So there was a story (somewhere) along the lines of…
Chess grandmaster Somebody is presumed to have used illegal performance-enhancing drugs as he refused to turn over a urine sample for analysis.
OK, so since some drugs mess up your ability to think, it is not too far a leap to presume others increase your mental powers. Which ones? How?
(Or perhaps the drug screen was for more conventional drugs like Cocaine? Is it illegal for a chess player to use muscle-building medications?)
Don’t know anything about the story, but he could have been using an amphetamine like Adderall or Ritalin. When used by people who don’t have ADHD they can increase concentration, which I can see being useful for someone playing chess.
Indeed, most amphetamine-like drugs enhance one’s ability to concentrate and stay awake and alert. In high school I aced all of my AP exams - and I was on Adderall at the time (I was never prescribed to it).
Isn’t that what they do for people who do have ADHD?
Right, but it works on everyone.
For people who have ADHD, it calms them down and makes them less scatterbrained, thus allowing them to concentrate. For people who don’t, it has the opposite effect in that it acts as a stimulant, giving them more energy and… uh, making them better able to concentrate. If that makes sense.
Modafinil (a wakefulness promoter used to treat narcolepsy) has been is believed by some to enhance (as in, increase beyond natural baseline) alertness and cognitive abilities - it would certainly help by allowing someone to stay awake longer considering a difficult problem.
It is used by students (off-label) preparing for exams, allow them to pull an all-nighter but not be fatigued for the exam. The military are pretty interested in it’s use, as well (because people on amphetamines with guns or fighter-bombers are … more dangerous than they should be).
Si
According to the Globe and Mail, this issue is discussed in this week’s issue of the journal Nature.
Caffeine has a similar, if much shorter lived, effect (Wikipedia calls it a “psychoactive stimulant drug”) as Ritalin. I suspect that coffee or tea is about as strong as chess players are permitted.
According to my information
My neurologist suggested that I try adderall to help me focus ( I was electrocuted ) and since I am pretty much against all forms of prescription medicine he tried to convince me that it was OK because they gave it to military pilots to keep them going during the long overseas flights flying multi million dollar aircraft.
Modafinil certainly keeps you alert for long periods. I found it great for long distance driving where I usually tend to drop off. I could also imagine it good for long tournaments such as poker. Not a recreational high, more like drinking two strong cups of coffee - usually you get tired of feeling wired by about 6.00 pm and need to take a drink to chill off.
Not sure it has helped my productivity as it tends to increase unproductive behaviour as well (minesweeper anyone), but I tend to restrict to it to the days when I have partied to the long hours and need to get to work after two hours sleep.
White lines.
Don’t do it.
(Freeze! Rock!)
What? A chess grand master?
I was a military pilot in the 80’s. During training everyone was given one dose of a prescription amphetimine & told to take it Saturday morning & report any weird symptoms on Monday. This was to identify people who had bad reactions so they would not be given the stuff later.
I don’t recall what the drug’s name was, although I recognized it at the time. I do recall reporting no noticable symptoms.
Policy was that the medical folks would issue single doses of the pills for certain long missions. I only encountered that once, while deploying non-stop from the western US to Europe.
Folks that flew long range bomber or transport missions might have dealt with that a lot more. I don’t have direct knowledge to say.
Bottom line: The miltary using amphetimines in a controlled way is not UL. I have no clue which drug(s) are used today, but I can readily believe they do use something to maintain alertness on very long missions.
Modafinil is the generic of the brand name Provigil.
It is used my military pilots, particularly on long bomber missions, to increase focus and concentration.
I tried it a few years ago (with a prescription) while playing poker. The effect was nearly stunning; I am decent at reading other people’s hands but with this stuff my card reading ability was so greatly increased that some of them might just as well have turned their cards face up … something to do with focusing so intently that I was, well, almost like mind reading. Problem was, after a few weeks my vision started to get really blurry so I quit taking it.
I think it would do wonders for high level players of most any game of mental agility.
Nitpick: not everyone with ADHD is hyper. I have the primarily inattentive type, and Ritalin/Concerta help me concentrate, but not by calming me down. I just get less distracted and stay on task for longer.