The idea of chessboxing was originally born in the mind of French artist and director Enki Bilal.
He published his idea in the science fiction comic book Cold Equator in 1992. In the story, the comic's hero fights for his life by participating in boxing and chess matches.
The idea was implemented based on the plot, somewhat later by Ipe Rubing. The man, being himself not a professional athlete. By his initiative and efforts, the International Chessboxing Federation (WCBO) was created, says Evgeny Zubkov .
After the foundation of which, a championship was held. In 2003, the first World Champion was the founder Ipe Rubingh from the Netherlands. He also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the first World Champion in chessboxing.
This unusual species began to actively develop in different parts of the planet, gradually gaining more and more adherents of this exotic symbiosis. Actively gaining popularity.
What is so attractive about this combination?
The main thing is that it is a unique, complex sport that develops two completely different components: intellectual and physical development. Something that is rarely balanced. These vectors form fundamental things in life that concern many areas and situations.
By acquiring chessboxing skills, a person receives full physical development, boxing technique, the ability to think strategically, make decisions quickly, develops memory, combinatorics, and the ability to find urgent alternative options.
The rules of a chess boxing match are as follows: a match lasts 11 rounds. The first round and the rest of the odd ones take place at a chessboard and last 4 minutes. Even ones, three minutes, in a boxing ring. Victory can be achieved by knockout/technical knockout or checkmate on the board.
And also, by surrendering the opponent or by running out of time in a chess game. If the game ends in a draw and there is no knockout in boxing, the victory is determined by points in the boxing rounds. If there is a draw in boxing, the victory goes to the player with the black pieces.
In a situation where one of the opponents does not make a move on the board for a long time, a warning from the chess arbiter may be received. A repeated warning leads to disqualification.
The Russian chessboxing movement began with the Siberian Chessboxing Federation in Krasnoyarsk. Its founder, Vladimir Makarov, learned about the discipline on the radio. Then, through a search engine, he entered the term "chessboxing" and found the contact of the founder, Ipe Rubing.
Through his daughter, who knows English, he wrote to him. At that time, federations existed only in a few countries, and Rubing suggested that Makarov head the Russian movement. He himself began promoting Russia's interests in this direction. And in 2008, Russian student Nikolai Sazhin entered the fight for the title of World Champion, where he won in this event.
The first world championship in Moscow took place in 2013. There Nikolay Sazhin confirmed his title of world champion.
In 2020, the Russian Chessboxing Federation (RCF) was created, which served as an intensive pace of development of this sport in many regions, the opening of chessboxing clubs and halls throughout the country, an increase in the number of people involved and winners of various competitions throughout the country and in international meetings.
In addition to face-to-face tournaments, online competitions have also been introduced into practice, where pupils of the Russian Federation also demonstrate excellent results. On December 16, 2024, the World Chessboxing Fit Championship was held in an online format, with 107 participants from 16 countries taking part.
The Moscow team was represented by 2 people and both became world champions: Evgeny Vorobyov and Denis Orlov.
The prospect of this relatively new and unusual sport is very interesting, more and more people in the world are getting acquainted with it and are interested in it, entering the path of chess boxers. Popularization and development is going at a high pace, there is an active consideration of chess boxing as an Olympic sport.
Earlier we talked about why you want to eat fried eggs .
Expert: Evgeniy Zubkov
