In long games you absolutely could hold an advantage. Many mistakes are made when players get tired. Imagine Magnus with virtually unlimited focus and mental energy.
@@sanjaykrishnan8379 russian olympic team and whole federation had problems with testing positive for doping at various competitions in recent years i believe so he just does not wanna say anything that some pesky investigators could turn against him in a headline or russian players
@@sanjaykrishnan8379 The entire Russian Olympic team got caught doping and it was being sponsored by the government. There is a really good documentary on Netflix about it.
This man's life is about insight into a position. Insight into a position allows him to take an angle to that position that you hadn't thought of. That can be very funny.
A chess champion with swagger and humor - we are so blessed to have Magnus as the ambassador for a sport historically thought of for "nerds" and introverts - there can be people with great personality, outgoing, and stylish also gifted at chess
Nepo's gotten suspiciously fit ahead of the championship, I wonder if he's been prepping the French defense Anavar variation or the Sicilian dbol in addition to Roid Lopez.
I feel like adderall could help with concentration but I feel like it would also affect your over all flow of play and might make you a little too aggressive and wild. I feel like chess is probably best played with a sober mind but that’s just my opinion
Not to some extent, I would say! I think it has everything to do with good health! Concentration on a single problem for that long is insane! Definitely requires stamina.
You don't use doping to get into chess shape. Maybe there are drugs that help concentration enough to be a problem I guess but many of the physical doping drugs would likely be as detrimental as helpful to preparing for a chess match. Drugs have side effects that must be managed they aren't magic little pills that turn you into a better you with no effort or management.
I would guess that if they drug tested a large tournament they would find several players that were on something to keep them focused/awake/alert. It is foolish to think otherwise. I don't think it's a problem at the very top of the chess world but I would guess it's far more common than some people think. Video game player are munching on Adderall to compete in their games. When money/fame is a prize there is always someone willing to break the rules to get a competitive edge.
Imagine this was a political topic. News articles would be crazy. "Magnus Carlsen backs the use of drugs to get an advantage!" "Magnud Carlsen admits he will cheat if he starts losing games!"
I thought of this in the past, remember when they had the heart rate monitors on, and Carlsen had like very litlle changes compare to oponents in very intense situations i suspect something like Adrenalin blokade with Propranolol(possibly some other beta blocker) there, witch allows you concentate more in these intense moments. Common tactic among snipers.
"Let's cancel Carlsen! He is a monster!" or "How dares he use sarcasm when there is people who don't have the mental capabilities to understand it! What an ableist"
Rober Hübner protested against doping tests. His argument: it cannot improve your ability at Chess, but it can help you make the most of your ability, and he likes his opponents to be at their best, so he can learn more...
i mean this is espcecially true considering the meds thatare tested for are stuff like adderall and ritalin,,, which means someone with adhd could get severely fucked by this
@@betterthanyou3465 I don't think adderall and ritalin are strictly necessary, specially for adults. If something is really necessary for medical reason, I guess you can declare it and get an excemption.
As someone with ADD that uses another drug with the same active substance as ritalin I can say for sure that as far as chess goes I play no better nor worse with or without my medicine.
If your ADD meds don't help you play chess, then they are not helping you at all
2 года назад
@@gurneyqueen5782 That is not true. I am in the same situation and can confirm what Daniel said. But it may help in for a long classical game like they are playing, i have never played classical
@@gurneyqueen5782 my ADHD meds didn't help me play better, it helped me play clearer though. Instead of 100 calculations running through my head all the time (most of which useless btw) I can follow one good line a decent bit which I would have gotten without meds also, just with more effort.
@@gurneyqueen5782 It helps me immensly when I'm in post-game analysis, or if there are distracting elements around me when playing. But in a typical game I am always in an optimal environtment and as focused as I can ever be. I never play long classical games though. For a classical game that is several hours long it would probably be a huge difference, but for a sub 30 minute game, environtment makes a way bigger difference than drugs.
Magic the Gathering professional players often times take Aderall as a means to try to focus more. So it's theoretically possible that chess players try to use these types of things as well.
I had a friend who lived off Vivarin and wouldn't eat during finals week: double major in physics and econ. Eventually he had a bad crash and thought he was having a heart attack and stopped that.
