Chess, FIDE and Drug Testing: Necessary or Too Far?

By now, if you are a chess player, surely the news that FIDE is considering testing its players for drugs before tournaments has made it to your door. What is your opinion on this idea? Do you know a bunch of drug-addicted grandmasters, or is this policy ridiculous?

I can understand why FIDE does not want chess players with the heroin-nods falling asleep on the board, or competitors who are tweaked out of their minds and causing major distractions to other players, but they have gone so far as to mention the banning of coffee and cigarettes at FIDE events.

This news has caused numerous waves throughout the chess world, and FIDE is being put on the hotplate politically by many grandmasters. A few of them are even refusing to play if this policy is put into action. Can you blame them?

When considering this new proposed rule, two questions immediately leap to mind: How many chess players are actually under the influence of drugs at FIDE events, and, if they are, does it really enable them to play better chess? In my experience, being under the influence of any controlled substance hampers thinking ability at least somewhat, and that is not what a chess master, or anyone else, needs when competing for money at an international tournament.

It seems to me that chess and coffee have walked hand in hand for as long as they have existed, and I do not see that changing any time soon. Something tells me that playing chess at AA meetings is never going to catch on. In my opinion, it is impossible to prove that coffee enhances one's chess ability, because it is horribly subjective, and play is never consistent from day to day anyhow.

Therefore, extensive studies would have to be conducted, which would analyze a large number of games from various players who are using drugs, alcohol or (stop me now) caffeine while at a tournament. Then, more data would need to be compiled from those same players when they are completely natural and playing tournaments. Only then could a very rough estimate be made on performance enhancing drugs, but in my opinion this would in no way indicate a concrete answer either way.

FIDE does not have the funds to conduct such studies, and until they do, I personally cannot see this rule being enacted, or sticking around if it is. The day that coffee and cigarettes are not allowed around a chess table, is literally the day the game will die for thousands of players. It is well known that many chess masters enjoy alcohol and tobacco, but as long as they are not sitting across from you with a 40 ounce beer in one hand and a smoke in the other, is there really any problem here?