Well I don't drink coffee, but I hear a chess player is recommended to drink a cup before playing a match. You become more attentive and tend to notice traps and defend cleverly.
Though the improvement rate is by 9%, it's not like a magic drink which will win you the match.
But it's proven to improve your chess.
Does coffee make you play better or worse? How many cups of coffer per day is optimal for a chessplayer?
Coffee will probably make you play better, as long as you don't drink so much of it that you get the jitters. Once you hit the jitter point, I suspect you'll play worse. Everyone's caffeine tolerance level is different. Some people can't handle any caffeine; Some coffee drinkers need one or two cups just to wake up. ;-)
By the way, while caffeine isn't toxic, it *is* mildly addictive. Hence, the headaches a coffee drinker gets when he quits coffee cold turkey.
Also, it's better not to have caffeine late in the day. It takes your body a good chunk of the day to process the caffeine. If you have caffeine too late in the day, you might not sleep that night.
From Healthline:
"Both the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) define a safe caffeine intake as up to 400 mg per day, 200 mg per single dose, or 1.4 mg per pound (3 mg per kg) of body weight."
"Caffeine – Included in WADA Monitoring Program and relevant for incompetition testing only. Any urine test reading of less than 12 micrograms
per milliliter poses no problem."
https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/WADA%20Anti%20Doping.pdf
"Caffeine – Included in WADA Monitoring Program and relevant for incompetition testing only. Any urine test reading of less than 12 micrograms
per milliliter poses no problem."
https://handbook.fide.com/files/handbook/WADA%20Anti%20Doping.pdf
Maybe good to know if you plan to enter FIDE events. I'll never do that, so I'm good. :-)
Studies have shown that 8 oz. cup of coffee 30 minutes before a test has shown to be helpful. But then everyone tolerates caffeine differently.
I have played in tournaments will fasting, having had coffee, not had coffee, and none of it seemed to make a difference for me. I played equally bad.
I meant to add this...
I do know that eating A LOT or a heavy meal before playing is bad. Just like any type of energy drink, or sugar is bad.
Does coffee make you play better or worse? How many cups of coffer per day is optimal for a chessplayer?