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playing while high

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There have been many stories of grandmasters, even world champions, playing while medicated or intoxicated. Got any stories to share? Maybe some personal ones?


Originally posted by lemondrop
There have been many stories of grandmasters, even world champions, playing while medicated or intoxicated. Got any stories to share? Maybe some personal ones?
I played chess on a plane once, does that count?

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My standard 'odds' when I play my daughter is one glass of wine. Lately, I'm thinking I have to reduce it to half a glass...

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Originally posted by 64squaresofpain
I played chess on a plane once, does that count?
Nyuk Nyuk Nyuk🙂 One time when I was living in Thailand, took R&R in Bankok and checked into the Rama IV hotel downtown and it turned out to be a very nice den of iniquity🙂

Someone gave me a drop of LSD in my glass of coke, not a heavy dose, something like 100 micrograms I think. So I was playing 3 games of chess simul and mostly winning but the acid kicked in and I saw the floor which was made of these 1 foot square tiles and they began to look like chess boards but moving up and down in three dimensions along with my own three boards I was playing. Needless to say after that the games went totally downhill even though at the start I was well on my way to 3 victories.
That was the end of my LSD./chess days. After that we went up to the rooftop of the hotel looking at the night lights and watching the sunset, starting at 8 PM🙂

What can I say. It was the '70's........

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long time ago played in a weekend swiss in Edinburgh one round on Friday, 2 on the Saturday, 2 on the sunday.

Won my game on Friday evening went out got smashed with my brother. won both games on Saturday, thought hmmm in with a chance of winning this stayed in Saturday evening, lost on sunday morning, few beers sunday lunchtime - won in the afternoon !

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I've got a buddy with whom I have played endless games. I have won every single game. We tried setting the clocks to 10 minutes vs. 3 minutes. Then 20 minutes vs. 2 minutes. Same result. Under 2 minutes my old analog clock probably isn't accurate anyway. Then we tried zero pints vs. 2 pints of Guinness. Same result. I may try playing blindfold next.


Originally posted by sonhouse
Someone gave me a drop of LSD in my glass of coke, not a heavy dose, something like 100 micrograms I think. So I was playing 3 games of chess simul and mostly winning but the acid kicked in and I saw the floor which was made of these 1 foot square tiles and they began to look like chess boards but moving up and down in three dimensions along with my own thr ...[text shortened]... t lights and watching the sunset, starting at 8 PM🙂

What can I say. It was the '70's........
I remember trying to play chess on acid. I kept seeing some 'other' diagonal for the bishop … I can't explain it now, but I saw it then.

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Playing chess while on drugs is not fun, imo. Requires too many mental resources to concentrate on the game. Chess should be taken sober, while well-rested, in a meditative state of mind and in top mental condition. Then you can fool yourself that you're approaching a higher plane. While non-chess players are glancing at you and saying, 'Why is that fool just sitting still like that staring at those little wooden pieces? Come on, let's go and dance in the flower-meadow by the river of eternal life.'

That Herman Hesse novel, the Glass Bead Game. That's what chess should feel like. If it doesn't, go and do something else.

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Originally posted by NoEarthlyReason
Playing chess while on drugs is not fun, imo. Requires too many mental resources to concentrate on the game. Chess should be taken sober, while well-rested, in a meditative state of mind and in top mental condition. Then you can fool yourself that you're approaching a higher plane. While non-chess players are glancing at you and saying, 'Why is that ...[text shortened]... he Glass Bead Game. That's what chess should feel like. If it doesn't, go and do something else.
Yes, I agree now. In my wilder youth, I tried a lot of 'stuff', mostly because it was available: I grew up a stone's throw from Haight-Ashbury where one could get high just breathing in what others were breathing out. I later came to believe that the main effect of recreational drugs is to mask their unpleasant side effects.

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Originally posted by moonbus
Yes, I agree now. In my wilder youth, I tried a lot of 'stuff', mostly because it was available: I grew up a stone's throw from Haight-Ashbury where one could get high just breathing in what others were breathing out. I later came to believe that the main effect of recreational drugs is to mask their unpleasant side effects.
One shouldn't multitask. If one must take drugs, one must focus completely on the experience itself.

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I don't want to play unless I'm high. It helps keep my spirit under control.


Originally posted by moonbus
I remember trying to play chess on acid. I kept seeing some 'other' diagonal for the bishop … I can't explain it now, but I saw it then.
I remember watching the chessboard, with all the pieces, slide over the edge of the table and disappear. I sat for a few minutes and it slid back and I could finally make my move. It was a last round game and I managed to win and tie for first overall. That was a strange weekend in Dallas.

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Originally posted by caissad4
I remember watching the chessboard, with all the pieces, slide over the edge of the table and disappear. I sat for a few minutes and it slid back and I could finally make my move. It was a last round game and I managed to win and tie for first overall. That was a strange weekend in Dallas.
Are you sure it was Dallas?

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Originally posted by caissad4
I remember watching the chessboard, with all the pieces, slide over the edge of the table and disappear. I sat for a few minutes and it slid back and I could finally make my move. It was a last round game and I managed to win and tie for first overall. That was a strange weekend in Dallas.
Acid or shrooms make me over think, then forget, then over think. 😕

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Originally posted by ChessPraxis
Acid or shrooms make me over think, then forget, then over think. 😕
... then forget to move, right?