Magnus Carlsen’s heart rate monitored at 42 in a game. ‘It's Hvilepuls,’ he claims
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Chess-dotcom shared a screenshot from the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Paris featuring Magnus Carlsen's heart rate during a game. The Norwegian superstar's heart rate at that point was just 42. Meantime, his opponent Vincent Keymer's measured at 108. Chess-dotcom wondered if the heart rate monitor was wrong or if Carlsen had ice in his veins.
"It's called Hvilepuls," replied Carlsen, the World No. 1 chess player. In Norway, Hvilepuls means resting heart rate. Though chess is a sedentary activity, a close game can often get players worked up, even at the highest level. The game against Keymer was in a balance, yet Carlsen had managed to remain calm.
In February, during the first leg of the Grand Slam Tour at Weissenhaus in Germany, India's World Champion D Gukesh stunned American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana by maintaining his heart rate around 70 throughout the game.
Is it normal?
The resting heart rate of an average adult ranges between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm). However, it can be much lower for fit people, especially athletes.
In an 'Ask the doctor' segment of Harvard Medical School, cardiologist Dr Deepak L Bhatt said: "Endurance athletes and other people who exercise a great deal often have lower-than-average heart rates, sometimes even below 40 beats per minute."
According to Dr Bhatt, exercise strengthens the heart muscle, enabling it to pump a greater volume of blood with each heartbeat. "More oxygen gets delivered to the muscles, so the heart needs to beat fewer times than it would in a less-fit person while at rest."
Despite being a professional chess player, Carlsen maintains a healthy workout routine and has shared videos and photos of him playing football, tennis and other sports.
On April 9, Carlsen maintained his calmness to score a big win in the first game of his quarterfinal tie against Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Arjun Erigaisi, the only remaining Indian in the contest, drew his first game of the quarterfinals with Hikaru Nakamura.