Question of the day
Thursday, 18 December 2008
WHAT IS CHESS DOPING FOR YOU?
Shakhriyar MAMEDYAROV:
– I have no idea what doping is because I have never used it. I think doping doesn’t assist chess-players that much and I doubt if anybody uses it at the top-level tournaments. Chess isn’t sport in its original scope, it’s not an Olympic kind of sport like track-and-field or gymnastics. The elder players may use something to feel better, to support themselves during the game – say, drink a lot of coffee. Actually I don’t care at all whether there is chess doping or not.
Ernesto INARKIEV:
– For me the main chess doping is psychological motivation. There were a couple of cases in my life when I seemed to have exhausted my resources but I overcame myself. In case we speak about doping in its denotative meaning, I think that it is possible if you feel exhausted.
Alexander GRISCHUK:
– The principal doping in our profession is the desire to play, to struggle at the chessboard. It gives me strength, because when you don’t feel like playing but have to, you cannot do everything you could. As for food and beverages… in case of a professional approach it can be very promising. I think some stimulating agents could be suitable for chess. Any doping agent should be applied with care because in the event that you use it on a long-term basis, it can result in severe consequences.
Evgeny ALEXEEV:
– If under the doping one can understand the stimulus for the chess game, as for me, I have only one – it is striving to the victory.
Rustam KASYMZHANOV:
– In point of fact, as far as I understand, you want to hear something about concrete chemical substances using by chess players? For many chess players alcohol can act as doping during the tough period of their chess career. It helps them to come to life, to organize themselves for the further emotions. I am trying to abstain from any kind of doping lately, including alcohol and coffee during the game. I am trying to play on the human resources. And you can see the results now… (Yesterday Kasymzhanov lost 2 straight games). May be, I should stop all this?
Peter LEKO:
– I think, chess is more intellectual than physical kind of sport. There is no point in speaking about chess doping.
Teimour RADJABOV:
– It is difficult to say what you can use in order to win the game. Coffee, tea, cigarettes can’t promote good results. If you have slept well, have come to the game in a good mood – it is not a guarantee of success as well. But if we talk about real doping, in particular, to comment the case at the Dresden Chess Olympiad when the leader of the Ukrainian team Vasily Ivanchuk has not come to the doping test, it will take a lot of time..
Vladimir AKOPYAN:
– Chess is a job for grandmasters since childhood, though a pleasant one, and the attitude to this profession is serious, as to the real one. Playing at top level, one has to work hard and spend a lot of time on the preparation for the tournaments. A strong tea helps me to be in good shape, while I have never liked coffee. During the game I can drink several cups of tea.
Vugar GASHIMOV:
– Usually during the game I drink only water. Chess, I can say, is a kind of doping itself, even a drug. All grandmasters have become addicts of this wise game since childhood and can’t get rid of it for the rest of their life.
http://elista2008.fide.com/question-of-the-day.html
Dope testing in chess sounds weird, but the Chess world governing body will be introducing dope testing at the Doha Asian Games this week. Its hard to imagine that after having drugs, a chess player can do more calculations with great speed and winning every game. Dope testing would waste time and money.
Chess players must protest against this decision taken by FIDE. Lets see what players and organizers have to say about this decision.
According to press release, the World Chess Federation (FIDE) introduced Drug testing in chess to raise international standards in the hope of making chess an Olympic sport in the future. This decision will certainly not help in raising the standards.
The FIDE president, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov held a meeting with the Director of the Federal Service of the Russian Federation on the drugs control. During the meeting, an agreement between FIDE and the Federal Service of the Russian Federation on the control over the drugs, was signed, which anticipates the organisation of the joint events and actions aimed at the fight against the drugs and drug-addiction.
All the private tournaments have refused to take test for steroids and for the presence of minute quantities of caffeine. Sport’s top official in Doha said,” he had no idea how drugs could enhance chess performance”.
Players views :
Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand said, ” There was no need for dope testing in chess simply because there was no place for performance enhancing drugs in the sport, It is a pity that dope testing is being introduced in chess. There is no doping in chess. I do not see any need for it. In chess you would not see any player complaining about other’s performance.”
Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte too feels it is just a waste of time. “Drugs in chess? You must be kidding,” reacts Kunte.
Dronavalli Harika said, “I don’t think there exists any drug which can help a chess player enhance his or her performance.”
Ravindra M Dongre, Deputy President of the Commonwealth Chess Association, feels one has to follow the rules as chess has been introduced in the Asian Games for the first time. “I do agree with the view that there is no drug which can enhance the winning capability of a chess player, but we still have to follow the rules.”
I think , Dope testing will not help in creating any good impression about the game.
“Drugs in chess? You must be kidding,”
Isn’t that what Canadian dope-addict Ben Johnson said when breaking 100m world record?
So Kasimjanov is trying to lay off caffeine and alcohol during games? Perhaps this is what carried him to the FIDE Championship.
I am not as concerned about doping and drugs in chess as I am about brainwashing children to obsess about one thing or another, for example religion, nationalism or games.
People can now turn their backs on the real world and walk into virtual worlds on the web – multi-user game-spaces, SecondLife etc.
Deep games like chess have the same fascination. As a parent, I feel I have to watch out for this – discriminating between ‘natural talent and focus’ and ‘unhealthy obsession’.
In particular, I have to be careful not to impose my wishes for the future of my children on them.
Fortunately, my parents were not mega-talented enough in any direction for this to be a problem for me as a child.
This is why you suck as an adult.