Does beer help your chess?

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Avatar of abnoxio

In my short games (1-5 min) a beer or two (8) actually helps me just go for the kill, I keep better center control, I don't worry about idle threats, I exchange like a madman when I have the advantage. Any thoughts?

Avatar of TheBigDecline

If it would help me, I'd be a GM by now.

Avatar of abnoxio

Dude, I actually really laughed at that one.

Avatar of chasm1995

Beer helps my chess if it is my opponent that's drinking it.

Avatar of Rowan

Absolutley !

Avatar of MatchStickKing

We typically don't drink at the board at our local club, although one elderly gent did recently in our blitz tournament and scored a very respectable 6/8 drawing for 3rd place out of a field of 15 with an average strength of 1700 :0P

Avatar of chasm1995

Did he only start drinking there, or was he piss-drunk before arriving?

Avatar of MatchStickKing

Once he got there. Nice warm dark ale from what I remember.

Avatar of Knightly_News

Beer helps my chess at about the rame rate of effectiveness that chess helps me work up the nerve to ask women to dance with me.

Avatar of Knightly_News
roninreturns wrote:

 bwahaha... what a great discussion! I resemble those remarks. I actually get really anxious in some of my games, and sometimes a little malted medicine puts me in a more focused mood. Music is good too, at times. It varies according to the person and player, so I would never recommend it to anyone, but for adults playing a game, it is sometimes good to unwind a bit. The way my brain (halfway) works, I like to keep several things happening at once, to activate all the pathways and hemispheres. Chess is such an abstract game in certain ways, I may put on other things that occupy certain portions of the brain, so I can focus on the game more. It varies according to the person, but it is sometimes easier for me to have other neural pathways occupied, while the chess center of the brain is firing.

The problem with drugs and inebriants is that they are nearly impossible to regulate for the same result consistently.  While it may be obvious they initially help your playing at some point, try to repeat it a few times, and generally quite the opposite will remain the constant.

Avatar of BhomasTrown

beer helps with driving a car, so why wouldn't it help with chess, too?

Avatar of pdve

it is well known that alcohol augments intellect.

a BBC study came out with the conclusion that alcohol actually INCREASES IQ.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1058526.stm

Avatar of astronomer999
pdve wrote:

it is well known that alcohol augments intellect.

a BBC study came out with the conclusion that alcohol actually INCREASES IQ.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1058526.stm

ALCOHOL KILLS BRAIN CELLS!!!!

But after the dead wood is cleared, the rest of the cells can flourish.

Avatar of TeraHammer

At my local club the use of beer is frowned upon in serious matches. But I like a good quality beer to quaff. Makes me feel like a kickass general.

I think it improves my chess game, if only indirectly. I engage in weird unorthodox positions (in chess one would say unclear)

Avatar of abnoxio
BhomasTrown wrote:

beer helps with driving a car, so why wouldn't it help with chess, too?

OMFG! that's funny.

Avatar of abnoxio
TeraHammer wrote:

I think it improves my chess game, if only indirectly. I engage in weird unorthodox positions (in chess one would say unclear)

Welcome to the club.

Avatar of Doc_who_loves_chess

This is a question that has plagued mankind since the dawn of time. Hopefully we will soon reveal the truth...

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-experiment-how-much-does-three-pints-of-beer-impact-your-chess-ability

Avatar of Nordlandia

As white you have to open with 1. Nh3 (Drunken Knight Opening) Laughing

Avatar of GhostNight

Well, you do not feel bad when you lose, after drinking acouple brewskis.

Just be sure not to spill your beer on the chess board.

Make sure you are old enough, with ID

I like the "drunken Knight opening", wonder how it would stand up against the "Intoxicated doubled up Knight Pawn defence"?

Avatar of Doc_who_loves_chess

* Update for all relevant chess.com threads - The Great Beer/Chess Experiment, Game 3 - Saturday June 15th 2013 *

Thanks to everyone who helped with this third game, including those who provided valuable advice on experimental assessment and consistency, discussion regarding the chess-inducing euphoric state (Siduri's kiss) as well as my more technically savvy colleagues who helped me get the somewhat weird chess.com PGN of the third game working in "Hal" (ChessPro). Unfortunately, the truly epic nature of the battle that occurred today between myself and brother Saeed (comprising of over 120 ply) has taken a very long time to analyze, think about and write up, and my wife has firmly "requested" that I now stop working on, what essentially amounts to, this PGN mini-novel, and spend some quality time with her... Torn between my commitment to bring you, my fine chess.com colleagues, the promised annotated game at the earliest possible time point, and my desire to be a reasonably decent husband, I have decided, probably wisely, to focus on the latter path and will have to postpone the completion and posting of this third epic chess game till tomorrow, at which point I will post it to the beginning of the main Beer/Chess experiment thread:

http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/chess-experiment-how-much-does-three-pints-of-beer-impact-your-chess-ability

Have a good evening fellow chess lovers...