Boxing training for Freestyle stars

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Text: Denno Probst (Chessboxing Cologne)

Chessboxing Cologne trains with Fabiano Caruana at the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge

From 9th to 16th February the first Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T. Challenge took place in Weissenhaus, right on the picturesque Baltic Sea beach in Schleswig-Holstein. Denno Probst, Refik Latifi and Martin Neu from Chessboxing Cologne were there and gave several days of chessboxing seminars for the best chess players in the world.

Chessboxing Cologne in Weissenhaus

The chess elite sat at the board every day from 1 pm and played exciting games. One evening, at 6 pm, world number two Fabiano Caruana actually came to the Chessboxing Cologne chess boxing training session. They practised moves and discussed chess boxing strategies for excellent chess players. In the evening, the dialogue continued over dinner.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Denno Probst

The 19-year-old Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov also joined the training session and surprised Denno and Refik with his solid boxing technique.

Here are some insights into the Cologne chess boxing team's workshop in the form of an Instagram video that has been played well over 10,000 times.

You can also watch a 2-minute video from Weissenhaus introducing the Chessboxing Cologne team on YouTube.

Martin Neu, Junior World Chess Boxing Champion 2023, was on site and describes his impressions in a personal article on his chess club website.

The event was broadcast on numerous channels, here is the livestream of the final.

Magnus Carlsen has won the tournament and further cemented his reputation as the best chess player of all time.

Magnus Carlsen and Martin Neu

The coverage took place on many channels and, according to tournament director GM Sebastian Siebrecht, the event had a reach of 150 million viewers.

Also worth mentioning this week in the world of chess boxing was the appearance of 2017 World Chess Boxing Champion Matt Thomas on a huge advertising banner in New York's Times Square (photo).