The event promoted by London Chessboxing sees Mark “The Hammer” Pilkington, from England, take on Italy’s Sergio Leveque in the first quarter-final of an 8-man elimination series* culminating in June 2014.  Other contenders include Italy’s reigning European heavyweight champion Gianluca Sirci, the UK heavyweight champion Andy Costello, Russia’s current reigning world champion Nikolay Sazhin and three more names yet to be announced.

Nikolay Sazhin (left) winning his world title against Andy Costello in March, 2102 

The World Chessboxing Association has been created by London Chessboxing founder Tim Woolgar in response to the rapid international spread of the sport and the need for a unifying organisation to act as a worldwide sanctioning authority.

Says Woolgar: “The WCBA will enable the creation of world champions at all weight categories which will provide a tremendous boost to the sport’s global popularity.  In addition the WCBA’s  Code of Conduct, which all members are required to uphold,  emphasises competitor safety and promotes equality in all its forms throughout the sport.

“The WCBA is a non-profit organisation and affiliates are not charged any fee to join. Instead we will actively seek to help groups to expand and popularise chessboxing in their region, by freely sharing expert knowledge and if necessary providing resources and equipment.  Chessboxers around the world are a geographically disparate group unified by a shared set of values.  The WCBA represents a platform and meeting point for all chessboxers to come together, work together and plan the future together as a family.”

Affiliation to the WCBA is available upon application via the website www.worldchessboxing.com to persons or groups responsible for organising and promoting chessboxing in their area.

*WCBA Heavyweight Title Elimination Series

Quarter Final Round

Bout 1 : Mark Pilkington Vs Sergion Leveque – June 8, 2103 Scala

Bout 2: Gianluca Sirci Vs Nikolay Sazhin – October 19, 2013, York Hall

Bout 3: Andy Costello Vs TBC – October 19, 2013, York Hall

Bout 4: TBC Vs TBC – December 7, 2013, York Hall

Semi-Final Round

Bout 5: Winner bout 1 Vs Winner bout 4 – March 29, 2014, Shoreditch Town Hall

Bout6: Winner bout 2 Vs Winner bout 3 – March 29, 2014, Shoreditch Town Hall

Final

Winner bout 5 Vs Winner bout 6 – June 7, 2014, Venue TBC

The current reigning world champion Nikolay Sazhin remains the de facto title holder until the conclusion of the tournament unless he is defeated in which case the title becomes vacant until the conclusion of the tournament.

Interview by Fayola

Andy “The Rock” Costello  

Andy Costello is arguably the UK’s most conditioned chessboxer.  As a pro MMA fighter Andy knows how to work a ring and rarely leaves the crowd disappointed even drawing blood in his last match.

We caught up with Andy to find out how he ended up chessboxing.

How did you get into chess boxing?
I got into chess boxing when I heard about it through a friend who’d seen it on TV. As luck would have it, my discovery coincided with Tim Woolgar holding a launch event to introduce the sport to the UK.

You are a pro MMA fighter, do you think this gives you an advantage in the ring?
To be an MMA fighter you need to know boxing, but it’s one of several martial arts that should be in your toolbox. This actually puts me at a disadvantage if I chessbox a pro boxer, which I have in the past, because he only focuses on boxing for a living.
But if I’m fighting Joe Average, accountant by day, boxer and chess player by night then as a full time fighter I have an advantage.

What do you enjoy about the sport?
Conditioning is crucial for boxing and as a full time athlete mine is top notch. I’m also comfortable fighting, in fact I can relax a bit knowing that I’m not going to get my face smashed in, which is always a danger in MMA.
I enjoy doing something that combines two of my favourite pursuits and that sets me apart.
I also like the vibe that these events generate.

What is your strategy to win a match?
My strategy to win a match cards depends on the strengths and weaknesses of my opponent.

How do you prepare for chess boxing /what training do you do?
When preparing for a chessboxing match I do my usual day in day out MMA training.
I play online chess as much as possible and see my chess coach, Dom, for one to one instruction once a week.

Some have said it’s hard to master the transition from boxing to chess, how do you overcome this?
I don’t think I have a specific method of switching from one discipline to the other. I just try my best to get my head in the right place.

Have you got any advice for someone who wants to get into the sport?
I would advise anyone with no experience who wants to get into the sport to join a boxing club and a chess club, it’s up to you if you want to tell them why you’re learning to box. Expect some leg pulling if you come clean but they are a good bunch. The chess players will just be curious.
If you want to learn chessboxing combined, then contact Tim Woolgar – chessboxing’s debonair promoter.

