14 DAY TRIAL // Combining chess with boxing may seem unusual, but the hybrid sport grew on people for the last 10 years, showing that head-to-head battling can be done both ways, by intellect and by muscles, all in one game.
With eleven rounds a-game, the Chessboxing match has six rounds of chess and five of boxing, each lasting for three minutes. After each boxing round, the competitors may rest their bodies and catch their breath while concentrating on their chessboard moves.
The emerging sport is somehow contradictory, chess is about brains and boxing is about muscles, and many may believe it hard to find the two of them in one person. Well, this idea combines the two sports despite all odds and shows that competitors can both think and act fast, even if it is quite hard to clear your mind for chess after getting some strong punches in the ring.
The game seemed to have made an impact especially in Russia, chessboxing enthusiasts organizing a series of major matches in Moscow. “Boxing and chess are in the Russian blood, you have a lot of champions in chess and in the ring,” Ipe Rubingh, the first hybrid sport world champion said according to Russia Beyond the Headlines.
One of the Chessboxing World Championship's stars is Nikolay Sazhin, known as the Knight from Krasnoyarsk, who holds the heavyweight title and a strong interest for chess since childhood. In this year's match, he confronted the Italian player Gianluca Sirchi. Sazhin won and gained people's admiration after proving that the power of the body and the mind can work together.
Chessboxing is believed to be one of the world's most demanding sports and its origins can be traced back to 1970's south London gym battles. Its popularity has grown slowly but steadily, and it has gathered followers all over the world, with a special interest in Eastern Europe.