8/20/2016 – Chess variants come in all shapes and sizes. While most involve variations on the actual rules of chess, such as replacing pieces captured (crazyhouse), adding new pieces (Grand Chess), some try to include it under very unusual circumstances such as the famous Chess Boxing. One variant, already running for a few years now, is Diving Chess, played underwater, and in which your thinking time is determined by how long you can hold your breath!
new: ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2022
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training!
Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
The new Opening Encyclopaedia offers fast access to all openings. Openings are sorted via the menu by name & ECO Code for fast and easy access to your favorite openings.
€99.90
The rules are fairly simple, albeit with a twist. The game itself is a normal chess game, except it is played in a swimming pool... at the bottom! Classic pictures of chess players playing on a floating board abound, but this is one variation that is far more challenging.
Bobby Fischer (pictured here in LIFE Magazine) was a fan of swimming and has many photos in a pool and underwater...
... and while there are famous images such as the one above, playing against Larry Evans in Reykjavik in 1972, they are played on the water, not under.
In Diving Chess, the entire game takes place underwater with the board, designed especially for this, at the bottom. The water is essentially chest high and each player takes turns diving under the water to make their moves.
Although informal games are held anywhere at anytime, the aficionados have put together a 'World Championship' each year for several years now. In 2015, the image above, it was held in Third Space Gym in Soho, London.
Each player can only think as long as they are able to hold their breath. Once you’ve made a move and come up for air, your opponent must dive and cannot come back up until they’ve played a move, and then it’s your turn to dive again…
This brings to fore some tactical aspects. Since the rules stipulate you must dive as soon as the other player comes up, one way to pressure the opponent is to play quickly, leaving them less time to recover their breath.
Another technical aspect is using weights. Even if you think spending 15-20 seconds underwater is no big deal, it can become a lot more challenging if you have to make an effort to stay under water. Even diving up and down, combined with constantly holding your breath, can soon become tiresome.
In the 2016 Diving Chess World Championship, Rajko Vutatovic explained that some of his rivals tried to pressure him by playing quickly. Imagine you held your breath for a full minute, calculating your move, and five seconds after you came up, still gasping a bit, you are forced to dive under again.
In spite of the competitive side to this all, it is ultimately still all about having fun in a pool with an original twist on chess
A short video with excerpts from the 2015 edition. Special kudos to the videographer who filmed it underwater!
Players from the 2015 Diving Chess World Championship. James Heppell (England) took gold, followed by Etan Ilfeld (USA) with silver, and Alain Dekker (South Africa) with bronze.
Short video of the 2016 Diving Chess World Championship
In the 2016 edition, gold was shared by Rajko Vujatovic and Etan Ilfeld who scored four wins and one draw (against each other), and bronze was shared by James Heppell and Paul Rosario
Many thanks to Etan Ilfeld for sharing this with us.
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.
The new Komodo Dragon 3 engine has gained 100 Elo points in playing strength over its predecessor when using a processor core in blitz. That's a huge improvement for a program that already reached at
an Elo level of over 3500!
FIDE Grand Prix 2022: Esipenko, Giri, Vidit, Oparin, Predke, Shankland, So and Vitiugov comment + videos by Rogozenco. "Special" on Bent Larsen. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Ragger and Marin. 11 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire!
The new Opening Encyclopaedia offers fast access to all openings. Openings are sorted via the menu by name & ECO Code for fast and easy access to your favorite openings.
Throughout my playing career I have found the Hedgehog one of the most difficult type of positions to master. The basic aim of this video is to improve understanding of these complex positions and to help tournament players score better.
Studying this video course should greatly improve the viewer’s handling of dynamic pawn positions! As with all my other video courses material here is predominantly aimed at improving players and tournament players.
€29.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.