Chessboxing: 2020 World Championships awarded to Moscow.

Moscow has been awarded the 4th Chessboxing Amateur World Championships. Russia will be the third nation to host them after the first two editions have been awarded to Kolkata, India, the third to Antalya, Turkey.

The main organiser is Mr Rishat Sayapov, the Vice-President of the recently newly formed Russian Chessboxing Federation (RCBF). On 15th June 2020 the RCBF received official recognition by the Ministry of Justice of Russia and, Mr Sayapov – contacted by SPQeR – adds: “… and it will go further in its recognition”. He tells us that the official logo/poster of the Championships “will be ready in the near future”.

The Championships will be held in Moscow between 2nd and 6th December 2020.This year it will be particularly important due to the premature death of WCBO President, and chessboxing inventor, Iepe Rubingh: Mr Sayapov let us know that the IV World Championship will be held in memory of Iepe.

The Championships will start with an International Chessboxing Referees Seminar which it will grant a Referee Licence and a Diploma by the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO). This seminar has developed over the years from a very first edition in Spoleto in 2013, an international one in Kolkata in 2014, and then with further developments for judges and time-keepers with an International Seminar in Milan in February-April 2015 (you can see more pictures here).

While the referees, judges and time-keepers will train and will be examined, the athletes, arriving to Moscow, will undergo medical examinations and the weighting operations.

The current president of the WCBO, Mr Montu Das, tells us that this year the event will be organised in memory of Iepe. He adds that he hopes that “this fourth World Championship will break all the previous records in terms of numbers of chessboxers in the competition and of country represented”.