Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

What's your opinion on FIDE's ruling:

Report By Natalie and Carsten Straub:

"Vassily Ivanchuk, who can suffer like no other contemporary chess player from an unnecessary loss, emerged from the hall and started kicking a pillar ("A wonder," said a spectator, "that he did not fracture a number of toes."). Unfortunately the Ukrainian team had been selected for a FIDE doping control, and an arbiter tried to lead Ivanchuk to the checking area for a urine sample. But the distraught Ukrainian star broke free and disappeared for the rest of the evening. This put FIDE into a quandary: to cancel all results of the Ukrainian team at the Olympiad, as clearly prescribed by the IOC rules, and give the medals to different teams; or to make an exception and risk chess not becoming an Olympic discipline for ignoring the doping rules. After some passionate canvassing by former World Champion Boris Spassky FIDE went for the second option."

So, is FIDE correct in throwing the Olympic rules out the window and placing in jeopardy the opportunity for chess to become an Olympic sport?

Of course not. This is a blow for chess, and a proof that chess can not be yet an olympic sport.

Drug testing in chess is absurd.  Chess doesn't belong at the Olympics.  It's a not sport in the same way that other Olympic games are sports and has no business being there.

a) it's not a sport like other olympic sports - sure it takes skill and plenty of it, but isn't the whole point of the Olympics that it rewards physical pursuits? OK, shooting and archery aside. 

b) can anyone recommend any drugs that improve chess skill?  the only thing I could think of would be LSD (not that I've tried it or would dare play chess with it, but I gather it might make you look at the board in a different way - probably ;-)).  You'd be a loon to try chess on acid!  It smacks of the Brit at the winter Olympics who was stripped of a bronze for smoking pot - how one describes that as "performance-enhancing" I struggle to fathom but there you go...

There are no known drugs that improve mental performance.  The hassles that players have to go through to avoid testing dirty makes it way more trouble than it's worth.  Cold medicines, caffeine, smoking...all those things can cause a dirty test and none of them impact chess performance.  It's ridiculous and FIDE shows once again how idiotic they are by burying their noses in the backside of the IOC.

And I agree -- the Olympics is about physical performance!

I can't see chess being played at the Olympics in my lifetime (it's not a sport), so why worry?

Timothy Leary used chess to prepare his followers for their first LSD trips, and they frequently played while tripping.  Since neither he nor any of the Merry Pranksters acheived GM status, I think that the idea of acid aiding in the mental processes is tremendously overrated.

But why are we concerned about chess and the IOC?  You could have chess as a full-blown Olympic sport and there is not one network here in the US that would report the results, much less broadcast any games.  There is no network interest in chess at any level, regardless of event or time control.  Face it--they consider chess as boring, and golf as exciting.  Go figure.

The real issue here, seems to me, is that FIDE adopts rules and when they are violated they fold....refuse to enforce them which destroys their credibility with the players and the chess community. FIDE is a "paper tiger". If they are going to develop/change rules then they should make sure they can enforce them.

Add to that the constant changes of rules, tournaments, and organization of tournaments (going back to a Candidates Tournament in the WCC cycle, for example) and FIDE is seen as confused and unprofessional.

FIDE is the worst run organization on this planet....followed closely by the USCF (a bit of hyperbole but you get the picture).