Introducing Diving Chess!
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!
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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.
Discussion and Feedback
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@yesenadam: Your comments are too negative. Sure, this is a bit of a gimmick. But generating publicity for our great game and other boardgames is not easy. Diving Chess looks like fun and shows chessplayers can be creative. No-one will confuse this for serious chess, but it might attract some who previously only thought of chess as a stuffy pastime or chessplayers as joyless individuals who never having fun! My thanks to Albert (and I guess Ilfeld?) for highlighting this unusual variant.
The spanish version of this, strangely, says 'by Etan Ilfeld' and in the lead paragraph says "el "ajedrez-buceo" ha sido inventado por el hombre de negocios y artista londinense Etan Ilfeld. Recientemente se disputó el Campeonato del Mundo de Ajedrez Buceo y, claro, también participó el inventor." ("diving chess" has been invented by the businessman and London artist Etan Ilfeld. Recently the World Championship of Diving Chess was contested, and naturally the inventor also participated.") It also says he's the main organizer of the event, the Mind Sports Olympiad, which isn't mentioned in this version, nor the fact that it's on right now. So this is a disguised press release huh.
Sorry to bug you again Albert, mostly I do like your stuff on here. :-)
Sorry to bug you again Albert, mostly I do like your stuff on here. :-)
If you want to try here is a tournament next saturday near Maranello (Italy). Maybe you can play diving chess and then visit Ferrari Museum
http://www.club64.it/public/eventi/242/Chess%20Diving.pdf
http://www.club64.it/public/eventi/242/Chess%20Diving.pdf
no pgns..?
Funny, I was just reading about this the other day on Lost on Time. Your story - or is it an Ilfeld press release - doesn't mention (I didn't watch the videos) that Ilfeld invented this game. I was bracing myself for the phrase "chess master" but amazingly it doesn't appear. Thanks, I presume you chopped it out yourself. Much appreciated. Unless Ilfeld has changed his approach..
[thinks] Hmm what's a sport I can invent and give myself gold medals in...
[thinks] Hmm what's a sport I can invent and give myself gold medals in...
...when retards cant play clasic chess
swqag
Looks great. Until someone dies.
Quatsch
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