Do stimulants strengthen the cognitive ability of chess players?

BySerge Saint

At the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics to be held in South Korea in 2018, as chess plays the Olympic gamesAuthorizationIt is scheduled to be implemented, although it is not an official competition. As long as you participate in the Olympic Games as a competition, doping tests are carried out for chess players as well as other competitions, but in some experiments you can see that there is an effect that enhances cognitive ability in chess for stimulants It was.

Methylphenidate, modafinil, and caffeine for cognitive enhancement in chess: A double-blind, randomized controlled trial - European Neuropsychopharmacology
http://www.europeanneuropsychopharmacology.com/article/S0924-977X(17)30019-6/abstract

Special Report: New Study Finds Performance - Enhancing Drugs for Chess | World Chess | News, ratings, events in a chess world
https://worldchess.com/2017/01/25/special-report-new-study-finds-performance-enhancing-drugs-for-chess/

Multiple German universities, and the joint research team of Stockholm University, have been recognized as having the effect of enhancing cognitive abilities of healthy peopleMethylphenidateYaModafinil,caffeineI investigated whether it improves the performance of chess players by experiment. Dr. Klaus Rieb, who participated in the experiment, said, "I was interested in whether top players with high cognitive skills in chess can enhance performance with stimulants."

ByThe U.S. Army

The experiment is to give one of 39 participants one of the stimulant methylphenidate, modafinil, caffeine, placebo. After taking the stimulant, the subject performed 20 times of 15-minute bout against the computer, and then took the test of neuropsychology. In the experiment, a total of 3059 chess matches were made.

Analyzing the data obtained from the game, players who ingested either methylphenidate, modafinil or caffeine tended to think longer than their players who took placebo, and sometimes overtime It was confirmed that it was. In other words, the players were thinking slower to contemplate than playing regularly.

ByAurimas

In addition, players who ingested methylphenidate or modafinil recorded a higher score than players who ingested placebo in 2876 games, which lost games due to overtime due to overtime from all games performed in the experiment. The research team integrated these results with neuropsychological tests and found that stimulants are unlikely to improve the quality of thinking and decision-making ability in time, but in decision making In the case that it can take a long time, stimulants are considered to enhance performance ".

Dr. Lieb says that whether a stimulant strengthens its ability in chess requires further experimentation, "We need strong doping control in the chess competition tournament."