Rules about drinking alcohol before or during matches

[Gavin Strachan]

I was wondering if either of us had been drinking or do you IMHO not IHMO Gareth?

I was wondering what the rule is if a play chunders over the board because they drank too much during the game? I heard about a player in an international tournament defaulting for falling asleep (probably drink related prematch).

On the nerves bit that someone mentioned earlier, Steinitz was advised to drink brandy to calm the nerves before a big match.

[Gareth Harley-Yeo]

I was wondering if either of us had been drinking or do you IMHO not IHMO Gareth?

yes yes very good!

on a personal note, I used to drink during but found my game would end up even worse than it normally is, so now I just drink after and with a hangover.

[Jon Mahony]

Am I the only player who welcomes an opponent drinking during a match? He/she will obviously not be playing to his full ability as the game goes on. Would you complain if they opted to start a pawn down? I wouldn't!

So IHMO if a chess player wishes to handicap themselves by drinking OTB we should be quietly pleased with ourselves, not complaining as matt does.

Well as a confirmed kings gambit player, play 1.e4 e5 against me and you'll get your wish

I Handicapped myself with drinking during a game the other Wednesday - not because I was drunk, but because the cue at the bar was 5 deep and it took me about 20 minutes to get served - the result, ended up in terrible time trouble (though I did manage to win in the end).

[Richard Bates]

Personally i think that alcohol improves my play up to somewhere between half and a full pint, especially in evening league chess. Slight decline up to about 2 pints at which point it can fall off a cliff.

The reduced appreciation of risk associated with alcohol encourages one more to put more faith in instinct over calculation, which for players characterised by a tendency to over analyse (usually rather ineffectively) is often an advantage - up to a point.

[Sean Hewitt]

The reduced appreciation of risk associated with alcohol encourages one more to put more faith in instinct over calculation, which for players characterised by a tendency to over analyse (usually rather ineffectively) is often an advantage - up to a point.

You'll be falling foul of FIDE rules on performance enhancing drugs

[Ben Purton]

not happy about this thread , shouldnt be allowed.

[Paul McKeown]

It was Essex v Middlesex and I find that I am paired with somebody called McKeown. I know that name of course but unfortunately, I am driving.

Anyway, the match starts, no McKeown. After about 45 minutes - rain bucketing down - I assume he has had to go for the fish and won't be turning up. Just as I put my coat on, there is a huge racket on the stairs. Paul appears drenched to the bone - takes his coat off and gives it a good shake. Now both teams are moderately wet. I am Black and Paul sits down and apologises for his late arrival. He then plays 1 Na3, offers a draw and says do you want to go to the pub!

I point out that I am driving - he says I can have a coke! Anyway, after being tempted to play Nh6 and offer the draw back, I decide to agree (to the draw - not the pub) to the great consternation of my captain.

Must have missed this one. Nice story, John, almost a shame to spoil it with facts, but as I recall things, it was you that offered the draw? You didn't want to play against something as ridiculous as 1. Na3? Maybe memory isn't what it used to be.

[Stewart Reuben]

Richard Bates >The reduced appreciation of risk associated with alcohol encourages one more to put more faith in instinct over calculation, which for players characterised by a tendency to over analyse (usually rather ineffectively) is often an advantage - up to a point.<

I think that must have been a typo for - up to a pint.

Stewart Reuben

[George Szaszvari]

Hi Ben, Yes I agree with you on one point which is chess is a "Mental" board game, it's not a sport purely because your not doing anything physical same with snooker, darts etc etc; it's a game. I however totally disagree drugs and alcohol do not help your chess, and therefore shouldn't be consumed, I admit it is slightly hypocritical as I use to drink alcohol before turning up to a match to calm my nerves down; but on the basis that chess is a mental game, and drugs and alcohol have a bad psychological effect on the human brain as research has found I can't find any benefits for this.

