Chess Boxing is like a modified version of traditional boxing. It is a hybrid sport that contains elements of chess (sounds weird) and boxing. This unique game was invented by French comic book artist Enki Bilal and later it was adapted by Dutch performance artists Lepe Rubingh as an art performance. By no means it is an unknown sport, it has substantially grown as a competitive sport.
The game is quite popular in Germany, UK, India and Russia. Surprisingly, these countries even have federations to run this game, which makes it apt to say that soon we are going to see this game as part of famous sports events like the Olympics.
Object of Chess Boxing
The object of this game is to beat your opponent either in chess or boxing alternatively. The same rules applied in Chess and Boxing as an individual game are applied here.
A Chess Boxing match consists of 11 rounds, 6 rounds of Chess and 5 of boxing. There are multiple ways to win the match. In general, by winning the most points in all 11 rounds combined, you can win the match.\
How to Play?
Chess Boxing is played in different bouts, in each bout players either do boxing or play chess against each other. The rules applied in Chess and Boxing games remain the same here with any player knocking out or checkmating his opponent wins the game. The fouls in Boxing and Chess remain a foul here too.
However, there are some rules regarding the time limit of each bout and what are the penalties you can face if you deliberately delay the next move. You can learn everything by reading General rules of Chess Boxing.
General Rules of Chess Boxing
- Both players must know the rules of both games, Chess and Boxing.
- During chess games, players use headphones to be not able to hear any advice from the audience.
- After the end of the one round of chess, the position of the chess is digitally recorded and the next round of chess begins with the same arrangement.
- The boxing goes on in a traditional way, you get points for clean punches.
- If a boxer has been knocked out during any round, the match ends and the opponent is declared winner.
- Similarly, if a player has been checkmate in Chess during any round, the opponent will be declared winner.
- If the referee disqualifies you from the game due to continuous infringement of the rules, your opponent will be declared the winner.
Time Duration
There are 11 rounds in total and each round consists of 3 minutes. A 60-second break is given after the end of every round.
Chess Boxing Ring
A Chess Boxing match takes place in a traditional boxing ring, during boxing rounds players fight against each other in the same way they do in Wrestling.
For Chess games, two chairs are placed on either side of a small table and the game of Chess is played over it.
Playing Equipment
The equipment required for Chess boxing is a set of Chess and protective equipment to be used while boxing like head cover, gloves and guards to protect the sensitive parts of the body.
Winning & Point Scoring
The match only goes down to the number of points if no player has been knocked out during the Boxing or Checkmate during chess. If any of these two incidents occur during the match, the winner is decided at that point. But if nothing occurs, then the number of points given by judges/referee decides the winner.
Draw in Chess Boxing
There are no draws in Chess Boxing, if the match goes on till the end without any knockout in boxing or Checkmate in chess, and both players have the same number of points, then the player who used the blackchess pieces will be declared winner.
Referee
A referee stands in the ring during boxing round and sits alongside the two players during the chess game. His job is to ensure that no player gets seriously hurt during the fight and if a player is severely injured and not in the right state to continue fighting, he has the right to give technical knock-out. Moreover, he is the same referee who supervises chess rounds and ensures that no player deliberately wastes time.
Referee
A referee stands in the ring during boxing round and sits alongside the two players during the chess game. His job is to ensure that no player gets seriously hurt during the fight and if a player is severely injured and not in the right state to continue fighting, he has the right to give technical knock-out. Moreover, he is the same referee who supervises chess rounds and ensures that no player deliberately wastes time.
Famous Chess Boxing Events
The first Chess Boxing Championship was held in 2003 in Amsterdam and uptill now, it is the most anticipated Chess Boxing event that takes place with a 2-4 year gap. Countries like India, Russia, Italy and England have dominated this tournament right from the start.
Governing Body
The World Chessboxing Association is the governing body for the sport and it was established in 2013. All international events like the World ChessBoxing Championship are sanctioned by the WCBO. The association is affiliated with the UK ChessBoxing Association, Spanish ChessBoxing Association, RUssian ChessBoxing Organisation and Italian Chess Boxing Federation.