Beer + chess = disaster?

Does beer help any of your games?

Anyone ever experiment with this concept? Drinking beers while playing chess?

Personally after a few beers, my winning percentage seems to sky rocket and after bunch of them, I seem to play like crap.

There seems to be a certain amount of beer that I can drink and actually play better.

after a ton of um' though, I make a lot of blunders. Though occasionally I will have a ton of beers and be in the zone, specially when it comes to blitz.

My theory is a few beers help get rid of anxiety.

Ive done the beeremitics 

up to 5 beers my chess improves, it immediately seems to drop at exactly 6

Any personal stories or theory behind this? 

        Alcohol is a suppressant. It is entirely possible that certain quantities of it suppress those factors in a player's brain which tend to hinder him, when sober. These might be nervousness or over excitement, even if not consciously felt by the person. There is bound to come a time, if consumption continues, when the beneficial effects give way to the opposite. Nobody can do anything much when incapably drunk.

Sorry, but alcohol + doing ANYTHING competitively do not tend to mix well.

I don't know your personal situation, and certainly there is nothing wrong with occasionally enjoying a few beers, but telling yourself you perform  better at something with alcohol is one red flag sign of addiction.

Again, I don't know you or your situation, so this might not apply to you, but it might apply to someone reading this who feels the same.

A very good buddy of mine totally ruined his life by alcohol. One early warning sign was him boasting of a ridiculus increase in sexual prowess if only he had "just the right level of drunkenness".

Could have been harmless - only it turned out it wasn't.

I believe this. After 2-3 pints I don't miss a ball at pool. Any more and it goes downhill quite quickly.

Read this:  

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2009/sep/04/vladislav-tkachiev-drunk-kolkata

no does not help

With chess, my skill goes way down even after drinking a beer or two...not because I'm a lightweight but because I start playing hope chess to the extreme...."Hmm will my opponent see this trap?  Will he let me do this?  etc etc"  

Regarding pool...I am a terrible shot sober.  But after some pitchers I can compete! 

If alcool is part of your "ritual" for something, it's likely that your performance at that thing will go down when you're not under its effect. Making it dangerous if that particular activity stirs too much interest in you.

Drunk players falling asleep during a match have made history. Players who have played brilliantly while drunk too. I can imagine the change in styles of a player slightly under effect can upset the preparation of his opponent. People who have drunk play more daring moves -and overlook killer positions.

Maybe you should do like the kung-fu masters and try to reproduce your style while actually sober? It may work better, since your senses and brains will stay clear!

Depends. Enough beers and you won't even remember if you lost.

Svidler was just talking about certain GMs he used to play with in Russia who were terrible when sober but played their best chess after a few drinks.

I will try and see

A player who moves mostly on intuition and does not calculate much might play better if drunk because it surpresses a lot of distracting thoughts. For me I play terrible if I drink even just one beer.

Beer or Wine does not improve your game

Chess + beer is actually pretty fun specially under the right circumstances.When the game is over the board and the rules include drinking and blitz or even 'bughouse' blitz. Very fun :)

 I wouldn't ever get the idea to start drinking specifically because I think I am better at chess.

lol thats stupid. However, if I happen to have some beer around and decide to play chess that is a totally different ball game :) 

 There are a number of things I am statistically better at after a few beers.

1.Poker

2.chess

3.(glad it was mentioned) pool

4.Studying (Not just chess either.. I can wrap up studying much quicker and retain things much faster

after a beer or two. sometimes

However, there are also a number of things I am inherently worse at after a few beers.

 1. First person shooters

2. music (as much as id like to think I am a rockstar I am not.)

3. darts 

Fyi its not my imagination that I am statistically better after a few beers, its just what I have noticed. 

Sometimes drunken kung fu works but if I overdue it.. it won't. Its a balance thing

Alcohol certainly helps me at chess.  Doesn't help me win (I never do anyways), but I lose more entertainingly. 

Beer does wonders for my chess.

It makes me lose all interest in the game.

I find a couple of pints loosens me up before a game - just enough to loose a bit of inhibition which creates some interesting positions. I play better in these positions; the downfall is in pacing yourself not to drink too much so that you can't analyse effectively!

Beer + chess = very creative

I play better chess, it seems, up to about 3-4 beers.  After that I am a wreck.

I am not big into the 420 but after a few puffs I play, what I feel, is really great chess.  I, for some reason, play using everything I know except faster and most notably am much more aware, for once, of my opponents plans.