Older grandmasters suffer from three problems: Number one is that they can't keep their concentration up for 6 hours anymore. Number two is that memory is starting to fade with age and chess is all about pattern recognition after all. Number three is that their opening-analysis is usually outdated and unfortunately that was where their biggest advantage came from.
For instance, Polugaevsky spend over a year analyzing his "variation" before he used it the first time in practice. Nowadays a 12-year old kid can press a button and an engine will provide a clear cut refutation. You can compare the influence of Rybka/Houdini on Chess to the influence that Snowie/Jellyfish had on Backgammon.
About the ranking: The world-ranking is based on rating which is based on performance. If you stop playing your rating stays put. Unfortunately there is rating-inflation of about 100 points in 10 years. This means if you stop playing with a rating of 2700, you will drop out of the top-100 in roughly 10 years. You cannot lose any titles though, so you will remain a grandmaster even if you wearing diapers again.
P.S.: It's pretty unlikely that Walter Brown can still make a living from chess these days. He can't beat the engine-generation and for the same reason his "secrets" have no market value anymore.
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Originally Posted by David Sklansky
Last question. Take someone like Dan Harrington who I believe was about 2400 at his peak and took chess seriously but not super seriously. Now he is about 70. If he spent a year intensely studying with Kasparov would he be favored to hit a new peak?
2400 like 30 years ago is pretty much GM-strength nowadays, because the requirements didn't change (you still need 2500), so he was actually pretty decent. Elo-inflation works in his favor and practice with Kasparov would certainly provide valuable insight and a ton of surprises. Still I think 70 is very close to the cuttoff, so I doubt he could make it. Even the best opening knowledge only gets you to a certain point and from then on you need a ton of stamina and precision to get to the finish.
Last edited by Shandrax; 03-18-2014 at 08:42 AM.