Chessboxing: A sport born out of a comic championship
Fond of chess and boxing both? If yes, then chessboxing is the right sport for you. Wondering what kind of game that is? It is a hybrid sport that combines chess and boxing. Wait, so that means you also box while playing chess? Well, no! It is just that you need to be well-skilled at both and there are alternate rounds of each of them after which the winner is declared. Let us tell you more about how this high-energy game came into existence and how it is played.
Born out of a comic cartoon
So who invented such a rigorous game? Well, the first chessboxing event was put up by the Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubsingh in 2003. Rubingh's idea to create a new sport fusing the two disciplines, chess and boxing, originated from the 1992 comic Froid Equateur, written by the French comic book artist Enki Bilal, which portrayed a chessboxing world championship. However, there was one thing different in this comic championship: The opponents fought an entire boxing match before they faced each other in a game of chess. Rubingh thought this to be a little impractical in real life and therefore, included alternating rounds of chess and boxing and a detailed set of rules and regulations in his event.
How this hybrid sport is played
So let us tell you how this game is played. The event is typically held in a standard boxing ring with standardised amateur boxing equipment and rules. The rounds of chess are also played in the same ring with the chess table, board, and seating being moved in and out of the ring for each round.
The objective of the game is to either beat your opponent in alternate rounds of chess or boxing. A match consists of eleven alternating rounds of chess and boxing, starting and ending with chess (6 rounds of chess and 5 rounds of boxing) unless the contest is stopped with a winner in a previous round. The match begins with a four-minute round of chess. The players then go into the ring for a three-minute round of boxing before again returning to the chess board with 1-minute intervals between rounds. The chess rounds are played under time control and essentially speed chess, with a total of nine minutes allotted to each player and no increment added to either player's clock after a move is made.
How to win? You can win by checkmate or knockout. Or you can also win by time penalty as in normal chess, or by boxing decision, if there is a draw in the chess round.
Who are the governing bodies of this game?
So, like every sport has an international governing body, chessboxing is regulated by the World Chessboxing Association and the World Chess Boxing Organisation. The sport is particularly popular in the United Kingdom, Finland and Russia. The game is also present in India. It made its way in 2011, when The Chess Boxing Organisation India was founded by former Indian kickboxing and karate champion, Montu Das. India affiliated with the WCBO soon after.
What do you need to be a chessboxer?
A boxer who can think strategically or a chess player who can throw a punch, quite a rare combination. This is a sport requiring both brain and brawn. A chessboxer must have strong skills in both chess and boxing for getting an entry in a professional chessboxing fight. An Elo rating of 1,600 in chess and a record of at least 50 amateur bouts fought in boxing or another similar martial art, are required for your entry into the competition. Also, it is not a normal chess game but speed chess; the skills required in speed chess are different from those for chess using classical time controls.
That said, it is not just the competence in both games that will win you the trophy but your ability to withstand the constant switch from a full-contact sport to a thinking game, round after round. After three minutes of boxing, participants have to face each other at the chessboard barely having taken a break, and have to then think tactically and perform calmly. This switch gets increasingly difficult for the athletes as the contest progresses. And therefore, a specialised chessboxing training is used to practice these skills, in which physical interval training forms are combined with speed chess games.