This event is a charity event and we are supporting a range of charities:

• Percy-Hedley Foundation is a charity which supports children and adults with cerebral palsy and children and adults with speech, language and communication difficulties.
• Sara Charlton Charity Foundation is a new grant-making trust dedicated to helping victims of domestic abuse, including honour-based violence, in the United Kingdom.
• Sickle Cell Society is a UK based charity which provides care and information about sickle cell.
• The ChessBoxing Organisation is a charity dedicated to bringing boxing-fitness and chess coaching to young people in Britain.
• Chess in Schools and Communities is a charity that brings chess to inner city schools around the country.

The evening will feature university and professional bouts with food and drink served throughout the evening.

The organisers are currently seeking sponsors for the show with a variety of option. Says show organiser Lateefah Messam-Sparks: “We already have a few company sponsors on board with us including Asian Business Connexions as well as support from Newcastle University.  But it’s really important that we raise as much as possible for the good causes we are working for and so we are asking  for local people and businesses to get behind us and buy some tickets!”.

There are 320 seats and we are selling tickets on the city hall website: http://newcastlecityhall.org/event/chess-boxing-charity-gala/ .

Levels of sponsorship

Donating a gift for the raffle:  If you donate a raffle or auction prize we will mention you as a prize sponsor at the show and related media outlets.

Bronze Level (£300): As a bronze level sponsor you get a table near the front and VIP access. Other benefits are a mention in our brochure, mentioned on the organiser’s Facebook page and in media reports.

Silver Level (£500): You get the bronze level package plus one raffle ticket per person in your party.  There will also be a mention of the company business name as an official sponsor on the evening of the gala and further promotion and mention of your company through the University.

Gold Level (£500+): You get the bronze and silver level package plus a page spread in our brochure and another table available at the gala. Your company will also get 3 raffle tickets per person.

Lead Sponsor (Platinum level): As a lead sponsor you will get your company name advertised around the side of the ring and a double page spread for your company in our brochure as well as your company name advertised as the lead sponsor on all of our media posters and the back cover of our brochure. Your company will also get 5 raffle tickets per person and an open bar will be available throughout the night. We will only accept ONE lead sponsor for the event.

Auction

The show will feature a live auction of chess and sporting memorabilia as well as surprise luxury packages including a three day charter for up to 12 people, on board the luxury 86ft motor yacht ‘Lady Tatiana of London’ to be taken between 2^nd October 2013 to 30^th May 2014 (including Christmas, Valentines and Easter).  The yacht is a charter yacht with 3 professional crew members.  www.whitestarcharter.com

Other auction items include:

A chance to go to Hollywood, LA to audition in front of 25-30 agents and casting directors in either October 2013, March 2014 or July 2014. www.heyhollywoodherei.com

If you would like to know more about becoming a sponsor please email chess-soc@newcastle.ac.uk or call Lateefah on 07554887294.

I M P R O V E W I T H Y O U R N E X T M O V E

A career boost, increase in productivity and a better mood are all benefits to be gained. Take up the resurgent game and turn from a mere pawn to a powerful king

“THERE IS SUCH BEAUTY IN CHESS THAT YOU CAN GET LOST IN IT. IT OPENS PEOPLE’S MINDS, OF ALL AGES” 

Chess has existed in various forms since its creation as ‘chaturanga’ in sixth-century India. Since then it has baffled, frustrated, angered, enlightened and delighted millions of competitors. It’s the most played game in the world, growing in participation thanks to internet chess. Playchess.com, for instance, has hosted more than half a billion games on its servers.

So what’s the attraction? “If you study chess it will exercise your brain in all sorts of ways,” says Malcolm Pein, the Telegraph’s chess correspondent and head of the charity Chess In Schools & Communities. “You don’t need enormous talent to play or derive benefit from it. In fact, 99 per cent of people play it socially.”

The scientific stance cites the problem of ‘retrocausality’ – do clever people play chess, or does chess make people clever? But Fernand Gobet, professor of cognitive psychology at Brunel University (and an international chess master), believes there are advantages: “It teaches you to think before you act, to think about what your opponent is thinking – it’s a good exercise in mental agility.”

