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Give up drink or chess?

Give up drink or chess?

Only Chess

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Although not as bad as alcohol, coffee has a degrading effect on your chess, caffeine makes solving complex mental problems harder. :'(:'(:'(😞

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Do you have a drinking problem, is it affecting your life or others around you? Is your chess suffering because you choose to worship the bottle and not the book? Do you feel that you're alone and have no-one to speak to and that others can't understand your predicament?

Help may be at hand.....

http://www.redhotpawn.com/clan/home.php?cid=24360

Come and join our cult, I mean, ermm, clan, meet others with the same weakness as yourself and you'll never have to feel guilty again about throwing away a game.

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Give up chess. Drink is a far better companion when you are alone. Hehe.

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Originally posted by scrumpymanjack
Give up chess. Drink is a far better companion when you are alone. Hehe.
Oooh, another journalist. We should start a clan.

Or a newspaper.

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From a health perspective:

Alcohol for the vast majority of people does more harm than good for health. There are so many negative effects of alcohol that it's difficult to even know where to start. Most of these are fortunately only for those heavy drinkers. But even moderate drinking often does more harm than good because it creates an upsurge of free radical activity. Free radicals harm cells by mangling their DNA. Of course, though the evidence is inconclusive, light alcohol use (Red Wine) does seem to have some cardiovascular benefits too.

Chess on the other hand had been shown to activate many sections of the brain, delay Alzheimer's, and in general improve brain function. (it was shown that in schols that had chess training, kids did better also, but why is a mystery)

If I had to make a choice, I would certainly give up alcohol first. But I really think that this is stupid because you don't have to sacrifice either. Just drink less, limit it to a small glass of Red Wine every other night. Also, don't play chess after drinking if that if it's really a problem for you.

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Originally posted by exigentsky
From a health perspective:

Alcohol for the vast majority of people does more harm than good for health. There are so many negative effects of alcohol that it's difficult to even know where to start. Most of these are fortunately only for those heavy drinkers. But even moderate drinking often does more harm than good because it creates an upsurge of fre ...[text shortened]... ther night. Also, don't play chess after drinking if that if it's really a problem for you.
Actually, I don't think it is. What's helped enormously is not making all my moves in five minutes at work while nervously peering over my shoulder.

I still drink like a fish.

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Yeah, but taking more time to think could improve your performance even further if you are sober. 😉

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Originally posted by dottewell
Actually, I don't think it is. What's helped enormously is not making all my moves in five minutes at work while nervously peering over my shoulder.

I still drink like a fish.
Drinking like a fish should be okay. To my knowledge, fishes don't drink alcohol.

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When the USSR tried to crack down on vodka consumption in the 60s/70s Mikhail Tal was reputed to say "The state against vodka? I'm with Vodka!" So there you have it. From the mouth of a GM!

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That doesn't mean he got drunk before playing tournament chess, only that he did drink vodka.

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Originally posted by dottewell
Actually, I don't think it is. What's helped enormously is not making all my moves in five minutes at work while nervously peering over my shoulder.

I still drink like a fish.
Lol, I'm with you on that one but every 3-4 hours when things get stressful, it is sooo nice to sit back and contemplate chess instead of work.

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In University - I lived in students' hostel - during my first year I was doing little but drank vodka, smoked bad (really bad) cigarettes and played cards for money till the very early morning.
The paradox was that my grades for this year were the best for all my studies in spite of the fact, that I became more sober.

Chess... well, vodka is really much better - I don't know why but same amount of beer (by alcohol) makes you more stupid than vodka. However I speak abt small amounts, anyway.

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Originally posted by Sicilian Smaug
Well it's never done the Russians any harm in there chess!
'THEIR"

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Originally posted by Nordlys
Drinking like a fish should be okay. To my knowledge, fishes don't drink alcohol.
hahahahahahahahaha....good one!!!!!!

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I once read where alcohol was bad for you…so I gave up reading.