In a recent report, the American Chess Association moved to ban all performance-enhancing drugs from its competition. According to the spokesperson of the ACA, the move was made as a step toward getting the International Olympic Committee to recognize chess as an event that awards medals in the Olympic Games. If the IOC approves the application, then we won't need any more proof to show that the IOC has lost its mind.
To begin with, practically everything can enhance performance in chess. Even coffee can "enhance" performance by keeping one alert. We will have to ban all "brain food" as it could improve a competitor's brain function. To prevent any consumption of "brain food," we'd have to keep competitors from eating hours before a match. That's just inhumane. Perhaps watching the players preparing for the match, where they go nuts trying to find the right diet and a good amount of rest, would be more fun than watching the match itself.
More importantly, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Olympic motto "Faster, Higher, Stronger?&qupt; Where does chess fit into that? At least one can get points for making great leaps in ballroom dancing.
If chess was to be included in the Olympic games, then enthusiasts of checkers, dominos, and board games could soon follow suit and make lobbies of their own. The Olympic games could easily become an unwatchable event. I don't know about you, but I certainly don't have the attention span required for watching a chess match wire-to-wire. I know, I am on a slippery slope here, but the thought of watching chess as an Olympic event scares me.
While we are in the madness of putting new events into the Olympics, why don't we consider getting the IOC to recognize ultimate as an Olympic event. At least in ultimate, players have to run "faster," jump "higher," and bump "stronger" to retrieve a frisbee. People will actually watch a frisbee game. We won't have to make coffee a banned substance. We won't have to leave the friendly confines of our place to see two giants fighting for a frisbee, and best of all, the participants don't have to be world-class athletes or need to have an IQ of 150+ in order to compete. So join the crusade and lobby to get ultimate into the Olympic games. That way, we can have an ultimate game in an ultimate event.
Jason "the Screamer" Lau