It is ludicrous to suggest that these two evils help you whilst playing there is no evidence to support your argument ben on this one. Seen you don't drink or smoke yourself I am slightly intrigued by your remarks. The majority of chess players would agree with me There is probably a very very very small amount of people that take drugs in chess; the only one's which would even be worth contemplating would be beater blockers

Firstly, kudos to you for starting up a controversial and most interesting thread! However, rather than
"mental board game", which is, admittedly, kind of accurate regarding the hysterical disposition of some
chess players who post here a better term might be Denksport, or Thinking Sport. I'd say that ambitious
competitive chess players today tend to pay more attention to physical considerations. Nimzowitsch was the
pioneer in this respect, his idea of "System" coming from a German book of similar title describing a disciplined
regime of physical exercises (a copy of which I saw once in a secondhand bookstore on Charing Cross Rd and
have ever since regretted not buying!) Botvinnik took walks in the countryside, Spassky played tennis, Fischer
went to the gym to get in condition for his 1972 match, Mike Will lifted weights at Endell St, and when he went
for a run with me, took short cuts, shame on him! and most people today know that some modicum
of health and fitness pays off in life generally. "High Performance" chessplayers need a strong nervous system
to handle the high pulse rates and adrenaline production that is not being burned off by any serious physical
activity, and it may be interesting to note that certain mental illnesses are related to an unhealthy breakdown
of excess adrenaline in the human body...

Booze and chess? A pint or two as a stimulant might work for the initial stages, but later in the game, depends
on whether one can handle it. There can be a tendency for decorum to go out of the window...
in past decades I witnessed more than one player/team captain getting pissed off playing against Drunken Knights
teams, but, hey, I recall other boozey teams from King's Head, and other pub located clubs
The day that booze is disallowed in social chess activities is the day that chess, and civilization, descends further
into an Orwellian nightmare controlled by totalitarian "do-gooders". Drugs? What do you mean? Illegal drugs? Again,
how the the drug user interrelates with others would seem to be the relevant issue.

BTW What are "beater blockers"?

[George Szaszvari]

....On the nerves bit that someone mentioned earlier, Steinitz was advised to drink brandy to calm the nerves before a big match.

...And Blackburne was famous for enjoying his Scotch.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Henry_Blackburne

[Stewart Reuben]

I have played against players who have clearly been snorting coke during the session. It seemed to have no effect on them even after 48 hours. I refer of course to poker, not chess and they played the long sessions - not me (8 hours used to be my maximum). But we were playing for thousands of dollars per hand.
In general it would be hard to police players drinking alcohol or taking other drugs during the game. Thus it would be unwise to write special rules. The drug testing that does goes on in chess is at the most important title events. There is no testing done at the London Chess Classic. Why have drug testing at all in chess? Well, certain drugs are bad for you and WADA are do-gooders. In this case that isn't such a terrible thing.
I don't like people drinking alcoholic in front of juniors and very much discourage it.
Stewart Reuben

[AustinElliott]

Weren't there rumours that some of the players in all-Soviet World Title matches - especially very long and gruelling ones - might have been given a little 'pharmaceutical assistance'? This suggestion has certainly turned up in some books and articles.

Looking ahead, the most interesting question is what will happen with drugs that are what we call in physiology/pharmacology "Cognitive Enhancers' - always assuming there is ever a really convincing one developed - as these are the kind of agent you would think would be most generally advantageous for something like chess. Modafinil (aka Provigil) is one drug currently around that springs to mind.

In terms of banning cognitive enhancers, it is worth pointing out that caffeine is a reasonably good one, and I dare say no-one has suggested banning a player from bringing a Thermos flask of coffee. Can anyone advise?

