Diving Chess: A Chess Hybrid You Didn't Know Existed
INTRODUCTION
Chess, in itself, is a grueling game. It requires a combination of mental sharpness, strength, and stamina to calculate lines and seek out tactics for long periods of time. It is a tough (but fun) challenge to play.
In recent years, chess hybrid sports have been on the rise. These hybrids are created when chess is combined with a popular sport involving physical activity to create a new sport. They add another difficulty to the already difficult game of chess and it is very entertaining.
The most popular example of a chess hybrid is chessboxing, a sport where players alternate between playing rounds of chess and rounds of boxing. It has been around for a while, but recently it has been gaining some serious attention.
Everyone knows about chessboxing, but what most people don't know is that chessboxing is actually not the only chess hybrid that is played on a professional level. In this blog, I present to you diving chess, a fascinating hybrid sport where chess is played underwater.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Since the year 1997, a competition called The Mind Sports Olympiad (aka the MSO) has taken place annually in England. This Olympiad brings together some of the best players in the world at many different challenging mind games and disciplines and allows them to go head-to-head. These games include poker, Scrabble, speedcubing, and yes, chess. It is essentially the Olympics but for mental sports.
One of the many contestants in the MSO over the years is a man named Etan Ilfeld. Etan is a man of many talents, being an accomplished entrepreneur and also a master of pretty much any mental sport you can think of. Most notably, he is a USCF national master in chess (@knightleap), winner of the Amateur Poker World Championship at the MSO in 2010, and in recent times has taken up backgammon and even participated in the 2023 Backgammon World Championships. Due to his many successes in the mind games world, Etan was hired to work as the chief organizer of the MSO and became one of the leaders of the Mind Sports Organisation (UK).
In 2012, Etan had a bright idea, and being the entrepreneur that he is, he decided to put that idea into immediate action.
Etan's idea was diving chess, a sport that tests brain power and lung capacity. He had been intrigued by chessboxing. He loved the idea of combining physical activity with the mental activities in chess, but he felt that chessboxing placed a bit too much emphasis on the physicality of boxing. He wanted a sport where chess was at the center, but the physical aspect still made it a more difficult game. And that's exactly the kind of sport he created in diving chess.
In 2013, diving chess was added to the Mind Sports Olympiad as one of the many mind disciplines being played. The Diving Chess World Championship has been played each year since then (excluding the COVID-19 years) and today, it is still included on the schedule of the MSO each year.
(Courtesy of mindsportsolympiad.com)
A typical diving chess match is played between two people in a swimming pool. The players take turns diving underwater to examine the chess position. Once they make their move, they resurface and it is then their opponent's turn to immediately dive down and make a move. The game is won the same way as a normal chess game, by either resignation or checkmate.
The physical challenge of the game is that the players must remain underwater, holding their breath until they make their move while also battling the often freezing-cold pool temperature. Players also typically don't have much time to regain their breath, as the moment they have played their move and resurfaced their opponent dives down and quickly responds with theirs.
If a player resurfaces without making a move, they will be given a strict warning. If they have received multiple warnings or do not have a proper excuse for resurfacing early, they will be forced to forfeit the game.
The pools that diving chess tournaments are played in are usually around 4-5 feet deep. The boards and the pieces that are used are weighted and magnetic so they don't go afloat. Players are not allowed to wear wetsuits, snorkels, weights, and other things that could assist them underwater. They are strictly limited to wearing only goggles and a swimsuit.
There are so many levels of difficulty here, but at the end of the day, you're still playing chess and you're winning on the board. That's the beauty of the game.
- Etan Ilfeld
Every sport has its star players, and although diving chess is still a growing sport, it is no different. There are numerous major diving chess tournaments played in Europe each year that feature many of the world's top players. Here are some current diving chess players who have emerged as the best of the best in these tournaments.
The winner of the most recent Diving Chess World Championship back in August 2023 was a Polish man named Michal Mazurkiewicz, who successfully defended his world title after having also taken gold in the 2022 Diving Chess World Championship. He has established himself as the current final boss of diving chess.
But perhaps more impressive than Michal's back-to-back diving chess world titles is something that happened this past April when he remarkably set a world record by completing a large-scale chess simul underwater and winning 80% or more of the games. He played diving chess against 16 people at once and finished with a 13.5-point score with 12 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss (his only loss was at the hands of an International Master named Piotr Brodowski).
Michal is an accomplished standard chess player as well, currently holding the Candidate Master title with a FIDE rating of 2224. Although he hasn't been very active in the classical chess scene, he recently made a mini-comeback when he stunned the playing field and took first place in the 2024 Salento Open.
Another big diving chess tournament is the Dutch Diving Chess Championship, which has taken place for the last two years in the Netherlands as part of the Chess Festival Groningen. The first-ever edition in 2022 was won by the favorite, Dutch grandmaster Sipke Ernst, after he drew in his final game with a 28-year-old FIDE Master named Zyon Kollen to secure his victory. If Sipke's name sounds familiar, it's most likely because he was Magnus Carlsen's opponent in Magnus's infamous Immortal Game back in 2004! He has made a name for himself throughout his years, though, racking up big accomplishments in standard chess and now at age 45 venturing into the world of hybrid chess.
The second edition of the Dutch Diving Chess Championship was played this past December, and it came down to an exciting playoff game to determine first place between the defending champion Ernst and Zyon Kollen. Zyon ultimately got his revenge and prevailed in a close finish, upsetting GM Ernst in the final game to take home the 2023 Dutch Diving Chess title. It was an impressive performance for both players. It will be interesting to see what the next chapter is in the Sipke-Zyon rivalry!
Yep, you read that right... our good friend Etan is making another appearance on the blog. He not only invented diving chess, he also happens to be very good at it. He has consistently scored in the top 3 at the Diving Chess World Championship over the years, winning silver five times and winning gold in 2016 and 2017. I'm not sure there's anything that Etan isn't good at 🤷.
Diving chess is truly a uniquely brilliant hybrid sport and it has been my privilege to get to introduce it in this post. I was delighted when I saw that there weren't any write-ups on the subject yet on Chess.com and instantly knew that I wanted to be the guy to make one.
I hope you learned something from this blog because I certainly learned a lot while writing it. If anyone happens to know a ton about the topic and can fact-check me on something or give additional information, I would love for you to speak out in the comments.
For now, that's all folks.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. Cya next time! 
