[YZF]

You don't have to stop playing. Kasparov (59) still plays here and there and he's still pretty great. Anand is 52 and is 13th in the world.

Chess requires a crazy amount of time invested and you're likely going to stop, and definitely slow, making gains at a certain age. Lots of people play chess for reasons other than becoming the world champion (since obviously most won't).

That said I play online chess too much and it's sort of a waste of time ;)