Answers.Body: <p>I don't know if this counts, but here is a story (unfortunately only in Norwegian) about the former president of the Norwegian Chess Federation, Jøran Aulin-Jansson, who in his youth played blitz for 92 hours straight: <a href="http://www.nrk.no/sport/92-timer-med-sjakk-i-strekk-1.6589371">http://www.nrk.no/sport/92-timer-med-sjakk-i-strekk-1.6589371</a></p>
  
  <p>In 92 hours and 26 minutes he played 701 games and won 549 with 32 draws.</p>
  
  <p>He explains how accidentally eating a rotten chicken kept him awake during the third night.</p>
  
  <p>At one point he hallucinated about spiders crawling up his leg. I guess that qualifies as "altered state of consciousness".</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-05T22:22:23.517Z
Answers.Text: Sleep deprivation definitely counts.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Paul Burchett
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-05T21:54:26.330Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-05T21:54:26.330Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Dag Oskar Madsen
Answers.Body: <p>Tal wrote in his biography that once he had a complex adjourned position and that night he dreamed the solution while sleeping. When he woke up, he remembered the dream and knew what to do. He wrote that this was the only time such a thing had ever happened to him.</p>
  
  <p>Playing chess while under the influence of recreational drugs or alcohol generally has very bad results, speaking from experience. You generally play at a significantly lower level. The only exception is that sometimes a very small amount of alcohol, like one drink, can sometimes be beneficial because it calms you down a little bit. So, if you are all wound up and nervous before a tournament game, a beer can be the antidote.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-06T13:42:59.780Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-06T13:42:59.780Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Cecil De Vere
Answers.Body: <p>Chess games and matches played while drinking alcohol in particular are easy to find if you go back in history a bit. The one that immediately comes to mind are the matches <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bourdonnais_%E2%80%93_McDonnell_chess_matches" rel="nofollow">between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell in 1834</a> in which La Bourdonnais won despite reportedly spending much of his time between moves drinking, smoking and gambling on other games.  Perhaps this is not a 'feat' in the same manner as a massive simul or so on, but these were arguably the two strongest players in the world at the time and so could be considered a de-facto world championship match.</p>
  
  <p>And also as in one of the comments to the OP, Alekhine also played many of his games while drinking heavily, apparently including his 1933 World Championship match.</p>
  
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Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-06T14:09:22.077Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-08T12:48:03.993Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2016-05-08T12:48:03.993Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: DTR
Answers.Body: <p>Does it count when it is the opponent? I defeated a GM in a simul (I am a low 1800) just by playing passively until he had imbibed several mugs of "tea", at which point he essayed a grossly unsound sacrifice.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-05-07T21:02:16.217Z
Answers.Text: Not what I'm looking for.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Paul Burchett
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
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Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-05-07T18:00:51.333Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Andrew Lazarus
Answers.Body: <p>Paul B.,
  Good question. I'm possibly a 1000 rated player on a good day, fingers crossed. A few decades ago I was playing the black pieces against an unbeatable cafe player. I'd dropped acid.  Five moves into the game, he suggested I move my Bishop to b4. Then I started peaking, and I absolutely annihilated him - felt vibrating ley lines humming from all the squares and pieces. I knew with absolute certainty that I couldn't lose. Best game I've ever played, and the odd thing was that I beat the second-best player twice the next evening...? </p>
  
  <p>Sigh. Hick town, no chess here, not willing to drop acid and have elderly freakout even though, whew, I live next door to a trauma center...yuk, yuk. </p>
  
  <p>In short, you never know about mind expanding drugs and chess, (in fact the mind is endless,) but wow-what a ride!!!</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-10-15T06:38:04.330Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2020-03-04T20:16:12.640Z
Answers.LastEditDate: 2020-03-04T20:16:12.640Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: phedup
Body: <p>This might seem an odd question, however out of personal curiousity, are there any documented accounts of amazing feats by players while in an altered state of consciousness?  What I'm looking for would be something like attempts at drunken, blind, simultaneous chess.</p>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-04T21:20:23.963Z
Comments.Text: Does [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing) count?  (Note that I don't know that I've seen any examples of games - I just find the concept odd.)  _Edit_: Link is to wikipedia's chess boxing entry - apparently I failed my comment-fu.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Ghotir
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-04T21:25:41.060Z
Comments.Text: Although not what quite what I'm looking for, it could count, I suppose.  Getting beaten on can certainly cause one's perceptions to skew.
Comments.UserDisplayName: Paul Burchett
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-04T22:17:27.250Z
Comments.Text: Alekhine's condition during the 1935 match with Euwe.  Stories claim he was drunk or could hardly see throughout yet still played world caliber chess. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/alekhinealcohol.html
Comments.UserDisplayName: Mike Jones
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-05T12:38:59.103Z
Comments.Text: I've been reading Alekhine was the greatest blind player of his time.  It seems we might have a candidate in Alekhine.  Did he ever attempt blind simuls like this?
Comments.UserDisplayName: Paul Burchett
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-06T10:11:45.957Z
Comments.Text: If being dead counts as an altered state of consciousness, there is the famous Maróczy–Korchnoi game.
Comments.UserDisplayName: bof
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-06T15:57:10.850Z
Comments.Text: Alekhine gave a blind simul with 26 boards including Isaac Kashdan as one of his opponents.  16 wins, 5 losses, and 5 draws
Comments.UserDisplayName: Mike Jones
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2016-05-08T05:34:05.143Z
Comments.Text: bof - I wouldn't count that for many reasons.
  
