Aging in chess.

My question is why do you think that when players get older in chess they are getting actually weaker instead of the logical improvement with knowledge and experience.

He's dead.

Awkward!

It's just a natural part of the aging process. Knowledge and experience can't offset all those changes forever.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/004023.htm

Notable statement from that link:
"Slowing of thought, memory, and thinking is a normal part of aging. These changes are not the same in everyone."

I'm not saying forever but like i read today tat for kramnik for example, this candidates cycle might be his last chance since he is aging, i mean it's not like he is gonna be 90 the next cycle lol.

Common wisdom is that it's all downhill after 35 or so.

Hmm, that got resized to a useless size:

http://robslink.com/SAS/democd32/chess.htm

My body started down a steep slope at 45. There are varying opinions as to when I lost my mind.

In my view it's a total lack of energy. As you get older your energy level goes down. Making it hard to concentrate for long periods of time...

One of the biggest reasons I think is that often as players age they do not have such a singular focus on chess, that they would have had as young players.  Some devote more time to families and parenthood, others develop political or business interests;  they just don't shut themselves away studying chess for 10+ hours a day like they did on their way up.

Also, among the things the young don't know is just how much they don't know, and among the things the old do know is just how much they don't know.

I'm 57, and I can assure you that senility sets in around age... 58 or so.

Good news, that still leaves me a little bit of runway.

I found that my memory and calculating powers started to fade after I turned 50. I'm still pretty good at correspondence chess but other people seem to like to use engines there. I have good days and bad days. On a good day I'm close to an expert level, but on my bad days I'm a patzer. Most frustrating, however I still love to play the game.

Nice chart - but it doesn't go beyond 70 -- guess what you are discussing  must be true and I am brain dead - lol

Hmm . . . Were we discussing something?

If you are familiar with the difference between "fluid intelligence" and "crystalized intelligence", this becomes a simpler matter. "Fluid intelligence" is largely genetic and is thought to peak in one's 20's and deteriorates rapidly with age. Tellingly, this is the part of your intelligence which determines pattern recognition and calculation ability - probably the two most important factors in chess. 

Here is an interesting article which also discusses ways these deteriorations can be deterred and the effects of education on the aging brain. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/education/edlife/a-sharper-mind-middle-age-and-beyond.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

When you get old, there are three things that happen, you lose your memory, and then, I forget the other two...

That graph of chess rating vs time could just as well have been a graph of physical height vs time.