Board in the ring? It's chessboxing.

World championship is in Berlin this weekend. Six rounds of speed chess, five rounds in the ring.

By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the November 2, 2007 edition

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London - Andreas Dilschneider was still thinking about his opening moves on the chessboard when his opponent rushed up to him and punched him. Several times.

Mr. Dilschneider didn't complain. It was all perfectly legitimate. He threw a few punches of his own. When he got back to the chessboard, he was laboring and the adrenaline was pumping. He tried to keep calm and avoid hasty moves. Four minutes later, it was back into the boxing ring again.

Welcome to chessboxing, a young and intriguing sport that prides itself on its incongruous mix of muscle and mind, the pawn meets the brawn if you like. Think jab with your right, counter with your queen.

The rules are simple: six rounds of speed chess interlaced with five three-minute rounds in the ring. Each competitor has 12 minutes in total on the chess timer. Victory is by knockout, checkmate or resignation, or failing any of those, by points-based scoring system.

If it sounds surreal, it is to a certain extent. But it is growing in popularity, particularly in Germany, eastern Europe, and Russia.

And this weekend, an American will compete in the World Championship Final for the first time when David Depto, a pharmaceutical salesman from San Francisco steps into the ring to take on Frank "Anti Terror" Stoldt, a German, in an arena packed with perhaps 1,200 devotees.

"At the beginning, people thought it was absurd, but we are getting bigger and bigger and starting to work in a commercial direction with sponsors," says Dilschneider, a contender for the European crown two years ago.

Subtlety and belligerence

He says the attraction lies in the apparently contradictory combination of the belligerent science of boxing with the intellectual subtleties of chess.

The rapid movement from one to the other poses problems.

"The problem is adrenaline," he says. "It can bring you to the point of overestimating positions. After the first boxing round, don't make fast moves – try to slow down. And try to make the last move before the boxing so your opponent has to make the first move afterward."

Depto, a pharmaceutical salesman who has boxed for 12 years and played chess since he was 6, says it's no good being very strong at one discipline and weak at the other.

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