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Originally Posted by CaptainHaplo
I agree this is absurd on its face. However - one could make the argument that some supplements (natural) can increase higher brain functions - including cognitive ability and memory.
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/full/71/6/1669S#SEC4
(Read the conclusion regarding adult brains)
Now no player needs steroids to lift the pieces and move them - but one could say that intaking substances for the purpose of enhancing your mental ability could be considered "cheating" unless it was something everyone could do - which in this case - it would be.
If they want to regulate how much vitamins A, B6, B12, and C a person has - thats lame.
The game of Kings was meant to be a contest of the mind - a strategic battle without the blood. If they do this - they might as well not allow a player to jog or physically "warm up" as some players do - as the increased respitory and circulatory rates would give them an "advantage".
However - I will say this - the brain is a muscle like any other in one way - if you fail to use it - it will atrophy. |
the most potent agent used by chess players, is coffeine. and very many players are known to drink coffee in huge quantities. Nevertheless, coffeine is perfectly legal.
the problem also is that chess is stressing for the cardio-vascular system, but in other ways does not affect the physical body (except that long sitting on a chair). Chess players do not know much about medical and physiological aspects. as a player you must now fear that you take a regular drug for a health problem you have, get accused od doping - and sentenced to pay fines in the 5-6 digit range.
What makes a good chess player, is knowledge, experience, routine, and then again knowldcge, more knowledge and plenty of knowledge. Nothing can replace knowledge, and nothing can bypass or shortcut the long time it takes to get your ind trained to recognise and think in patterns and constelalation, not in single pieces anymore. Whatever you consume in drugs and no matter how much awake or sleepy you are - these are the real challenges to become a good player, and doping cannot help to make them easier and shorter for you. It is complete nonsens.
as I said, FIDE did not raise this issue before it wanted to participate in the luxurrious travel life for it's top officials under the IOC umbrella. If FIDE would not have started to try getting the IOC's nod for this, nobody would speak of trying to see chess as a regular physical sport and getting it into the regular Olympic games. and as I also said, the deep-rooting corruptness of FIDE has a long tradition. they even have started to change the tournament modus with the tournament still running. Consider this: a boxing fight after round 5 declared to run for 8 or fifteen rounds, instead of the stated 12 rounds. the final quarter of a Basketball match being cancelled in the running tournament. the finals at the football world championship after the first half being decided to now run for another set of two half of 15 minutes, and the need to win by a two goal margin, else immediate penbalty shooting.
Dancing, figure ice skating, also is said to suffer from too much corruption and bad judges. But I tell you, nowhere it is as bad as in chess, and FIDE. I already hated them when I was at school - that is 25 years ago, and Soviet party interests played a heavy role in FIDE-president's actions, as the many stories around Spasski-Fisher, Karpov-Kortschnoi and Karpov-Kasparov showed.