Chess performing enhancement drugs

Hi everyone.

As you all know, it's no secret that pretty much all sports, at the top level, drug usage/abuse is incredibly common. Running, football, basketball, baseball, weightlifting, the list goes on. However, it's been quite unheard of to my ears in my few years of playing and following the top level chess players.

Does anyone have any stories on this topic, or could bring any insight on what sort of drugs chess players might use? Do chess players get tested on drugs? (I'm not looking to take drugs for myself, but purely for educational purposes. I guess my curiosity arose from watching the winter olympics and realising how easy people could get away with it).

I suppose the definition of drug may vary, but I assume coffee is something a lot of chess players take. However, this is the extent of my knowledge of drugs on chess.

If there are drugs for enhancing chess performance, why don't more chess players take it? are the current chess drugs even effective?

It's likely many top chess players take prescriptions which many people would consider "performance enhancing" for boosting mental performance, memory and the ability to focus, but often they need them. Stimulants like adderall, vyvanse, ritalin etc are used to help.... put in a simple way regulate your bodies norepinephrine, dopamine, even serotonin (boost). These prescriptions aren't necessarily wonder drugs that once you start taking them your elo will go from 1800 to 2000 immediately and they'll effect everyone differently depending on your chemical makeup. This isn't to say they these chess players abuse these medications. The medications often just give the user the ability to even focus in the first place. Norepinephrine in simple terms helps your body stay alert to focus, dopamine is the feel good/happy chemical which makes you feel more accomplished while studying/playing and basically adds to norepinephrine making it easier to stay alert and focus plus this also simply gives you more passion and energy to get things done, it all builds on itself. Serotonin is also a chemical in simple terms which helps you be happy but it serves a purpose of more of a mood regulator if I remember right (remember most of this is boosted with simple coffee).

Yes they can certainly enhance your chess performance but often they are not "permanent" fixes is the way I'd explain it. You can use them to study and play and there's a good chance they'll help you play at that specific time, abusing them will very likely help you in the moment but when they wear off if you're abusing them too much you're body will not be able to keep up literally, your memory will likely get worse, you'll probably develop some anxiety along with other side effects. 

This is coming from personal experience. I've been prescribed adderall off and on, always at the maximum dosage. I did well studying for exams, but after stopping and a few weeks went by I wouldn't be able to do nearly as well if I were to take the exams again. I would imagine this is what would happen to most people if they abused it for their chess, maybe they go from 1600-1900 very quickly depends on the person but once they cant do it anymore (it's physically and mentally exhausting)  and remember this isn't immediate you still have to study, but you'll probably go back to around 1600-1700 anyhow as your brain is only going to retain what it regularly could have. Trust me there's no real long term benefit to abusing it. Only take it out of necessity, after tolerance builds it doesn't work nearly like it did when you start.

Tl;dr if abused there is absolutely a short term mental improvement, memory, focus etc

I don't think you can really enforce drug testing in chess, in the USA we even have prescription methamphetamine lol

Wow thanks for you extensive response, very informative !

I see, so adderall is quite the powerful drug huh ? but sounds super risky. what are the ways to test for this? I assume there must've been at least some top chess players who wouldve taken this in  the past, but who knows who.

You can definitely drug test people and see if someone's been using amphetamines or methamphetamine but if they're prescribed it would be pretty difficult to do anything. The only chance would be to set rules for example if we drug test you for this even if you're prescribed it if the amount found in your body is more than a certain level you could have reasonable suspicion they're abusing it. But even then there would be many reasonable excuses. BMI, metabolism, diet, physical exercise, stress even kidney function etc all plays a factor in how well/quickly your body rids the drug out of your system. 

And yeah definitely powerful especially if you don't need it, if you abuse it and you just started abusing it, it's basically the movie limitless everything's easy. That said there's other non stimulant drugs that would be very interesting to look into.