I have a fairly regular Friday night game with a friend. We both enjoy sipping cognac or Scot’s/Irish whiskey while playing. Sometimes, to a point anyway, our play improves while sipping.
The Russians/Soviet players were known as heavy drinkers. Alekhine blamed losing his title to Ewue due to drinking heavily during play. More in a bit about Alekhine. A few years back I recall a tournament where a GM drank too much and passed out during one of his games.
Nigel Short is on record as enjoying red wine while playing online chess. In the spirit of Mardi Gras which is nearly upon us (March 5th), what’s your favorite form of alcohol when playing?
March 23/24 is the anniversary of Alekhine’s death in Portugal. In his memory, our club will be remembering him on Sunday the 24th by imbibing whilst playing at least one game each using the Alekhine Defense. We will also be celebrating, as we have previously, Bastille Day in July by sipping French wine and playing Philidor’s Defense.
In college a few of us used to drink scotch, bourbon, or cognac while playing casual games and blitz. At one point we played a drinking game where the winner of the blitz game would take a drink to help even things up. Unfortunately, I won about a dozen games in a row and my thirsty opponents started drinking, too, which led to more wins for me. I recall that there was a birthday party, music, and other revelry which blended in with the chess. The mixture of scotch and cake icing did not agree particularly well and I, ahem, forfeited the remainder of the games and much of the cake. After that I decided that alcohol was not the stimulant that Blackburne, Alekhine, et al. said was beneficial for creativity. Many years later, I was given a chess set made up of shot glasses with the pieces marked on the glasses. Wisely, I regifted it.
In college once, I hitchhiked to a CCA New York City tournament with a friend. I was about Class B and my friend was an Expert, so we entered different sections.
He was quite an aficionado of weed. I will always remember him saying at some point, “I think I even play better when I’m high!”, to which I didn’t answer. At the time he had score that was dismal for him, 4-4. But could I point this out? Knowing that he could beat me high without trying too hard, I just nodded.
I suspect that people’s judgment of how well they are playing can be impaired. But, who knows.
And, if it improves your enjoyment of the experience, in an informal situation that might be what matters.
While I understand the sentiment, there are times when it just isn’t appropriate. 20-ish years ago, a Wisconsin team pulled out steins and brews for the first round (Saturday morning I think) of the Amateur Team regional in Chicago - and they were surprised and upset when the parents of their middle school team opponents complained to the TD - so much so that they withdrew from the tournament IIRC.
A Chess player from Wisconsin, who moved to Georgia, once asked me if I were an “Unreconstructed Southerner.” I asked him if he were a “Carpet bagging yankee…”
I asked an IM, who is no longer with us, at a tourney at Emory, I believe, who was very fond of smoking pot if he thought he might have become a GM if he had not smoked wacky baccy. He thought for a moment before replying, “If I had not smoked pot I would not even have become a NM!”
“Chess can be described as the movement of pieces eating one another.” —Marcel Duchamp
As an incoming freshman, I moved into the dorm and met my new roommate for the first time. He noticed my chess stuff and challenged me to a game. He didn’t play very well and I wasn’t playing close attention and I ended up losing on a back rank mate. Through the next three years we would play occasionally after that and he never even got a draw. Finally one night I came home late, obviously inebriated, and my sober roommate challenged me to a game. We played 5 straight egg-timer games and I won every one. He never wanted to play me again.
We had a parent at a non-scholastic event go bananas when they saw their child’s opponent drinking a glass of wine at the board. The adult player was in no way inebriated and seemed to want to just enjoy a glass of wine on a Saturday night while playing (rated) chess. I think that the parent ended up forfeiting the game by making the child leave the playing hall.
to quote Homer Simpson, “Mmmmm, beer”. Jesting aside, what is the policy concerning imbibing an alcoholic beverage during tournament play? is there a policy?
I’m guessing that most players, and most organizers, would assume that consumption of alcoholic beverages in a tournament room would be considered inappropriate, so much so that it should not even be necessary to state so in advance publicity, nor at the site.
We once held a tournament in a pizza place that served beer. An off-duty police officer, who was playing in the tournament, asked the TD if it would be okay for him to have a beer while playing. The TD, mentioning that there were several kids playing in the tournament, said that he didn’t think it would be appropriate, and asked the officer to not do so. That was the end of it.
True, but a TD might have given a different answer reasonable.
In the late 70s I played in one of the Paul Masson tournaments, held outdoors in their vineyards. Gorgeous setting. They offered free samples to those who were of age. I don’t think they were given in large quantities and I don’t know that anyone brought them to the board. Since I was a minor at the time I really didn’t pay attention, but we all chuckled that we might get a competitive advantage from it. Not very likely. The only game I lost that year was to an adult.
