Should i be reported for cheating ?

Hello everyone,

I have a medical condition (narcolepsia like), and for that i'm taking specific drug (cf my username).

BUT : Those drugs (similar to ritalin etc) are prohibited in chess tournaments, as they are considered cheating (since they increase wakefulness).

So, am I cheating ? Should my account be closed for cheating ? (as i play unfortunately with those substances).

Thanks :pray:

For OTB chess have a look into getting a Therapeutic Use Exemption from WADA or your national anti doping agency.
A "doping test" will proof that there are certain substances inside an athlete.
If they belong there (that is what the TUE paperwork is for) everything should still be good.

The most humiliating situation for an anti-doping official will be an athlete after a severe accident who is full of prescribed morphine but who still needs to be tested. This really does happen, example: YouTube documentary "The dark side of Cycling" about a life-threatening bike crash of professional cyclist Juri Hollmann and the aftermath of that, published on the confirmed official YouTube channel of Erik Zabel, seems to be German audio only on the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl2fPcroQFo

Actually even for otb tournaments it isn't necessarily absolute as athletes can apply for a Therapeutic Use Exemption (TUE) if it's required to treat a medical condition. For example Meldonium is used in doping in some sports but is also used to treat Angina and Heart Failure but it would be absurd to tell people they can't treat their medical conditions for a sports event.

At least in practice in otb events I think short of GM tournaments drug testing isn't really routine and if you advise beforehand of a specific medical condition it's normally permitted without issue as otherwise it would be discriminating against a disability and would be no different to barring entry to someone in a wheelchair.

For online events there's no practical way to test for drugs but if you're not entering events with cash prizes I doubt there's much need to worry about it.

Many thanks for your responses !!

I only play online, at 1500 elo blitz, so i think the harm is limited haha..

I can pretty much guarantee that at 1500ish level there's absolutely no interest in FIDE for drug testing. If you look at World Rankings it would place you around 480k mark and assuming it's even just $10 per drug test it would cost FIDE $5m per year. At 2022 Winter Olympics 3100 samples were collected and it cost $1000 per sample so using that cost FIDE would spend half a billion per year if everyone down to 1500s were tested.

At least in my experience I've never even heard of players getting tested randomly apart from at Olympiads or GM tournaments.

I'll also add that for players it's idiotic to engage in doping since it can often have unintended side effects if you take medication to boost chess performance without doctor's oversight. Any money spent on drugs is likely better spent on a coach and there's no reward worth putting your life at risk.

This is not cheating and there is no harm (in terms of sporting fairness) in taking those to treat your condition. Your health comes first under any circumstances, even in professional sport.

There is a difference between taking a substance to treat a medical condition vs. abusing it to gain an unfair advantage in sport, even if that substance is on the WADA prohibited list.