Magnus' reply is gold! My opinion on the topic: What is happening in students is they are getting overworked to death and are taking stimulants to avoid tiredness/sleep to try and maximize study/school time. Though in studies, the results have been shown to have no effect as the results came out to the same as people not on stimulants. I suspect the same with chess as well. People have been trying to find a quick solution to everything all throughout history, including stuff related to memory, strength and speed. But there are just some things you can't take shortcuts with. Chess and other strategy games included.
"Cognitive Doping in Chess (and Life)," an article by James Hamblin in _The Atlantic_ discusses some interesting findings, including about caffeine. I looked up the current FIDE and WADA regulations, and caffeine was banned from 1984 to 2004, but is currently allowed up to a fairly high blood level, apparently corresponding to at least four cups of coffee.
It might not help you understand how to play chess well, but it might give you much more stamina than other players, which could be a factor in certain situations. Imagine a fully charged GM , considerably less skilled than Carlsen, going up against a fatigued Carlsen, at a point in some tournament, say, when both should have expended a roughly equal amount of energy and thus in principle should have been dealing with a similar level of fatigue. Now, it may well be that *Carlsen* would still mop the floor even with such a player, due to his superior skill. But suppose it's a player of the caliber of, say, Nakamura. A Nakamura brimming with energy would have a much better chance beating a somewhat fatigued Carlsen.
Nerves do definitely play a big role. If you can keep calm under pressure, you have a very serious advantage because you're getting less distracted by your physical stress response. Doping might not necessarily boost your intellectual capabilities, but it could reduce your heart rate and give you an edge that way. Just a thought.
Yep. There are medicines called beta blockers and they are working like you describe. There were cases in snooker. I would be surprised if they weren't tested in chess by someone.
The less of a grip you have on the realities on the chessboard, the worse you play. So it might seem "interesting" to you--or very, very frustrating as you got your butt kicked.
@@davidsprenkle2641 I've won every game I've played on lsd and mdma, though my opponents were likely lower rated. However, chess isn't all about winning. You can play a beautiful game and lose.
The part of the brain that creates the feeling "this is interesting, this is profound, this is it!" gets activated by LSD. One guy wanted to find out what his great insights on acid looked like afterwards. He wrote down a key insight on a piece of paper: "Leather objects on floor ---- SHOES!!!!!"
Kid with ADHD here, I blunder a LOT less when I'm on Adderall. Idk if it would help someone without ADHD or not but it definitely increases my rating by at least a couple hundred points
You can atack cognitive enhacment from multiple vectors. Acetylcholine vector, Dopamine vector, Serotonin vector, GABA vector, redusing neural inflamation, upregulating neurogenesis,… I thought of this in the past, remember when they had the heart rate monitors on, and Carlsen had like very litlle changes compare to oponents in very intense situations i suspect something like Adrenalin blokade with Propranolol(possibly some other beta blocker) there, witch allows you concentate more in these intense moments. Common tactic among snipers.
It's funny, you can get people suddenly stating you're hallucinating with: "I don't believe in sniper's. 😐" in response to your brilliant hypothesis gathering.
@@TrojiteQ Ultra mechanical hypothesis denier's - one's today's society is overflowing with. Your comment could so easily fall prey to the mental machines' rage. Explanation: Because your comment was especially outgoing, far-reaching, yet didn't presented evidence with it at the same time.
@@TrojiteQ It is - a great stimulant! And I hope Angels protect those Gates. Especially, when the stream flowing trough them is propelled by purity of intention.
"Creativity." Yeah, sure. Chess players need a rock-solid command of the realities of the board, not a knight that shape changes into a bishop as they're trying to calculate. Too much romanticizing going on connected with drugs.
@@davidsprenkle2641 I didn't say it would necessarily improve their play, was just an idea. Anyway, you're confusing a normal trip with what I suggested (micro-dosing ~5% of the usual amount). At this level there are no hallucinations, just a mild increase in focus and creativity. Programmers have been doing this for years and I would assume they need solid awareness of how parts of their systems are connected.
