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: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Benko Gambit is back at the very highest level - and it's easy to see why. Black sacrifices a pawn to seize the initiative on the queenside, obtaining long-lasting pressure, active pieces and open files that make life difficult for White.
€39.90
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, 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 as well as the author of Typing Tomes, a powerful typing program.
@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.
yesenadam 8/22/2016 06:44
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. :-)
wolf_george 8/22/2016 06:18
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
kartik_ramkumar 8/22/2016 03:14
no pgns..?
yesenadam 8/21/2016 11:12
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...
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Benko Gambit is back at the very highest level - and it's easy to see why. Black sacrifices a pawn to seize the initiative on the queenside, obtaining long-lasting pressure, active pieces and open files that make life difficult for White.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
Chess is a concrete game. There is no way around training your calculation skills. Improve your visualization, pattern recognition and learn calculation techniques such as reciprocal thinking with this course.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
€19.90
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.
