When do we reach our peak brain power?

As we humans age, our brains and bodies peak at some point and then start to decline all the way down.

Our muscle mass, strength, and function begin to decline around age 30, but studies of professional chess players have shown that the decline of the brain occurs much more slowly.

With records spanning 125 years of history, scientists have mapped out a brain curve that is applicable to different generations of chess players. 

In the early 20s, chess performance improves rapidly. It then reaches a steady state around age 35, peaks at age 40, and begins a steady decline after age 45.

The magnitude of the decline in cognitive ability after age 45 is statistically insignificant, taking into account factors other than age, such as the recorded player's first/second moves in a given match, the length of the match, the age of the opponent, and the strength of the opponent.

While the brain curves may vary in different domains, the results for chess tend to match the curves for other cognitive skills.

Unlike many past studies of cognitive performance, which tended to rely on parameters such as speed of decision making and working memory, chess tends to match the curve for other cognitive skills because training and experience are also taken into account.

Playing chess requires invoking complex neural functions equivalent to an automatic process used to analyze situations involving neural networks in different brain regions," the authors say. Thus, the quality of a particular strategy reflects the ideal measure of performance in demanding cognitive tasks."