Interviewer: Are there good drugs for chess? Jan: *sweats nervously* that would be illegal sir! Magnus: Of course, and that sounds useful.. If i wasnt already number one
Classic anabolic steroids can affect huge number of metabolic processes (not only those related to muscle performances), including processes which can make benefits to brain functioning. In many sports it makes crucial difference in final result. Fortunately, chess knowledge and skills are still dominant factor. The point is, where the money is, fairplay disappears, and noting is left to chance. Therefore, I support testing.
that steroids could have a benefit on chess performance is very far flung speculation, tbh. There are many more obvious candidate substances that increase focus and wakefulness, for example, caffeine, modafinil, ritalin, adderall, amphetamines. I don't think anyone would even consider roids for improving mental performance
Anabolic steroids don't improve concentration or mental stamina you amateur. Anabolic steroids do exactly what their name implies they build muscle cells and tissue density. The drugs that do are stimulants such as adderal and ritalin, which are in a completely different class unrelated to catabolism or anabolism.
I think unlike other sports, in Chess it's only useful on lower levels. But on this level..idk. They are so good and sharp it would not make a difference. In classical chess even more so. On lower levels of play you might needs that extra bit of focus or calm pulse and whatever. The only reasons I could imagine at World Championship Chess is either too much pressure or too much stress that you can't overcome with professionalism alone.
I hope the answer is no, drugs can't improve chess performance. But my guess is that if it could, it would be in artificial circumstances, like the end of a long and tiring tournament, or in speed chess.
Magnus much cooler here. Could be taken for an omen. Effective side-show chess! (Both great, but we do think of Ali Reza, sorry!) Chess is wonderful these days, not like when I started in 1981, although experiencing Kasparow's new style was an eye-opener.
I don`t know. I suspect that if it for example help you being awake, it will at the same time make you have less patient.. It might help in speed chess, but i doubt it will be at any help in a 4 hour match. But as i say, i don`t know much about this things. Also i believe the best players have to much pride and know that what will help them for a short time will weaken them in the long run. If i was a runner and cheated with drugs, i would never think about my self as the best runner if i did that. I am pretty sure that players like for example Carlsen and Nepo are doing it more to prove it to them self then to prove it to other.
As someone who has taken drugs such as Ritalin and dexamphetamines, it would help if the players struggled to keep attention, but as far as I can see they don't struggle at all with that. Maybe if the game was going on for 12 hours a stimulant would have a huge effect. Their whole life is about chess, they study and play chess hours every day. It would not make sense for them to loose the ability to concentrate on a chess position. Maybe if a local blitz patzer with short attention span played a classical game it would have a significant effect
so as a biochemist and pharmaceutical researcher and lifelong severe adhd patient and chess player, i can tell you that these medicines have both positive and negative effects on chess, backed up empirically. Medicines like adderal and vyvanse are going to lower impulsivity and increase focus, but with this focus comes a very obcious tunnel vision. the increase in focus comes as a result of what you are thinking about having more staying power in your working memory by blocking the reuptake of certain neurotransmitters in the synapses of your neurons. This invariably makes you think about bad lines longer because you feel positively about them and want to make them work. i can tell you from my own experience my positional play and raw calculation is better when i first take my medicine, but my attacking ideas and sacrificial tactics are miles better late in the day or if i take a lower dose that day. these medications change the reward system in your brain, and that system is what is responsible for decision making and ehat is chess if not a risk/reward or tit for tat game? I would be willing to put money on the fact that any GM who took an adhd meds peior to a game would play objectively worse but would feel as though they played better. if they took a controlled dose for several months to better acclimate and adjust to it, that one is more up for debate. arguments for better and worse have merit and value.
The reason for doping tests in chess is a that such tests are required by the International Olympic Committee. Since the FIDA (I think that is correct -- the international organization that promotes chess / manages ratings / organizes tournaments) very much wishes to chess to be added as an Olympic event they have decided to implement the tests despite the fact that they are rather absurd.
You claim that testing for doping in chess is absurd... You are online You know. All the info about cognitive abilities enhancing drugs at the tip of your fingers. The most absurd fact is that Carlsen pointed to such drugs and potential of abusing them in this video... But you...
