Where to, Parker. Issue 5 | Summer 2017

The promoter of tonight’s show is Tim Woolgar.
From a boxing club in Crouch End, he runs chess
boxing classes and, at various venues around
London, stages a handful of events every year. There
are plans to expand the sport nationwide.
“It has started to take off big style,” he says,
pointing to the 700 or so fans present at his season
finale. “I fully expect sponsors to be knocking on my
door in the near future.”
The fact that over 100,000 viewers streamed
his event live through the internet is bound to help.
As is a future deal to put the sport on one of the
Freeview channels. Woolgar is also involved in a
London-based governing body called the World
Chessboxing Association.
He claims the sport first started in 1978 at a
youth centre called Samuel Montagu Boys’ Club
in Kidbrooke, in southeast London. But there’s
a rival governing body, the World Chess Boxing
Organisation, in Berlin, which points to more recent
origins. Its president, Iepe Rubingh, claims he
invented the sport after reading a fictitious account
of it in an early 1990s comic book.
Whatever the truth, one thing is certain: chess
boxing is growing internationally. Woolgar has
affiliated members in six nations, while Rubingh has
them in 11. The latter has over 1,000 members, stages
around 1,500 fights a year, and is in the throes of
establishing a professional league.
Back at York Hall, Drach and Bent are still
going hell for leather. During the boxing rounds,
it’s Bent, sporting a mullet and a skimpy pair of red
running shorts, who looks far more confident. In the
intervening chess rounds both players struggle to
calm their bodies after the exertion of the boxing.
Wearing headphones to block out the noise of the
spectators and the chatter of the commentator, they
breathe deeply to steady their heart rates and focus
on tactics. They have already exchanged their queens
but, soon, Drach finds himself in a very vulnerable
position, with fewer pieces to call upon. Eventually,
in round seven, he’s forced to resign, reluctantly
knocking over his king to concede the match.
It was brains rather than brawn that won the
match this time.
London Chessboxing events are staged at York
Hall, E2 9PJ.
www.londonchessboxing.com
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