I am pretty sure we are all familiar about how there are some substances which affect the performances of athlets. Many of them illegal (steroids, etc), and others legal (gaterode, coffee, etc) and others not recommended (alcohol, tobacco,etc). I do really have many questions regarding the overall topic about how substances affect your mental performances at your baduk matches. Which i will resume in three questions:

1.- Does X substance makes you play better or worse?.
2.-How does it make you feel, regardless of consequences?.
3.- Why it should be legal or illegal?.

Take in consideration i do refer to any substances, so special diets are also included, like if you feel better at thinking Go after eating chicken, pasta or a salad?. I know this is an exaggeration but this is broad generic question. Feel free to share any opinion about how what we eat or drink affect our games.

LSD and Go: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=11086&hilit=lsd+go

1- (yerba) Mate makes me play better.
2- Fine.
3- Legal.

1- Coffee is a crazy drink to play go for me. It can be good and bad.
2- It is dangerous.
3- It is indifferent

1- Beer and other alcohol drinks make me play worse.
2- It is a slow effect unless I am in beer go tournament.
3- You can't drive and you can forget talk = illegal or not recommend

I'm from Canada, and soon marijuana is going to be legalized here.

Makes the game more fun

I find that Crystal Meth seems to have been designed for go players; MAJOR performance enhancement. A little reefer is pretty nice too, makes for more complex positions. Alcohol? Does not belong anywhere near a goban...

As for any of these being legal or illegal: no comment.

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Thinking like a go player during a game of chess is like bringing a knife to a gun-fight. Thinking like a chess player during a game of go feels like getting knifed while you're holding a gun...

Depends on what you drink. If it's just one bottle of beer or a glass of wine, it should make things more enjoyable! As long as you don't get drunk.

Of course, if we're talking vodka, scotch or whiskey, it's just as you say - a bad idea.

Memorize joseki, lose 2 stones. Take adderall, gain 2 stones.

Why is e.g. scotch worse than wine, given that you drink equal amount of alcohol?

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After I bought a "Dan cake" at the British candidates tournament a few years ago I proceeded to win all my games.

I unknown adderall, is it real or only a joke? Say it before I have an addiction.

Because you get drunk from scotch, even from drinking a little bit, but with wine or beer, you can have a glass and not get drunk.

Getting drunk and playing Go is a bad idea.

You can google it and conduct your own research to find out.

First off, how drunk you get is a matter of your body chemistry, how much you have in your stomach, and how much alcohol you consume. Being more or less concentrated doesn't change that.

Second, what on earth makes you think that getting drunk and playing go is a bad idea? I've played some of my most entertaining games that way and, at least in the US, the drunken go competition is a congress tradition.

I wouldn't recommend it for a serious tournament, but for a casual game between friends or soon-to-be friends? No reason not to, apart from general suggestions of moderation and age-related appropriateness.

Can't read tactical positions when drunk, at least that's what happens to me. I remember being drunk and playing an even game with a player two stones weaker than me. Everything died, had to resign halfway through.

Maybe I should try again

The measure is not if they lived or died, but if they did so amusingly.

There is a bit of an expectation that your playing partner is drinking too, of course.

Taking something in order to improve one's performance just seems like a bad idea. It can easily be seen as cheating, especially in a tournament context, and if it is not in a tournament context, why bother? If it's not being prescribed for some disorder, it might even affect your health adversely.

As to the consumption of recreational drugs where permitted, it's probably better if neither party is sober. Somebody else's drunk bad moves might look funny if you are inebriated as well, but if you aren't, then they are just bad moves. Stoners should beware of boring their non-partaking opponents to death while they ponder deeper meaning.

For smokers the biggest go-related problem is mistaking the bowl for the ashtray.

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Patience, grasshopper.

If you read my message carefully, you noticed it said "given that you drink equal amount of alcohol". That means e.g. 4cl of scotch vs (roughly) 16cl of wine or 40cl of beer. You will get equally (not) drunk from each.

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At a European many years ago, I played a Chinese professional in a simultaneous game. He won all his games by a small margin (against me by 1 point).

The next day, I played him again. We bought him (and us) quite a lot of beer beforehand. He giggled a lot whilst playing, which he didn't do the day before. He won all his games by resignation.

I think we need to have a talk about physiology.



Actually it's a really good idea, if you like to play Go that way.

I would say that with a glass of really good Scotch (enough to affect me subjectively as well as objectively) I lose two or three stones or so, but it's very enjoyable. Quite a few people have separate KGS accounts (or whatever server) that they use when they're drinking. I haven't gone that far but the fact that it's a thing at all makes me think that the combination is a common one.

I have a friend with whom I play occasionally and we like to drink together as well. But we make sure I drink a little more; we call this the Whisky Handicap.

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Confucius in the Analects says "even playing go is better than eating chips in front of tv all day." -- kivi

I pondered over a funny reply to this for hours … still didn't find one.

And vice versa. Same goes for having some snacks like Japanese rice crackers … when at a time we all were smokers at our local Go club, we had all possible combinations of stones/bowls/lids/board/crackers/fingers/cigarette stumps/ash/mouth/coffee or tee mug/ashtrays. Later non-smokers joined and now smoking is not allowed in our Go salon as soon as one non-smoker is present.

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“The only difference between me and a madman is that I’m not mad.” — Salvador Dali ★ Play a slooooow correspondence game with me on OGS?