PROBLEM-SOLVING

The language of chess is so potent it has entered everyday vocabulary – stalemate, the endgame, mere pawn… Each game is a problem with an ever-changing solution. It requires lateral thinking, progressive thinking, diagonal thinking. David Howell, the youngest grandmaster in the UK (he was 16 when he achieved the status), says: “It’s said that chess improves pattern recognition. Logical thinking also helps tackle problems in a practical manner. Chess players are often good at puzzles and other board and card games, including poker.”

Paul Murphy, a senior web producer from London, has recently returned to the world of chess after a 20-year break from the board. He says: “The pleasure is in being presented with a tricky position and getting out of it, or turning a small advantage into a win. You learn patience, too.”

Will help you: ace a psychometric test.

CREATIVITY

“There is such beauty in chess that you can get lost in it,” says Daniel King, British grandmaster and chess pundit. “It opens people’s minds, whatever their age.” Many top masters believe playing style and approach reflects personality, and that a cleverly executed takedown is a work of art.

“Chess forces you to be creative and resourceful,” says Howell. “It enables you to look for new ideas and solutions in real life.”

Will help you: find a creative outlet.

MEMORY

Professor Gobet has estimated that in order to become a grandmaster, players need to learn half a million game patterns. For the casual player, remembering common openings and the strengths of each piece requires processing information in new ways. And chess has also been shown to stave off early onset of dementia.

Will help you: speak in public with confidence; memorising presentations will no longer seem so daunting.

CONCENTRATION

The longest ever game was played in 1989 between Ivan Nikolic and Goran Arsovic in Belgrade. It lasted 20 hours and 15 minutes, and ended as a draw. Even in shorter games, when you’re trying to calculate the outcomes your next move might lead to, it’s hard to think about anything else. Alistair Good, a professional poker player who took up chess 18 years ago, says: “Chess is so engrossing it holds your concentration during games which can last for hours. I find concentrating difficult and it helps focus my mind.”

Many online contests are over in minutes. Speed chess is a popular variant similar to limited-over cricket: there’s just less time to finish it in. “The high-speed aspect makes it more fun,” says Pein. “You have to be mentally agile to deal with it.”

Will help you: make fast decisions.

PLANNING AND FORESIGHT

Heavyweight boxer Lennox Lewis is a keen chess player. Before his 2002 bout with Mike Tyson, he told the Telegraph: “[Chess is] like boxing: there’s a strategy. You have to decide what move, or combination of moves, to use.” The effects of every move manifest themselves as the game develops. It’s not thinking one step ahead, it’s thinking 50 steps ahead. And the pursuit of chessboxing combines a mental workout with a gruelling physical one, alternating chess with rounds of fighting – see londonchessboxing.com for more.

Will help you: project-manage.

COMPETITIVENESS

Chess instils a warlike sense of contest. “You learn to be resilient,” says Professor Gobet. “If you lose games in a tournament, you must keep playing.”

Murphy says this applies to the amateur, too: “Lots of people play blitz chess socially, usually while drinking, where each player might only have five minutes to play all their moves. You’re banging your pieces down and you’re having to make quick decisions. It can be stressful but a lot of fun.”

Will help you: get an edge in team sports – losing is unthinkable. 

GETTING STARTED

So, keen to give the grey matter something to really get stuck into? If you’re a rookie (or haven’t played in years), start with a book to acquaint yourself with the basics. Chess.co.uk has a good beginner’s section, and there are some good smartphone apps (Pein recommends Learn Chess! With Maurice Ashley or Chess U) or a software program. “If you want to improve at chess it’s a good idea to play against computers, but not at the maximum level – you’ll be destroyed every time,” says Professor Gobet. “Find the level where you win, say, half of the games, and that will be more entertaining and motivating for you. Pick a program that will give you advice if you make a bad move.” Get practising and you might just be ready in time for the London Chess Classic.

But don’t forget that, despite the silences and cutthroat competitiveness, chess can be a convivial game. “Chess clubs are sociable places always on the lookout for new members of either sex and all ages,” says Murphy. “There is an association between chess and drinking – London club The Drunken Knights play in a pub by the British Museum.”

Chess In Schools & Communities is a registered charity that delivers chess to state primary schools in England and Wales; chessinschools.co.uk 

A thrilling night of Chessboxing ended with a victory for Spain over the Rest of the World by margin of 2 victories to 1.  The first bout of the night featured a late replacement in the form of South Korea’s Benny Kang who stepped up to the mark after London favourite Mike “The Bedfordshire Bull” Botteley was forced to pull out with bronchitis.

