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New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

worldchess.com

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Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#51

Post by jayajay »

edgarvaldes wrote: post #46
jayajay wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was given some L Theanine by a friend of mine, because I complained about not being able to silent my thoughts when I sleep. Apparently, L Theanine is great at reducing this mental crosstalk. I tried some for a few nights, but I didn't notice an appreciable change. Did you notice the effects after taking it for a few weeks, or do you get them immediately?

>not being able to silent my thoughts when I sleep What do you mean by that?

Thoughts are mainly about work and problems that I need to solve. When I am trying to sleep, I will sometimes work on a problem in my head because it's "bothering me", and this can postpone my sleep by up to an hour.

This happened to me a lot in college on homework sets. Some sets would take hours to complete, and if I could not solve a problem before sleeping, I would "give up" and go to sleep, only to continue thinking about the problem.

The best way to describe what is happening is: I'll be trying to sleep, and I will think about the problem statement. Sometimes I will find a new perspective, and follow that. If it doesn't lead anywhere, I will go back to the problem statement, and the process repeats. Sometimes I'll just repeat the problem statement in my head hundreds of times over the course of an hour, hoping I'll find a different path to the solution.

It's tempting to keep thinking and not sleep. In my experience, this is an affliction more than it is an asset. This is why I am interested in L Theanine.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#52

Post by the_watcher »

scott_s wrote: post #44
the_watcher wrote: post #39

The title is somewhat misleading - I assumed they discovered a new type of drug that was enhancing performance. Actually, it's just the first study to actually bear out the (not particularly shocking) conclusion that drugs that enhance cognitive performance help in a game that depends on cognitive performance.

I think you're not impressed because you already assumed these drugs enhance cognitive performance. That, I think, is what the study is really about: do these particular drugs actually enhance cognitive performance? But, in order to test that, they need to pick a cognitive task, and in this case, the cognitive task happens to be chess.

No, I was just commenting that the title of the article was misleading to me. The study didn't find performance enhancing drugs, it found a link between drugs that allegedly enhance cognitive performance and an activity that requires high cognitive performance. Perhaps it's just semantics, but the findings of the study just weren't the type that I expected based on the title.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#53

Post by libraryatnight »

RangerScience wrote: post #21
SeanLuke wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> where they discarded human losses on time. This stinks of p-value hunting. I can only imagine the study went like this. They did all these tests and then found that there were no statistically significant improvements after using these drugs. So they said to themselves, how can we tweak the parameters so as to get something publishable? Sure, let's eliminate an entire class of games where our control group does bet…

> else we'd all spend five hours on each move. Chess is about bounded rationality Without any other tools (as in, pencil and paper to note conclusions), do you really think you could make a more effective move given five hours? I mean - if the conclusion of the study is actually that use of drugs gave players a larger personal time bounds within which to think up a move, that's still significant. I don't know about y…

"do you really think you could make a more effective move given five hours?"

I play on chess.com from time to time and I perform much better in games where I have a few days to make a move vs games that are played live with a timer. So for me, absolutely, if I have time to analyze I will almost always make a stronger move. I don't need to write down conclusions, I can just stare at it longer.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#54

Post by yarou »

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #42
yarou wrote: post #36

Anecdotally, Modafinil improved the functioning of the right hemisphere of my brain. I noticed this type of enhancement with Phenibut as well, my "emotional intelligence" was increased by one or two orders of magnitude. On the other hand, Adderall increased my raw intelligence by several orders of magnitude. I strongly believe that amphetamines should be decriminalized and unscheduled, as they are the only class of p…

"Limited"? psychosis! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stimulant_psychosis

In excessive dosage, sure.

Alcohol will also cause you to make incredibly poor judgements, in excessive amounts. The key is responsible use.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#55

Post by jgys »

gjm11 wrote: post #38
metaxy2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Moreover, this is a classic side effect of stimulants, at least anecdotally (not sure what the literature says). You can get hyper-focused on one task or sub-task and lose track of your overall priorities. Although I imagine regular stimulant users learn to compensate for this.

Not just a side effect; isn't this why stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall are used as treatment for hyperactivity and attention deficit?

Not exactly. Being hyper-focused on one thing is actually symptomatic of ADHD, and amphetamines like Adderall and Ritalin may exacerbate or mitigate this tendency (as I understand it mainly from personal experience, but also some literature), depending on the individual and external factors.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#56

Post by jayajay »

overcast wrote: post #49
edgarvaldes wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>not being able to silent my thoughts when I sleep What do you mean by that?

Mind racing in bed, thinking about a million things at once. Keeps me up at night sometimes as well.

And this, too. I can sleep really well if I am not working on anything that spans multiple days, or if the problem I am stuck on is succinct and self-contained. A lack of closure on whatever I was last working on is the root cause for my disturbed sleep. Do you also feel this way, or is there some other source for you?

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#57

Post by eduren »

zython wrote: post #48
aantix wrote: post #13

I've been taking 400mg of Magnesium Glycinate two times a day along with 200mg of Theanine (also twice a day) with my usual two cups of coffee. I feel fantastically focused without the jittery edge that accompanies caffeine alone.

How did you hear about these substances and what conviced you to swallow 4(!) pills a day with our national drug caffeine ?

I don't know about the op, but I've also seen similar recommendations on https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/

I tried a simple caffiene and l-theanine routine, but couldn't properly self-evaluate the results.

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#58

Post by dgfgfdagasdfgfa »

lfowles wrote: post #11
mistercow wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That would be a huge step in the right direction. I actually think we should do the same thing for athletic competitions.

I'm not sure professional athletes need more encouragement to ruin their bodies for our entertainment...

I think they do, if it means they can pursue their goals without threat of having their life's work destroyed.

I, for one, find the idea of doping and how to get around anti-doping schemes to be far more interesting than the pursuit of some arbitrary standard of excellent-but-didn't-cheat. Like blood doping is so different from things that are legal, like living in Denver!

Re: New Study Finds Performance-Enhancing Drugs for Chess

#60

Post by scott_s »

the_watcher wrote: post #52
scott_s wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're not impressed because you already assumed these drugs enhance cognitive performance. That, I think, is what the study is really about: do these particular drugs actually enhance cognitive performance? But, in order to test that, they need to pick a cognitive task, and in this case, the cognitive task happens to be chess.

No, I was just commenting that the title of the article was misleading to me. The study didn't find performance enhancing drugs, it found a link between drugs that allegedly enhance cognitive performance and an activity that requires high cognitive performance. Perhaps it's just semantics, but the findings of the study just weren't the type that I expected based on the title.

And your initial comment sounded to me like you were taking it for granted that such drugs do indeed enhance cognitive performance - which I don't think is a given.
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