[Stewart Reuben]

Caffeine in large quantities is or was on the WADA list. I think it deterred Artur Yusupov from taking part in events where he might be tested. He was known for drinking 10 cups in a game.
Ian Rogers did not take a banned substance because it was against the rules. There is no doubt that failing to do so damaged his health and that is why he retired so soon. I think it was probably a beta blocker. I take such a drug and am not aware of it affecting my bodily or mental reactions. On the other hand a British woman international told me she thought it had helped her taking a prescribed beta blocker. Neil Faulks in snooker faced a similar 'problem'. Over 60 and there are no rules regarding drugs in WADA.
If there are cognitive enhancing drugs and they have no side-effects, why should they not be taken? Well, that is impossible when drugs are taken in large quantities - The Law of Mass Action.
Snorting coke 10 minutes before entering into an old-fashioned time-scramble might help some. The player might well come down from his high shortly after the second time phase starts.
It was a matter of discussion at the poker table in the 1990s what would happen if ever I took a mind-affecting drug, having never even had an unlit cigarette in my mouth. In Miami they gave me a valium before an angiogram (standard practice they said in the US). In a hospital one tends to obey doctors. I should have refused. The experience was awful. I was completely out of it for some hours. When they did the angioplasty the following day they made no effort to drug me.
Stewart Reuben

[George Szaszvari]

I have played against players who have clearly been snorting coke during the session. It seemed to have no effect on them even after 48 hours. I refer of course to poker, not chess and they played the long sessions - not me (8 hours used to be my maximum). But we were playing for thousands of dollars per hand.
In general it would be hard to police players drinking alcohol or taking other drugs during the game. Thus it would be unwise to write special rules. The drug testing that does goes on in chess is at the most important title events. There is no testing done at the London Chess Classic. Why have drug testing at all in chess? Well, certain drugs are bad for you and WADA are do-gooders. In this case that isn't such a terrible thing.
I don't like people drinking alcoholic in front of juniors and very much discourage it.
Stewart Reuben

To qualify my previous post, yes, there is a time and place for everything, and I certainly do not condone
breaking the laws of the land or the organization holding an event. I agree with you in principle, and people
who have any pretense to being mature need to demonstrate common sense and social responsibility, especially
where youngsters are concerned. Drinking in front of juniors could be fine, depending on their age and the
circumstances; it might actually set a good example of how to behave sensibly while imbibing in moderation.
That's a cultural thing. Drugs are another matter. Adults in adult company might be able to justify "practical"
use for an occasion, as you described, but it's a tricky area.

I tend to hold Libertarian (Jeffersonian) views concerning social values, and such acclaimed freedoms cannot
be realized without people facing up to their obligations. People need ways to relax and various means of
seeing the world in a non-routine light, so while I believe mature people should be allowed to exercise their
own judgment about what they consume, I'm also concerned about drug abuse, a widespread and
growing problem in Western industrialized societies associated with crime and an insidious cynicism that
is destroying us (along with other things). Most friends I've known just use pot occasionally as a recreational
thing, or might try psylocybin mushrooms, or might even drop an acid tab, but if they cannot grow out of it
and it takes over as a lifestyle then it becomes the slippery slope to hell, suckered by the heavenly mirage...
a lifetime ago I lost a couple of friends to all that crap and have had nothing to do with it since. Some Yaquis
I know who reside here use peyote for religious purposes, but that is done in a strictly cultural, private and
disciplined context...aye, there's word: discipline, something conspicuously absent among young "experimenters"
I've known. I recall Bob Wade having to have words with a clique of young players in the 70s who were making
a habit of playing competitive chess while tripping or stoned.

Booze is part and parcel of Western culture and most of us grow up to understand its pleasures, value and
dangers, so, even if there are still abuses, we should have a better handle on it. We don't want to fall into
the trap of resolving these issues too easily by either removing choice altogether or not requiring people
to meet their obligations. Currently, the latter seems far too predominant and I fear the pendulum is set to
swing violently the other way.... no, I'm not going to invoke Godwin's Law, but those who don't learn from
history are going to repeat its mistakes... hmmm, did I get carried away again? I must be getting old!

[matt_ward]

George Szaszvari I think your point on the alcohol is interesting and probably very well justified. I do agree that depending on the circumstances and the person(s) drinking in front of juniors could be a blessing.

It would show how to act responsibility and give good social awareness, of course if their were adults or people my age 19 playing chess and drinking infront of children acting childish and rather petulant then NO that would be unacceptable.

But if there are people drinking in moderation your totally right! It could show the children how to behave on consuming such a drug (Alcohol) and would demonstrate how one should behave whilst drinking alcohol and playing chess.