Checkmate or KO: training a Danish star to face world champion

Last Thursday, Oktoberfist took place in London. If you haven’t come across chess boxing before, it sounds like complete nonsense. Chess and boxing? Together? How? Why?

On the face of it, it is bonkers: punching each other in the face, then sitting down for a quiet game of chess. But that’s the beauty of it. Both are one-on-one battles, both are deeply strategic and mentally gruelling, and boxing just happens to be a bit more physical. Chess Boxing Nation describe it as “a wild mix-up of two of mankind’s oldest sporting obsessions.”

Here’s how it works. A chessboard is carried into the ring and the fighters play a four-minute round of chess (each player usually has around ten minutes on their clock for the whole game). Then the board comes out, the gloves go on, and they box a round. And so it goes, back and forth, until someone wins on the board, often by the opponent running out of time, or wins in the ring.

Enter Peter Falktoft

Peter Falktoft is one of Denmark’s best-known radio and podcast personalities. He made his name co-hosting a hugely popular satirical radio show, and now hosts one of the country’s most popular podcasts. For an upcoming TV series, Peter has been throwing himself into a run of unusual sports. He’d already survived a medieval Danish contest involving swords and armour, and his next adventure was chess boxing.

Peter is actually a decent amateur boxer. His chess, on the other hand, was somewhere close to zero. So CheckMate Experiences were called in to give him a crash course.

We kept it to the essentials: Scholar’s Mate (the four-move checkmate), castling (crucial for keeping your king safe) and the value of the pieces (yes, a queen is better than a pawn). Normally you’d worry about someone’s chess when they’re competing the next day in front of hundreds of people, and many more watching later on Danish TV. Honestly, though, I was more worried about the boxing. His opponent was Dina Thorslund, undisputed bantamweight world champion, famed for her nasty body shots. Peter was in deep.

Fight night

Oktoberfist was brilliant. A massive, rowdy crowd chanted “chess!” while the Berserker, a odd man in chequered trousers, face paints and a wolf mask, stomped around whipping everyone up. I knew a few of the fighters on the card and there were some really tight, exciting bouts, but I was waiting for the headliner. We weren’t disappointed.

Dina definitely took it easy on Peter in the boxing, and he just about made it through a couple of rounds. The chess, meanwhile, was genuinely entertaining. Nothing gets a crowd going like a queen left hanging for three moves in a row. After some hairy play on both sides, including a few illegal moves, Peter found checkmate! Unfortunately, it was played after the bell had gone to end the round, so it didn’t count. Unsurprisingly, he didn’t make it through the next round of boxing.

When I caught up with him afterwards he was in good spirits, and happy to report that he hadn’t broken a rib. I like to think I helped his chess, at least in some small way. He was a lovely bloke, and it was a great experience spending time with him and his film crew.

If you fancy going to a chess boxing night yourself, keep an eye out for upcoming events at chessboxingnation.com.

Towards the end of the game when Peter began to add more pressure to Dina’s king.