[announcer]
{00:36-00:41} ‘'So the position is still better for black here. Black is a piece up''
 
[voice-over] 
{00:42-00:54} It's Friday night at the Columbia Hall in Berlin, fight night. Today Chessboxers from all oer the world get together to determine who is the strongest, in chess and boxing.

[interview]
{00:55-00:56}‘'I love it!''
{00:56-01:01}‘'You know, fighting and thinking at the same time, about playing chess, it's very hard''

[voice-over]
{01:05-01:09} The founder is Dutchman ‘Iepe Rubingh', who lives in Berlin.

[interview]
{01:10-01:37} ‘'We're in the Columbia Hall. It's a legendary hall where the American army used to play basketball and it's great to bring sports back in the Hall''. We bring a combination of the number one thinking sports with the number one fighing sport, so it's chess and boxing. 6 rounds of chess with 5 rounds of boxing, 3 minutes of chess, chessboard goes out of the ring, you box for 3 minutes, if you survive the chessboard comes back and you continue the same game. You win by checkmate or knock-out, whichever comes first.

[voice-over]
{01:57-02:20} Originating from Crooswijk, a neighbourhood in Rotterdam where boxing is very popular. Iepe Rubingh loved boxing and chess. He wanted to combine the two. He contacted the Dutch chess association and the Dutch boxing association to create a set of rules and a year later he organised the first chessboxing event in the Paradiso Hall in Amsterdam.

{02:29-02:36} Now, it has become an international sport. Tonight in Berlin there are contestants from around the globe.

[announcer]
{02:40-02:48} ‘'Men will fight. Kings will fall. By the end of the night, one will stand before all.

 [interview]
 {03:22-03:33} ‘'This is Carl, a fighter who has come over here, to Berlin, for his first match outside the UK and, you know, we hope he's going have a good fight tonight against his opponent who is an Italian.''

{03:37-03:55} ‘'About an hour ago I was on the nerves, but now I've warmed up and I fell back into my routine. But the worst is the pre-fight stress,  the whole day of doing nothing, knowing your fighting. And it's going around a thousand times in your head. But now I'm actually doing it, it's like, okay, let's get it on tonight''.


[announcer]
{03:57-04:02} ‘'Ladies and gentlemen. From Wales, Carl Strugnell!

[voice-over]
{04:02-04:08} In the middle-weight category, Carl fights and plays chess against the Italian Guiseppe Grasso.
{04:31-04:57} The contrast is the hardest. Boxing involves adrenalin, testosterone and aggression. But chess requires control and tempering the adrenalin. A high pulse rate. The reflex is to fall into attack mode behind the board, just as in the boxing ring. In chess that is not necessarily the best strategy. While playing chess, the players listen to the peaceful sound of a waterfall.
{04:58-05:07} The sport is growing rapidly. There are now teams in Russia, Iran, England, Italy, France and in large numbers in India.

[interview]
{05:09-05:20}‘'So, more than one thousand chessboxers in India and within 2015, 2016, we have a target for five thousand chessboxers in India.''

[announcer]
{05:22-05:35} German: Some need to focus on boxing, others on chess, like Carl. Only 10 more seconds this round.

[voice-over]
{05:36-05:42} Carl's aim is now to survive the next round of boxing and then finish the fight on the chessboard.

[announcer]
{05:43-06:00} ‘' Now F5 is coming to avoid checkmate in 1. But this means definitely that Guiseppe has to search for his chances in the boxing, because Carl Strugnell has proved by now that he is definitely the better chess player.''
{06:02-06:03} ‘' Third ronde: Boxing''

{06:11-06:30} ‘'What we have here on the chessboard is a definite advantage for white, for Carl Strugnell, who is a piece in front.  What we do have, we have the Fred against the black king. Ohhhhh.. Fight is over!!!!''

{06:33-06:39} ‘'Der gewinner in der schach match in der fünft runde: Carl Strugnell!''

[interview/gesprek]
{06:44-07:17} ‘'I'll tell you the truth. When I was young I didn't have a great self-confidence and all this, like, you know, little kids, I was a chess player living in the suburbs. So it's a difficult neighbourhood and when you're a chess player it's not the coolest thing to be. So basically I'm happy with doing the boxing to reconstruct my own self-confidence and it's helping me just feel better about myself, so why not? You know, I mean as long as it's positive, go for it!''