Top chess players who died of a heart attack include Adolf Anderssen (age 60), Vladimir Bagirov (age 63), Joseph Blackburne (age 82), Efim Bogoljubow (age 63), Gyula Breyer (age 28), Max Euwe (age 80), Albert Hodges (age 83), Paul Keres (age 59), Emanuel Lasker (age 72), Paul Leonhardt (age 57), Frank Marshall (age 67), Miguel Najdorf (age 87), Cecil Purdy (age 73), Samuel Reshevsky (age 80), Vladimir Simagin (age 49), Gideon Stahlberg (age 59), Howard Staunton (age 64), Leonid Stein (age 38), Herman Steiner (age 50), Alexei Suetin (age 74), Wolfgang Unzicker (age 81), Alexey Vyzmanavin (age 40).
Alexander Alekhine may also have had a heart attack when he died at the age of 53.
Other chess players who died of a heart attack include Alan Benjamin (age 67), Humphrey Bogart (age 57), David Burris (age 56), Richard Deluane (age 49), Ed Edmondson (age 62), Arpad Elo (age 89), Oscar Freeman (age 67), Jim Gallagher (age 46), Ken Harkness (age 74), Ivan IV "the Terrible (age 54), Charles Keyser, Alan Kotok (age 64), Birdie Reeve (age 89), Nick Ziminski (age 82)
Those that had a heart attack while playing chess or had just played chess include Adorjan (he survived), Bagirov (right after time pressure and his flag fell), Bogoljubow, Edmondson, Ivan the Terrible, Charles Keyser Leonhardt, Purdy, Stewart Reuben (he survived), Steiner, Suetin, Wunsch (he survived).
In 1923, a spectator watching the Ed Lasker - Frank Marshall chess match died of a heart attack.
In 1944, Al Horowitz's opponent died of a heart attack in Kansas City just after Horowitz made a spectacular move.
Stroke victims include Amos Burn (age 77), Jose Capablanca (age 53), Jan Donner (age 61), Reuben Fine (age 79), Aivars Gipslis (age 63), Eduard Gufeld (age 66), Paul Morphy (age 47), Johannes Zukertort (age 45),
Stroke survivors include Eric Schiller (51) and John Watson (age 48).
Those who had a stroke while playing chess include Jose Capablanca (who survived the first stroke), Gipslis, and Zukertort.
A heart attack (acute myocardial infarction), occurs when the supply of blood and oxygen to an area of heart muscle is blocked, usually by a clot in a coronary artery.
A stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of the brain is suddenly interrupted or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts, spilling blood into the spaces surrounding brain cells.
So does chess contribute to a heart attack or stroke? If it does, then it must be the stress (mental tension) during the game. The highest risks for a heart attack or stroke are high blood pressure (140/90 or worse), smoking, high blood cholesterol (LDL cholesterol over 100mg/dL), obesity (BMI of 30 or greater), diabetes, excessive alcohol, heredity, and not enough exercise.
A surge in adrenaline caused by stress causes the blood to clot more readily, increasing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Deadlines (time control) may have a significant impact on heart attack risk. Small periods of high pressure stress are worse for your heart than longer periods of slightly elevated stress.
Increasing age increases the risk of a heart attack. This risk factor cannot be changed. Over 83 percent of people who die of heart attack or coronary heart disease are 65 or older.
In the United States, 1 in 5 deaths are due to heart attacks. Heart attacks has been the leading cause of death in the United States every year except 1918.
Every year, there are 1.5 million heart attacks in the USA, with 500,000 deaths.
A heart attack occurs every 20 seconds with a heart attack death about every minute.
About 50 percent of deaths occur within one hour of the heart attack outside a hospital.
About 40 percent of people who experience a heart attack in a given year die from it.
The highest heart attack death rates are in Russia, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The USA ranks 17th. The lowest were Japan, France, Spain, Switzerland, and Canada.
The average age of patients hospitalized for a heart attack was 68.