@@noegojimmy well, given that the testing has been going on for *years*, with ~750 tests administered, and zero failures (2 people refused to test and were disqualified as a result) vs dozens of athletes being disqualified every Olympics.... The only reasonable conclusion is that doping is either very, very rare in high level chess or they aren't testing for the right things. Plus, FIDA publicly admits that the drug tests were added to comply with IOC regulations, rather than an effort to fix an actual problem. Plus, the fact that Magnus was clearly joking in his response, because he found the notion of performance enhancing drugs in the context of chess to be... Well, absurd. Its certainly not impossible that a doping scandal won't occur in chess -- but it hasn't happened as of today.
@@jmr5125 Better use word plausible and definitely never use absurd, when referring to doping in chess. There's not so much money in chess and it's unevenly spread and there aren't so many top chess players. Something like tennis , which has one of the most rigorous rules about testing for doping and I only remember one positive case. Also, modern analogs of doping substances are hard to detect, control and ban. Claiming , as M Reed, that is absurd is short of only being naive.
I wonder about what counts as doping. Would something like Cognium or other similar drugs meant to aid someone's memory and cognitive ability be considered doping? These are skills that are integral to today's chess, after all.
The test in the World Chess Champion for doping is carried out by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), so all of the drugs that would be considered illegal can be found listed on their website.
The list encompasses banned substances and practices that are banned from all sporting events, which means the majority of them would provide absolutely no advantage to a chess player.
In theory, Anti-Doping measures were put in place to create a level playing field for athletes and improve safety. In practice, they have managed to do the exact opposite by fueling an arms race to develop the next best performance enhancing drug that is either undetectable or too new to be banned.
Oh what a genius idea, I can't think of anything wrong with that plan, except for the fact that to play sports at a high level the competitors would be forced to take potentially dangerous performance enhancing drugs that could very well cause them to have a heart attack at any moment, decrease life expectancy and having to deal with side effects from these stimulants like anxiety.
@@conchubhar9492 Originally no one cared about creating a level playing field. After all food regime, training and physio all' deeply impacts performance and they sudamericano differ between athletes, the kind of medical aid they chose to use was regarded as a part of that. What they cared about most was the negative effects on health many drugs (typically steroids and EPO) had on health. In the 70s and 80s people started seeing a marked increase in the percentage of athletes in otherwise perfect shape dying young from things like sudden cardiac arrests, etc. and they decided to take action.
I remember, way back in the doped up 70s, when my best friend, claiming it would "open up my mind," got me stoned and then took me to the newly released Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was a frustrating experience--I was too stoned to get any of the jokes! That was the first and last time for me :)
coffee my choice of drug! after a beer or vodka i play way too aggressive and careless and at some point i tend to loose concentration and the game (on the other hand slight hangover seems to slightly improve concentration and performance)... Weed is nice for positional play, imagination and long term planning, but gameplay tends to lead towards perfectionism instead of practically best play also one could be carried away with irrelevant things, so it makes me prone to severe time management issues and inevitable panic in zeitnot
im positive certain mushrooms must be really really helpful, specially in bullet or hyperbullet, as our ability to calculate through variations and combinations would be drastically improved (possibly hundreds per second, when our mind starts to "race" really fast), instant pattern recognition as our brain would block out unnecessary information and pull out what's relevant to survive as we would enter fight or flight response, our limbic system would do the right things and thus we then should be calmly prepared for any task.
I would definitely like to see them play on coke or amphetamines for fun and show for us. It would be hilarious watching Nepo rolling his eyes, making faces... Carlsen would definitely have a smile on his face all threw... Just keep it fair boys. No headphones. Doping test is a must at this day and age of scientific progress. Matches have been awesome so far. Good luck to both.
I don’t know if they made any study but chess requires concentration and patience. When you use doping, you should be with full of energy. How can you be calm and quiet for almost 4-5-6 hours without doing any physical activity. I believe this can ruin your concentration.
Dunno if anti doping makes much sense in chess, Adderall wouldn't really help in chess imo it'd work if you're preparing for an exam as it helps you concentrate more and for a much longer period but wouldn't elevate your creativity and intelligence if anything it probably has the opposite effect, EPO could be a possibility too keeping your energy levels high for a whole game might slightly increase performance but it wouldn't be significant plus these guys can play a perfect 7 hours game without any inaccuracies anyways so I don't see why they would need stuff like that..
