Last month at the end of a chess tournament, the world's third-ranked player was asked to submit to a drug test. For whatever reason...
Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden and is now considered guilty of doping. The world of chess is outraged that he could face a two-year ban.
...
Drug tests were introduced at international chess tournaments in 2001. The World Anti-Doping Agency classifies chess as a "low risk sport," and so far no one has been convicted of doping. But what exactly does that mean?
It makes sense that anabolic steroids, the bulk-producing drug of choice for weightlifters, and EPO, the wonder drug of the cycling world, would not improve a chess player's performance. But when a chess player nears the end of a match and comes under mounting pressure, he can hyperventilate, and his pulse can shoot up to 160 and his arterial blood pressure to 200. In that situation, beta-blockers could help a player keep his head clear.
German grandmaster Helmut Pfleger, an internist and psychotherapist from Munich, says that because a player cannot know in advance exactly when these symptoms will begin, "a performance-enhancing dose is hardly possible." Pfleger tested the effects of beta-blockers on himself in 1979, in a match against Russian player Boris Spasski. "My blood pressure and pulse plunged, and my game fell apart completely."
Part of the outrage comes from the fact that some consider the game a cultural asset, not a sport. Thus, there are players who feel they shouldn't be subjected to the invasive testing that goes with sports. The World Chess Federation is trying to diffuse things by finding a loophole that will allow Ivanchuck to avoid the ban. Why is it trying to subvert its own drug testing system? Maybe because testing was adopted as a means to an end that hasn't come to pass.
It is undisputed, however, that caffeine can give a chess player a leg up, but the stimulant is no longer on the list of banned substances. Many players are passionate coffee drinkers.
It would certainly make sense for a chess player to take Ritalin or Modafinil. Both substances increase the ability to concentrate. Students take the drugs during exams, and doping inspectors test chess players for both substances.
The only reason there are doping tests in chess in the first place is that the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has been trying, since the late 1990s, to make chess an Olympic discipline. And anyone wishing to be part of the Olympics must submit to the rules of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
People first started trying to get chess into the Summer Olympics back in 1924. The IOC recognized it as a sport in 1999, and it was an exhibition sport at the Sydney Games in 2000. However, the IOC has been reluctant to accept "mind sports" like chess and bridge into the already huge events.
FYI,
Modafinil (Provigil) is a stimulant-like drug manufactured by Cephalon, and is approved by the FDA for the treatment of narcolepsy, shift work sleep disorder, and obstructive sleep apnea. Modafinil, like other stimulants, increases the release of monoamines but also elevates hypothalamic histamine levels, leading some researchers to consider Modafinil a "wakefulness promoting agent" rather than a classic amphetamine-like stimulant...
Recent Comments