More Smarter Pills

Comments

A chess tournament where all the participants were on peyote would certainly qualify as novel. I'll stick with Ginko Biloba and Ginseng while its still available otc.
Posted by: chesstraveler at June 11, 2006 17:54

I thought the great V had already established, at least to his own satisfaction, that Karpov was receiving such pharmaceutical aid via his yoghurt, decades ago...

Perhaps we can ask him what he thinks.
Posted by: Babson at June 11, 2006 19:29

I think drugs are fine especially if they make the chess play more exciting! Of course this assumes that there are no negative side effects, to insure that chess players are good role models.

smart pills seem to be the future, even beyond chess. it would be an extension of coffee, which many people drink. this assumes that they work. in my experience with them, although the popular smart drugs don't have negative side effects worth noting, they are not that much more effective than simple caffiene.
Posted by: cotdt at June 12, 2006 01:52

Korchnoi thought Karpov was taking cortisone, which makes no sense at all to me. I`m not sure you can eat or drink cortisone. I had it injected into me as a child to treat skin problems (it permanently stunted my growth too), and it`s used as a skin cream. How that would have any impact being taken in yoghurt to supposedly aid chess playing, I can`t possibly imagine.
Posted by: Joshua Lilly at June 12, 2006 09:30

Joshua, you are assuming Karpov was eating the yogurt. Korchnoi becames suspicious because whenever the yogurt was delivered, Karpov would stand up, take of his jacket, tie and shirt, and start smearing it all over his chest, ala Iggy Pop and his peanut butter.
Posted by: Icepick at June 12, 2006 09:34

Iggy did a lot more with peanut butter (esp. sandwiches) than smear it on his chest...
Posted by: geeker at June 12, 2006 10:54

This is off-topic, but I just saw an excellent article by Alexandra Kostenuik on the Turin Olympiad, and wanted to share it:

http://www.chesspro.ru/events2/olymp06-12.shtml

(in Russian)
Posted by: Alex Shternshain at June 12, 2006 11:30

If Magnus is taking anything, I'll have some !
Posted by: pundit at June 12, 2006 14:21

Off-topic, but check out the World Domino Championship, on ESPN right now. Visually, it looks rather like chess would look: the 4 players (they compete in 2-man teams) are serious, they aren't talking or joking like I've heard televised poker pros do during competition. The real focus is on the commentary, with each of the 4 players' hands shown in inset, and running live commentary.

The 4 guys on right now are all African-American, and casually dressed...but not particularly any more visually interesting than chess players (and a heck of a lot less visually interesting than park hustlers when they practice their craft). So, if this format can work on TV, it's hard to see why chess wouldn't work.

Maybe dominoes will get poor audience numbers, and then producers will start whispering in the players' ears to start hamming it up, the way the poker guys reportedly do.
Posted by: flyonthewall at June 12, 2006 17:43

...and the sight of Karpov without his shirt was all the doping Viktor could take
Posted by: Yuriy Kleyner at June 13, 2006 09:48

Well the issue was addressed by far better in the past ;-)

"From January 20 to February 24, 1889, he played Steinitz in Havana for the 2nd world chess championship. Steinitz won with 10 wins, 6 losses, 1 draw. Chigorin was supplied free brandy, which he drank during the match. Steinitz drank champagne during the match."

Mikhail Chigorin, by Bill Wall
Posted by: Boba at June 13, 2006 12:25

certainly such drugs cannot be working. after all, if the drugs made one smarter, the doper would realize, in his/her more highly enlightened state that taking drugs is bad and quit taking them. the fact that we haven't seen this paradox seems to indicate their ineffectiveness... lol.
Posted by: stendec at June 13, 2006 19:28