Heart rate?

Has there been any studies done on chess players, to see if their heart rates increase during games, and again in end-game situations or getting low on time?

If heart rates do go up, does it lend more argument that chess is a sport?

heart rate goes up for me in serious OTB games. especially when there are more than 4 or 5 people watching. heart beat also goes up in tournaments where im coming first or second in the last few minutes.

i've heard of people having heart attacks while playing chess!

maybe mikail tal

Blitz sends my heart-rate absolutely soaring, I don't think it's very good for me at all.  Coupled with the 'adrenalin shakes' I've had to tell myself to step away from the 5min clocks before I pop my clogs!

Best ways to control this?   Breathing techniques perhaps?

I only play normal non-blitz games and it makes my heart rate go up. For me playing chess is almost the same feeling as being in a physical fight. It's stressful, yet exciting, and I think the stress is part of what makes it so addictive, because after you win there's a big release of tension and the relief feels good, like "thank god that's over with".

Of course, when you lose, then it's just depressing and angering because it's like "all that stress and effort just to lose!" That's why I only play people at my rank or lower.

I largely agree with that, but I don't feel angry & depressed when I lose, I feel crushed, and coupled with the shakes it's rather unsettling.  Strangely, I don't get these feelings when playing OTB 'in the flesh' so to speak, then it's actually a very enjoyable experience. The faceless opponent crushing you is a different beast entirely! 

OTB is a friendlier experience because you can see all the non-verbal communication. If you're playing over the internet, it seems meaner, and it's easy to become hateful.

There's a lot of rude people online too, like this one guy I lost to last night. I had this guy at a -10 disadvantage but it was an extremely sharp situation and it was a critical moment, so as I was trying to find the right move he messaged me in the chat box "Zzzzzzzzz" and that broke my train of thought and I was just like ok, I played the wrong move and got checkmated. Computer analysis revealed that one of the moves I was considering when he sent the message was the right one. That's why from now on whenever anyone types "Zzzzzzzzz" or tries to rush me I'm going to make a point to disable chat and think for at least 10 minutes because usually when they send a message like that it's a critical moment and they're trying to make you mess up.

You check the chat during blitz?    There's no way I can find time for that.  I check it after, had a 'die sh*tbird' once which I thought was rather amusing, especially as it was the last game in a blitz tournament with us two vying for top spot. He had won with a nice mate. Oh well to the winner the spoils I say, if that includes a gloat or two who am I to argue, although I myself do try to be polite in victory & humble in defeat.

I only play non-blitz games on lichess since I always like to be black. The chat there is enabled by default and it's impossible not to notice when a message pops up on it. Lol at "die sh*tbird", it's quite funny the corny one-liners people will write. I've actually started typing "Hello Chess Friend" (a term I got from Valeri Lilov) at the beginning of games now because that creates a friendlier atmosphere and usually prevents nasty comments. I must admit that often after a hard fought game at the moment of victory corny one-liners similar to "die sh*tbird" "hasta la vista f*ckface" etc will come to my mind but I almost always prevent myself from actually typing them unless I'm in a very bad mood. When someone writes angry comments to me I don't really mind because I understand their feeling, it's the rushing comments that annoy me the most. Comments trying to rush or distract people are a form of cheating in my opinion. I take some solace in the fact that the guy who rushed me played a horrible game and violated some basic rules of chess and now he's going to think it's ok to play like that and get beat severaly in his next games.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18987876

I disabled chat a while ago because as a female blitz player with chat on people actually harass you during the game. It makes playing extremely annoying and agitating, that it raises my heartbeat insanely. I guess it's and instinctive trigger, feeling that losing will cause me to be molested by some guy or something. Proves once again that our bodies are still living 'in the jungle'.

When I play bullet games and it gets to time scramble and because of a game of mouse speed. I usually sigh a breath of relief after the game.

i think such an experiment surely has been done

I've had my watch tell me my stress levels were high during games

I had a very stressful, tense game yesterday where I threw a winning position and almost lost, and I recall my heart rate being around 150BPM which is almost that of intense exercise. Chess is an exciting - and tough - game!