Has Anyone Tried Nootropics for Chess?

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Luitpoldt

Nootropics are drugs or supplements which have some demonstrated capacity to improve intellectual skills, and there are people who take them regularly to advance in their careers, as well as forums dedicated to sharing information about them.  Since chess is an intellectual game, I wonder if anyone has ever tried nootropics to improve chess skills or aptitude?  To take one example, krill oil has been found in one study to improve spatial reasoning in rats, so since spatial reasoning is involved in chess, perhaps it would be beneficial to players.

Luitpoldt

That's an interesting question, since while making your body stronger using chemicals seems like cheating in physical sports, is making your brain smarter the same sort of thing?  Your intelligence seems much more intrinsic to how we define what 'you' are, while your body seems a bit more separate, so priming it with substances seems more like cheating.  If I make myself a better chess player by reading chess books, that's not cheating, but by making myself chemically more able to understand and apply what I read in chess books, that is?

 

Also, whatever the ethics of it, using cognition enhancing substances is not yet illegal in chess, so people could use those until their use is somehow banned.  In addition, tests for blood levels of the full variety of nootropics would be difficult to develop.

darkunorthodox88

i have with mixed results. the thing is nootropics can be a bit tricky. at certain doses or if you take one your are not personally compatible with, you get bad effects. in my case, i actually "crash" and get very sleepy.

 

but when they do work they give you this nice "heat" sensation" like you did a 15 minute workout which makes you really good at focusing and tuning out distractions.  

 

A friend of mine recommends this mushroom coffee mix  with lion mane in it. i only tried it once so who knows if it works, but that was the tourney that made me NM so who knows. I did feel it worked a bit though.

EscherehcsE

That sounds great - spending money on a drug that may or may not help me play a tiny bit better at a game that I'll always suck at...

Laughing