“Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can’t separate body from mind.”

Physicality crucial in seated combat, too
Saturday June 23, 2012 8:29 AM
By Shelby Lyman

Good physical health and conditioning are critical to maximizing success in chess.

Few in the game — including the Soviets, who were the first to approach chess from a scientific perspective — had incorporated this imperative into their training more convincingly than Bobby Fischer during the run-up to his 1972 world-title match with Boris Spassky. Fischer’s trainer, Harry Sneider, said:

“He really believed in a good preparation. He loved power-training with weights, he swam 45 minutes a day and he was a ‘world-champion’ walker. . . . He also drank pints of carrot juice and ate a lot of salads. He took a sauna every day and a massage. That was his daily routine.”

Fischer was practicing what he had learned from years of chess competition.

In his own words:

“Your body has to be in top condition. Your chess deteriorates as your body does. You can’t separate body from mind.”

His athleticism was apparent to talk-show host Dick Cavett, who interviewed him before the ’72 title match and later observed:

“There appeared, somewhat disconcerted, a tall and handsome lad with football-player shoulders.”

Asked by Cavett what he would have liked to become had he not excelled in chess, Fischer replied, “Something in sports.”

Shelby Lyman is a Basic Chess Features columnist.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com