  Mike Jones  - Was Alekhine known to be under the influence all the time?  If so, this would be a good example.  Of course, 26 boards at once is no easy matter, and I don't mean to trivialize this accomplishment!
Comments.UserDisplayName: Paul Burchett
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 4.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2020-03-04T23:10:32.520Z
Comments.Text: Interesting question ... I've sometimes wondered if there are any incidents in chess similar to when Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates (US baseball team) threw a no-hitter while tripping on LSD (yeah, that really happened...).
Comments.UserDisplayName: patbarron
Tags: <history>
Title: Amazing chess feats while in altered states of consciousness
ThreadText: # Amazing chess feats while in altered states of consciousness
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2016-05-04)
  
  This might seem an odd question, however out of personal curiousity, are there any documented accounts of amazing feats by players while in an altered state of consciousness? What I'm looking for would be something like attempts at drunken, blind, simultaneous chess.
  
  **Tags:** history
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: Does [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing) count?  (Note that I don't know that I've seen any examples of games - I just find the concept odd.)  _Edit_: Link is to wikipedia's chess boxing entry - apparently I failed my comment-fu.  
  > **username_0**: Although not what quite what I'm looking for, it could count, I suppose.  Getting beaten on can certainly cause one's perceptions to skew.  
  > **username_2**: Alekhine's condition during the 1935 match with Euwe.  Stories claim he was drunk or could hardly see throughout yet still played world caliber chess. http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/alekhinealcohol.html  
  > **username_0**: I've been reading Alekhine was the greatest blind player of his time.  It seems we might have a candidate in Alekhine.  Did he ever attempt blind simuls like this?  
  > **username_3**: If being dead counts as an altered state of consciousness, there is the famous Maróczy–Korchnoi game.  
  > **username_2**: Alekhine gave a blind simul with 26 boards including Isaac Kashdan as one of his opponents.  16 wins, 5 losses, and 5 draws  
  > **username_0**: bof - I wouldn't count that for many reasons.  username_2 username_2  - Was Alekhine known to be under the influence all the time?  If so, this would be a good example.  Of course, 26 boards at once is no easy matter, and I don't mean to trivialize this accomplishment!  
  > **username_4**: Interesting question ... I've sometimes wondered if there are any incidents in chess similar to when Dock Ellis of the Pittsburgh Pirates (US baseball team) threw a no-hitter while tripping on LSD (yeah, that really happened...).  
  
  ---
  
  ## 5 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_5 on 2016-05-05. Score: 6
  
  I don't know if this counts, but here is a story (unfortunately only in Norwegian) about the former president of the Norwegian Chess Federation, Jøran Aulin-Jansson, who in his youth played blitz for 92 hours straight: <http://www.nrk.no/sport/92-timer-med-sjakk-i-strekk-1.6589371>
  
  In 92 hours and 26 minutes he played 701 games and won 549 with 32 draws.
  
  He explains how accidentally eating a rotten chicken kept him awake during the third night.
  
  At one point he hallucinated about spiders crawling up his leg. I guess that qualifies as "altered state of consciousness".
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Sleep deprivation definitely counts.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_6 on 2016-05-06. Score: 2
  
  Tal wrote in his biography that once he had a complex adjourned position and that night he dreamed the solution while sleeping. When he woke up, he remembered the dream and knew what to do. He wrote that this was the only time such a thing had ever happened to him.
  
  Playing chess while under the influence of recreational drugs or alcohol generally has very bad results, speaking from experience. You generally play at a significantly lower level. The only exception is that sometimes a very small amount of alcohol, like one drink, can sometimes be beneficial because it calms you down a little bit. So, if you are all wound up and nervous before a tournament game, a beer can be the antidote.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_7 on 2016-05-06. Score: 1
  
  Chess games and matches played while drinking alcohol in particular are easy to find if you go back in history a bit. The one that immediately comes to mind are the matches [between La Bourdonnais and McDonnell in 1834](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Bourdonnais_%E2%80%93_McDonnell_chess_matches) in which La Bourdonnais won despite reportedly spending much of his time between moves drinking, smoking and gambling on other games. Perhaps this is not a 'feat' in the same manner as a massive simul or so on, but these were arguably the two strongest players in the world at the time and so could be considered a de-facto world championship match.
  
  And also as in one of the comments to the OP, Alekhine also played many of his games while drinking heavily, apparently including his 1933 World Championship match.
  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_8 on 2016-05-07. Score: -1
  
  Does it count when it is the opponent? I defeated a GM in a simul (I am a low 1800) just by playing passively until he had imbibed several mugs of "tea", at which point he essayed a grossly unsound sacrifice.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Not what I'm looking for.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_9 on 2016-10-15. Score: -1
  
  username_0 B.,
  Good question. I'm possibly a 1000 rated player on a good day, fingers crossed. A few decades ago I was playing the black pieces against an unbeatable cafe player. I'd dropped acid. Five moves into the game, he suggested I move my Bishop to b4. Then I started peaking, and I absolutely annihilated him - felt vibrating ley lines humming from all the squares and pieces. I knew with absolute certainty that I couldn't lose. Best game I've ever played, and the odd thing was that I beat the second-best player twice the next evening...?
  
  Sigh. Hick town, no chess here, not willing to drop acid and have elderly freakout even though, whew, I live next door to a trauma center...yuk, yuk.
  
  In short, you never know about mind expanding drugs and chess, (in fact the mind is endless,) but wow-what a ride!!!
  
  
  ---
  
  