Mumbai: In competitive sport, athletes frequently look for ways to evolve and reinvent. Siddhant Nath Jha took it several notches further.
Once a budding chess player who gave up the sport briefly in Class 9 to focus on his academics, Jha decided to get back to the board, this time while donning boxing gloves.
Enter, chess boxing.
Just over a year after taking up the fusion sport, the 20-year-old is set to compete in the seventh edition of Chess Boxing World Championship in Loznica, Serbia from September 23.
“It is a sport that tests both the brain and brawn,” Jha, who started training for boxing specifically for the hybrid sport, said to HT.
Chess boxing, which combines two traditional sports, was invented in the 1970s in the United Kingdom. It was acknowledged by the International Chess Federation in 2008. Around that time, it started to gain popularity as chess boxing clubs emerged across the United States and Europe.
The game’s presence online, too, has been growing. Which is where Jha first saw it.
“I was into fitness and worked out a lot,” he said. “Then when I saw chess boxing online, I thought this might be interesting. That’s when I decided to take it up.”
A standard chess boxing match is played over five rounds - alternating between three of chess and two of boxing. Each round lasts three minutes each with a one minute changeover between disciplines. The match ends if there is a checkmate in the chess round or a knockout in boxing - whichever comes first. In case there is no clear result, it comes down to whoever is losing on the clock in the last chess round.
{{/usCountry}}A standard chess boxing match is played over five rounds - alternating between three of chess and two of boxing. Each round lasts three minutes each with a one minute changeover between disciplines. The match ends if there is a checkmate in the chess round or a knockout in boxing - whichever comes first. In case there is no clear result, it comes down to whoever is losing on the clock in the last chess round.
{{/usCountry}}The turnovers, Jha explained, are crucial. There is just a minute to leave the ring and get to the chess board, remove the boxing gloves and headgear in the process. At the same time, the player has to reset mentally.
“It requires a lot of conditioning,” he said. “Chess players always have chess on their mind. Even if they have just finished a game, they’re only thinking about that. But you can’t do that here. You have to clear your head and go into the ring.”
You can’t, after all, be thinking of your next chess move when you’re dodging punches.
Chess, crucially, is Jha’s forte. The third year Bachelor of Arts student at the Kiroli Mal College is captain of Delhi University’s chess team and led them to the gold medal in the north zone championships, and silver at the All-India University Games in February.
“The main thing to identify before a tournament is what needs to be improved,” he explained. “Right now I’m practicing boxing twice a day at an academy, with morning sessions dedicated to strength and conditioning.
“But I train in chess by myself most of the time. I do ask a few friends for help sometimes though.”
Boxing is comparatively his weaker discipline, but he has built a steady defense to ensure he doesn’t get knocked out.
“Boxing is a bit more explosive in chess boxing because it’s only two rounds of it,” he said. “If my opponent is a strong boxer, I know he will not be that great in chess. So I have to work on my defence to make sure I survive the boxing round and go for the win on the chess board.”
The strategy has served him well so far.
In his first appearance at the nationals, held in Kerala last year, he won two gold medals and a silver. He returned with that same tally at the Asian Championships as well, which earned him a spot at his first World Championships.
Through his progress in the fusion sport, he has also found keener support from his family. His parents, Sachindra and Supriya, are artists and were apprehensive about him taking up boxing due to the brutal nature of the contact sport.
“My mother especially thought it was very dangerous,” he said. “They were not keen on me taking up sports, but when I got into a good college, it changed. Now they support me more.”
While he has found his feet in a sport that is still at quite a nascent stage, there were thoughts of getting back to the more established - and currently booming - chess.
Jha, as a child, had competed and won several tournaments across the country when he played chess. He even holds a chess rating of 1757 in standard chess (although it is inactive). But he does play rapid tournaments as and when he can.
He has a rapid chess rating of 1797 and 1735 in the blitz format.
“I do practice chess a lot and participate in many events,” he said. “The only thing is that the growth in chess mainly happens at a young age. But I had stopped playing at that time.”
Now his time is consumed by the new sport. He plays his chess with his hands taped up, sometimes with a gum-guard still in his mouth. All the time ready to switch the board for the ring, and then back again.