As he entered the ring Kang looked to be giving away a significant weight margin to his opponent Isidro Gete the master level chessboxer from Burgos in northern Spain who weighed in at 68kg. As the fight progressed Gete’s superior strength began to tell and his rapid, accurate chess-play meant Kang gained no respite in any part of the contest which finished in Round 4 with a TKO.

Next up was an undercard bout featuring two Chessboxing debutantes in Jack Page from Exmouth in Devon and Ricky Brown from London.  Both fighters at 75kg  have a strong boxing background but were taking their first steps in competitive chess. Despite their inexperience they put on an amazing and entertaining display under incredible pressure.  The bout was evenly matched, with the advantage swinging back and forth before finally finishing in the seventh round with a checkmate for Brown.

Returning to the main event, Danial Lizarraga (Spain) faced Vladimir Makarov (Russia) at 75kg.  Both fighters are rated around 1800 Elo for rapidplay and the crowd and with plenty of ring experience between them the crowd expected a long drawn out war of attrition. Instead it was all over very quickly in an explosive fourth round as Lizarraga burst out of his corner like a man possessed.  Makarov defended bravely but eventually he could no longer carry on and the referee stopped the contest.

All that remained was to see if Spain could manage a clean sweep as Jose Sanchez, who holds dual Spanish and Costa Rican nationality met Siberia’s 68kg Chessboxing champion Ravil Galiakhmetov.

Sanchez, coming off the back of an unfortunate points defeat in London in October, was determined to force a victory this time.  His plan was coming together nicely as he constantly managed to exploit his superior reach and movement to build up a points advantage while keeping up solid pressure on the chessboard.  Things looked increasingly bleak for Glaiakhmetov the longer the bout went on until, in a stunning turnaround in round 10, he landed a massive left-hook which caught Sanchez flush on the jaw sending him crashing to the canvas.  Sanchez gamely demanded the right to continue but a combination of referee and corner stepped in to prevent further punishment to the Spaniard.

It was a fitting end to a wonderful night of sporting action with brilliant commentary from GM Stuart “The Fox” Conquest.  The capacity crowd also showed immense enthusiasm for a guest commentary cameo from GM Ray Keene OBE.

Successful companies use time well. Successfully innovative companies use it very well. You could say that a consistently rich flow of creative time is the crude oil of 21st-century business. But having worked in the creative departments of several companies over many years, I’ve found that pure creative time is as slippery as an eel. Anyone who’s ever had to be creative on deadline knows how hard it is to get in the zone and stay there. And now you have to do it in this cacophony of streaming social feeds.

It’s fashionable to say that we’re living in the Creative Age, surrounded by ”creative industries” that make up a growing section of the global economy predicated on the commerce of intellectual property. In a recent global survey by IBM, 1,600 CEOs rated “creativity” the most valued trait for successfully navigating an increasingly complex business world.

Tim Bedfeldt: trainee lawyer

You have to ask, if creative thinking is such a lucrative–and elusive–commodity, what exactly is it and how can we bottle it? The answer I’m proposing lies in a hybrid sport called chessboxing.

But before we get into that, let me explain what creativity is from the viewpoint of my foxhole. Creativity is a coin with two sides. Heads is association–what happens when you open your mind to lots of different influences. Software entrepreneur Frans Johansson has called it the Medici Effect, based on the Medici family’s habit of bringing together sculptors, scientists, poets, philosophers, painters, and architects, which in turn sparked the creative explosion of the Renaissance. But that was then. Now we live in hyper-social times, when the loose and random association of things isn’t just routine; it’s a pandemic.

Sean Mooney (Goldman Sachs) V Bryan Woon (Citibank Group)

Tails is the emotional opposite–incubation. This is what happens when you close your mind and focus. Now all those loose associations are at the mercy of your subconscious as it slinks slowly and darkly through the deep. At some point–there’s no saying when–something will surface, something you hadn’t imagined, something maybe nobody ever imagined before, and if it survives the glare of daylight, that’s creativity. The apple that fell on Isaac Newton’s head didn’t contain a perfectly original idea; his head did, where it had been incubating all along.

Today’s world is obsessed with association. Anyone can free associate all day long just by going online. But unlike in the past, when lonely tortured artists waited for the Muse in Paris garrets, we now have to fight for the time to incubate. Incubation can’t happen here in the moment, where we do all our meeting, tweeting, pinning, chatting, and hyperventilating. And if we can’t learn to get out of the moment and single-task, the creative coin will devalue. So how to solve for this? How do time-bullied CEOs and their corporate officers, and the talent they work so hard to hire and retain, keep the innovation pump primed? This is where chessboxing comes in.

