to mid-50s. Then the decline became steeper.

But you're still losing brain cells.

I like Lasker's graph the best.  At age 55, he was STILL one of the strongest players of all time.

Steintz and Lasker were both tanks well into their fifties. Very perseverant players. And I think part of the "decline" may be simply the physical stamina needed to play in tournaments and matches! As you get older, you just lose the stamina, it's how life works.

28 is more or less the peak for many human activities, so I guess it is the same for chess ability.

Of course, most of us amateurs aren't playing at our full potential anyway, so we can still improve by getting better at the game, even though our brains are slowing.

At 35, I've discovered that my patience has improved. And that in turn has improved my chess a lot recently :-)

However, it is obviously true your decline depends upon the type of person who you are. Some people may decline around 25, while others might decline around 50. It just depends on your genetics and your personality. Many people agree, the happier you are, the longer your memory lives. And as Tatdude asked, I think most people here play chess for fun, not for the rating. At least I do.