18.12.2006 ALEXANDER KENTLER. CROSSROADS: DOPE IN CHESS
here was a story about the life of the pioneer camp in the children’s comic TV magazine “Yeralash”. There was the Spartakiada and a beautiful girl rooted for one of the groups with all her heart. The fact is that she kissed the sprinter of her team before the start of the heat. Consequently, he ran at his top speed and managed to come out first. Then she kissed the discus thrower of her team and he not only took the first place but also set a record. The beauty didn’t stop and gave a kiss to the chessplayer that was already playing his game. He really lost his senses, made the first move that came across and was checkmated in one just like Kramnik in the second game of the match against Deep Fritz.

This simple sketch excellently expresses the chessplayers’ attitude to the problem of dope. When speaking in public in Tambov at the beginning of the year, the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov announced: «To my mind, there is only one kind of the dope in chess. I mean the coffee that was never considered to be the dope. However, now it turns out that if one drinks two or three cups, he will have a positive result during the dope control. It is totally ludicrous! But the computer help seems to be a very serious problem!» One of the questions of the ACP recent questioning concerned the attitude of chessplayers to the problem of dope. The most of the respondents treated this question ironically. For example, let me refer to Macieja’s reply: “When I got to know that using my money FIDE decided to test the Papuan I began to think who rules over the chess world and how we have come to this life”. To be honest, the former President of the ACP Lautier was less categorical: “As for chess, well, you don’t need muscles, it is necessary to use the brain. It is really necessary to adapt the dope control in chess but at the moment nobody does it. The fact is that the chessplayers are out of control”. Let me also refer to Garry Kasparov’s opinion about the use of forbidden medication. The point is that the 13th World Champion declared for the permission of using the dope: “ it is a personal choice of every chessplayer. If one uses the dope, he gradually kills himself. It is a problem of human sanctimoniousness and nobody can oppose it” (“Arguments and Facts”, December 2003).

Now it is time for a little historical reference. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov began showing interest to the problem of dope about five years ago. It was bound up with the wish of making chess a part of the Olympic Games. The first dope control was realized at the World Championship in Moscow in 2001. Then it took place at the Chess Olympiad in Slovenia in 2002. Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov were examined after the 11th game of the World Championship Match. Now the members of the Asian games have been examined for the using of forbidden preparations. “I couldn’t even imagine what kind of medication can help a chessplayer to improve his play”, - considers the manager of the Asian games Yousouff Ahmad Ali.  

It is natural that during the dope tests the chessplayers were examined for the use of medications forbidden by the International Olympic charter against the dope in sports that was accepted in 1988.

After this preamble I would like to refer to a part of my article “Tablet acts on brain” that was published in “Sport. Day by day” on the 6th of December 2006. 

 Many years ago the famous English writer Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) wrote that there were powerful reformers of the mind that do serious work without causing harm to the psychophysical organism of the person who uses it and without inducing him to the criminal or reckless behavior. Both the biochemistry and pharmacology begin getting down to business“. Today it is possible to say that the affair develops successfully using the relative title “Cosmetics for brain”. Soon it can become as usual as a cup of tea or coffee. In any case, now many businessmen and students already practice different medications that improve the short-term memory and attention, help to reach correct decisions, raise the capacity for work and take away the tiredness.  .

   About a year ago the Foresight Institute of the governmental center of science and technology of Great Britain published its’ report and informed that the powerful stimulators that help to improve the keenness of intelligence will be elaborated during the next twenty years. As a matter of fact, many stimulators of the intellectual activity are already used in various fields of the human activity. For example, the case in point is the cosmonautics, the military science and other aspects that demand of reaching important decisions immediately.

   «Today there are many remedies that normalize and even improve the brain activity, - tells us St Petersburg psychiatrist and the expert in narcology Dina Kozyreva. The basic mass of these medications is available without the prescription because they are widely used according to clinical indications.

There are the medications that combine with the stimulators of the central nervous system and allow not only to raise the concentration of attention for a certain period of time, but also to reduce the fatigability, to take away the anxiety and to raise the self-reliance.  The stimulators of the central nervous system don’t change the intellect but greatly raise the level and effectiveness of using the intellectual abilities. As a rule, such kind of medications is practiced when the person expects the serious psychical and intellectual work. There are no serious complications when using the stimulators occasionally. Moreover, there is no period of adaptation. However, it is necessary to mention the antipathic period of recovery on completion of the medications’ influence”.

   It is possible to suppose that with help of the preparations (in other words, using the dope) a man can reach higher level of the achievements in the certain field of activity that it was before practicing the medications.

   The dope in chess is the most scandalous theme. Some people consider that the great achievements in sports are impossible without the use of the dope. The others are sure that the medications that are not included in the list of forbidden preparations cannot be called the dope. Finally, there are some kinds of sports that don’t have any form of the control when it is really necessary. It is related to the chess indeed. The opponents must be in the equal conditions. It seems to be unfair if one chessplayer struggles not only against his opponent but also against his own fears, doubts and tiredness while his rival easily defeats the equal chessplayer by means of different medications.

   There were no cases when the chessplayers were caught in a use of dope. It is quite natural because the members of the World Championship Matches and Chess Olympiads are examined in accordance with the list of medications that are forbidden in the other kinds of sports. But the fact is that it is just stupid to check up the muscle mass because it can’t help the chessplayers. Moreover, there is no dope control at the other tournaments at all. The problem is that now the subject of control is absolutely unclear. There is no list of forbidden medications that stimulate the intellectual activity.    

   The subject of this article seems to be some kind of prospection. Perhaps, it is necessary to think of this problem right now if it not too late yet.