On 23rd July 2024, at the historic (over 130 years old) and famous venue L’Olympia in Paris, there has been an event of chessboxing as part of the Cultural Olympiad. Organised by Guillaume Salançon it was named 6th IFC and comprised of two fights, one male and one female, which were preceded by a couple of dance shows. The theatre was packed: about 2,000 spectators watched the chessboxing event.
The two fights, both valid for a World IFC title were: Sneha Waykar (India) vs Kenza Megzari (Paris, France) and current world champion Karl «Ouch» Strugnell (United Kingdom) vs Valentin «Chauffe» Marcel (France).
This in Paris was a very important day for chessboxing: as Volfango Rizzi said in November 2023, now chessboxing is out of the pioneers phase and has moved into the young adult phase. This event that has brought chessboxing towards the organisation of the Olympic Games, in a major European capital, in front of such a public, is another step towards the recognition of the importance of this combined sport.
The day at the L’Olympia was impressive: starting with the weigh in done in a beautiful room in liberty style. During this, Carl and Valentine produced a very interesting (short) discourse on chessboxing, that could also be considered Strugnell’s legacy to the sport and, also, the passage to a new generation of chessboxers. You can watch it here below:
The first fight, out of 7 rounds, was won by time default in the third chess round by Sneha Wakyar who was also leading both in chess (her opponent, Kenza Megzari, had one illegal move made) and in boxing (her opponent was counted twice in the first boxing round). The second match, out of 11 rounds, was won by KO in the second round, the first boxing round of the match, by 32 years old Valentin Marcel over 43 years old veteran Carl Strugnell.
The personnel involved:
The winners of each match were given the traditional IFC crown, made with chess pieces. To hand the prize to the winner of the female fight was the professional boxer, former French Champion, Sofia Nabet. For the male fight it was world famous artist Enki Bilal, from whose inspiration chessboxing was born.
The show was presented by two French television celebrities: Benjamin Morgaine and Vincent Desagnat. The two referees were the Italian Volfango Rizzi (chess) and the French Nader Baraia (boxing). The three judges-time keepers were: Thomas Cazeneuve (Chessboxing World Champion), Joseph Galert (Germany), Jules Moussard (2023 Blitz French Champion). The commentators were: Ludwig Ahgren and Matt Thomas for the English language and Kévin Bordi (known as Blitzstream) and Lara Armas (WCBO President and former chessboxing World Champion) for the French language. Very big was the team that helped to create the event, here the names of some of the people involved: Ninou, Pierre, Jean, Andy, Mona, David, Paul, Julien, Jeanne, Marine, Ivan, David, Basile, Orazio, Corentin, Hugo, Thomas, Swann and Yann.
Streaming:
There was no live streaming of the event and we were requested not to divulge information about the event until tonight when IFC released the video of the event, which can be watched here below:
Photo gallery pre-event (by SPQeR and the most beautiful nine by Yann Castanier):
Thomas asd Kèvin.
Maestro Enki Bilal.
Sneha Waykar with her trainer Madhavi Gonbare.
è una rivista bimestrale, che tratta esplicitamente di scacchi, rugby, pugilato e scacchi-pugilato.
Include, inoltre, la rubrica “altro”, in cui, in aggiunta a temi come l’aromaterapia e i giochi, viene offerta la
possibilità di sviluppare, in maniera coinvolgente, vari argomenti d’interesse generale.
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