[herendin]

It sounds like focusing so hard on the rating might be bad for his quality of life, by preventing him playing 'fun' tournaments.

Edit : He can try to game the ratings system by looking for high-rated opponents who he knows will not play as well as their ratings suggest for some reason (like illness or personal issues). But he doesn't seem the sort to enjoy this

[jackdh]

Is it not possible to go to a tournament and have it not affect your rank? Or is every tournament ranked all the time?

[sgjohnson]

It is. If the tournament is not organized by FIDE, or a national chess federation, it won't affect your FIDE rating.

It will also not affect your FIDE rating if the tournament is not organised to the required standard (which is basically nonexistent for under-1800 rated players, and going all the way to the required presence of International Arbiters, metal detectors and blood tests for top level play)

[bongobingo1]

> metal detectors and blood tests

What are they looking for? Communicators and ... Adderall? Xanzolam?

[sgjohnson]

> What are they looking for? Communicators and ... Adderall? Xanzolam?

Probably not Xanzolam, because there's no way it'd enhance your performance, but yeah, you get the idea.

[bagacrap]

has Adderall been shown to enhance performance or is this a preventative measure to protect player health?

what else do they check for? caffeine is probably helpful and not banned. LSD (microdosing)? Galantamine? If there are nootropics that can legitimately enhance high level chess play why aren't we using them on our top scientists and engineers?

[seanhunter]

Here are the official FIDE anti-doping regulations, which include the justification https://old.fide.com/fide/fide-anti-doping-regulations.html

Tl;dr: They use the world anti-doping agency list.