Competitors alternate between three-minute rounds of boxing and four-minute rounds of speed chess–winning by knockout or checkmate. The 19-year-old Russian math student who recently won a chessboxing world championship said, “You have to be totally cooled down in chess coming out of the boxing round. The adrenaline is the problem.” He won because he could toggle more efficiently between two opposed brain functions: fight-or-flight and prefrontal cortex cognitive processing. Sure, he was good with his fists and his pieces, but his brain moves were the ticket.

The sport is already being considered beyond the ring. With big followings in London and Berlin, it has been mooted as a preventive treatment for maladaptive and antisocial behaviors. Writing for Scientific American, Andrea Kuszewski has pointed out its potential value in education. As a behavior therapist working in schools, she suggests that the skill of task-switching might help with emotion regulation and could be used to counter bullying. And in the United States, the Hip-Hop Chess Federation advocates combining chess and martial arts as a way to teach kids the importance of strategy and nonviolence. But why stop there?

It’s easy to see how business would benefit from recruiting and nurturing a skill like this. The ability to flip the creative coin at will would mean mastering the use of time. In his book The Opposable Mind, Roger Martin writes that innovative thinkers have “the capacity to hold two diametrically opposing ideas in their heads.” He says, “Without panicking or simply settling for one alternative or the other, they’re able to produce a synthesis that is superior to either opposing idea.” Chessboxing kicks this can way down the road.

Let’s get chessboxing on art school and college curricula, where it can do the future workforce some good. After all, ambitious kids need to arrive prepared for the hurly-burly of business. For that matter, let’s make it a mandatory requirement for an MBA degree. And while we’re at it, let’s make it a fixture in the job description of everyone in the C-suite. In fact, next election season, let’s drop the debating and the negative advertising, and take it straight to the ring. And may the best woman win.

You can read the original article here

Enjoy an amazing challenge and compete at stunning venues in front of packed out houses including the Royal Albert Hall and London Olympic Pleasure Gardens. Events will be televised for broadcast on HD Satellite TV and live internet streaming.

Experienced competitors can earn £70 to £700 per night in purse money (no ticket selling required). Matches take place with under strict regulation with full medical supervision. Training provided. Competition is open to MEN and WOMEN aged 18 and above.

We will teach how to play chess and bring you up to a competitive standard within 1 month.
All weights and experience can apply.

Brains vs Brawn

Competitors wanted now!

Contact tim.woolgar@gbcbo.co.uk for more details.

Know someone who could be a chessboxer? We will pay £50 reward for every new chessboxer introduced to us in 2012.

International Chessboxing

VIP: £50 – includes generous supply of FREE cocktails from our friends at:

General Admission £20

Students £15

(CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS)

The International Chessboxing season opens at the Scala King’s Cross with five scheduled bouts featuring Europe’s top chessboxers.

The headline bout features Andy ‘The Rock’ Costello, Britain’s number one heavyweight contender, versus  Nikolay ‘The Siberian Express’ Sazhin.  This is a rematch following Sazhin’s close victory in his hometown of Krasnoyarsk in October last year.  Costello is a former top-10  UK cage-fighter while Sazhin is a veteran of over 100 bouts in the tough Russian amateur federation.  Both men are highly-rated chess players in their own right.

On a packed undercard we have the UK women’s lightweight championship with Carrie Morrow facing Ruthie “The Pink Machine” Wright.  Chris “The General” Levy is out for revenge against “The Bedfordshire Bull”, Mike Botteley after a narrow defeat last September.  We will also see debut performances from Biggles Bristol and Max Brown both from London and making his first appearance in the chessboxing arena, Budapest’s Attila “The Hungarian” Por versus Berliner Tim Bendfeldt.  With five fighters rated above 2000 Elo this is the highest quality chesboxing line-up ever assembled.

Giant digital screens plus live commentary by International Master, “The Incomparable” Malcolm Pein, means you won’t miss a move.

Sensational live cabaret performances, DJs and special guests.

Venue: Scala,  275 Pentonville Road, Kings Cross, London N1 9NL

Doors Open: 7pm

First Bout 7.45pm

Last bout starts: 10.30pm

After partyand DJs til 2AM

Tickets: £20 standard (£15 concessions). VIP £50 including Cocktails!

Price just £5!