A Fusion of Mind and Might: Chesswrestling Festival Takes Down Minnesota

Editor's note: Sofia Doroshenko is a senior at Macalester College, where she recently organized the first Chesswrestling Festival. In the lead-up to this event, US Chess had the pleasure of interviewing Sofia for our YouTube channel. In this article, Sofia shares her experiences an organizer and participant in this unique and exciting sport. Follow Sofia on YouTube for more chesswrestling content, and more information about chesswrestling (including the rules) is included at the end of this article.

Last year, national master Ionatan Giurgiu showed me a chessboxing video between WGM Dina Belenkaya and Andrea Botez, after my adamant refusal of it being a real sport. The idea of dominating your opponent physically and mentally appealed to me, but I didn’t see the connection between the two sports. Since I started wrestling in high school, it had always been called “body chess,” as wrestling, like chess, demands evaluation of numerous options, setting up complex chains of moves and counters. In contrast, boxing relies on a narrower set of actions — jabs, hooks, and defenses — lacking the same branching decision-making and strategic depth.

From that moment on, I always had the idea of "chesswrestling" in the back of my mind.

When I worked at the Charlotte Chess Center instead of studying for my chemistry finals, I asked Belenkaya if she would do it again, to which she firmly replied, “No.” It was simply too dangerous. Most chess players, including myself, shared the same sentiments, which ended up stunting chessboxing's potential growth.

Noticing that people loved the idea yet were scared to actually participate, for fun, Giurgiu and I hosted a chesswrestling tournament last year. It was received more enthusiastically than we had ever imagined, with the same recurring theme of audience members who had little understanding of either sport enjoying the fast pace of the event. Those with experience in both brought their wrestling shoes, hoping we might take some last minute participants. Strangers who had seen us on the news and Chess.com emailed, asking when we would host the next one.

After the extensive planning required for last year’s event, I was uncertain whether I could take it on again, especially with academic commitments competing for my time. When I organize an event, I commit fully or not at all.

With this in mind, I hesitated until I mentioned it in passing to local IM John Bartholomew, who immediately offered to commentate. Uptown Chess Club organizer Pablo Jones generously pitched in his videography services. Famous Olympic wrestler Jake Clark recognized me at an open mat and mentioned he had some interested wrestlers who were also chess enthusiasts. With such support, how could I refuse?

The next few days, I pestered Ionatan to use his computer science skills to help me build a website, and we brainstormed how to perfect the event. For one, we needed a DGT board instead of a plain chessboard at the front. Little problems like these were ironed out quickly, as I had a background in a variety of chess “fields” such as DGT board operating, TDing, and event planning. “What else do you want – a circus?” Ionatan laughed, as I told him I wanted to find a way to make the non-chesswrestling audience feel more involved.

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Organizers Sofia Doroshenko and Ionatan Giurgiu standing next to National Arbiter Jiten Patel, as John Bartholomew and Max Steigauf look on (Photo courtesy of CBS News)

Of course I wanted a circus. After complaining one too many times that most chess events labeled as “festivals” simply consisted of a chess tournament and perhaps a blitz tournament or lecture on the side, here was the way to remedy the lack of chess-themed entertainment. Out of these thoughts, the Chesswrestling Festival (March 1st-2nd) was born on Macalester’s campus in St. Paul, Minnesota.

The Chesswrestling Festival  included a two-day chess tournament, a simul with IM John Bartholomew, and of course, chesswrestling! After the first day of over-the-board combat, the players were treated to an exhibition of how the ancient grappling sport mirrored the strategic intensity of chess.

How does chesswrestling work? Players start the chesswrestling match with a three-minute chess game, then move to a two-minute round of wrestling. They alternate rounds until there is a winner in either one. See my full instructional video for more details, and an explanation of scoring in wrestling is included at the bottom of this article.

On March 1st, competitors played two rounds of a 60+30 Swiss tournament, where, between rounds, they were provided with hand-picked puzzles, taken directly from Giurgiu’s book in progress: Best Moments from 100,000 Chess Engine Games.

“This one is devilishly hard,” Ionatan Giurgiu warned Andrew Titus (another national master) after he’d spent fifteen minutes dissecting the position. The solution can be viewed here.

After some hints, Titus solved the position and deemed it fit for a 2100 player. On March 2nd, Titus took first place in the two-day Swiss!

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Andrew Titus playing William Murphy (Photo courtesy of Sofia Doroshenko)

That evening, everyone migrated over to the Macalester Gym where IM John Bartholomew welcomed everyone and explained the rules of the simul while the wrestling mat was set up nearby.

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Caption: IM Bartholomew deciding what to play against Hua (Photo courtesy of Johnny Harbieh)

Out of the ten participants, Bartholomew lost only one game to Charles Hua, unaware that he was rated 2151 and a national master. When asked what occurred in the game, Charles timidly responded, “Um, I just got lucky.”

Nearby, another exciting game unfolded where John Bartholomew sacrificed a rook for a knight in order to remove a defender from his opponent’s king. Unfortunately, this sac was unsound, and the position was much better for Black, if only he took with the correct pawn! However after an incorrect defense, Bartholomew managed to get a big attack which won him the game against Eddie Wasserman.

In this first official chesswrestling tournament, the ten players consisted of local Minnesotans with skill sets in chess, wrestling, or both! When choosing the participants, my goal was to have all levels of wrestling and chess (900-2215). A few of the participants were people I had wrestled often at Macalester, or at off-campus practices, while others had applied to compete online. Some participants, such as Michael Haybe (1850), had only a few months to learn how to wrestle.

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Heavy-weights (left to right): Caleb Dettmer, Logan Leybold, CJ Yoon, Michael Haynes (Photo courtesy of Johnny Harbieh)

As the first chesswrestlers were introduced, the audience, full of Minnesotans attracted by the first news story on CBS began murmuring about what strategies they should try. With CJ Yoon’s high experience in college wrestling at Macalester, and Caleb Dettmer’s 1989 rating with a background in BJJ (Ju Jitsu), they were sure that CJ would be dragging out the chess match to reach the wrestling and that Caleb would attempt to play strange opening moves to confuse his opponent. With the DGT chess board at the front, wrestling mat in the back, and commentators at the side, the chesswrestling began!

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Mason Mangoiat (left) and Trevor Wang (right) move to the wrestling (Photo courtesy of Sofia Doroshenko)

CJ tried to gauge Caleb’s chess speed at first, but he quickly realized he needed to slow down to get more wrestling matches. Once the three minutes of chess elapsed, CJ found himself in a situation where he needed to win the two-minute wrestling match or risk returning to a losing position on the board. He hurled his hoodie to the floor and ran onto the mat, ready to hand fight with Caleb the moment the referee yelled, “Wrestle!” They moved each other around every inch of the mat, trying to find a hole in the other’s position — an arm open too wide, a leg placed too far forward — anything was fair game.

At the commentators’ table, IM Bartholomew was pumping his fists while commentator Max Steigauf calmly explained that Caleb was diving for the legs, knocking his opponent off his feet and forcing him into the defensive. CJ managed to get up, but a moment later, Caleb wrapped his arms around the wrestler’s waist and executed a throw, leaving him on his knees. The match only lasted around a minute, leaving Caleb the victor.

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Photo courtesy of Johnny Harbieh

The competition had a variety of such cases, where the competitors had more skill in either chess or wrestling. For instance, Giurgiu, who was paired with Phoebe Thomas (a more beginner Macalester wrestler), managed to win on the mat while, for the last match, your reporter decided to have some fun and see how long I (146 lbs) could survive on the mat against 220 lb wrestler Logan Leybold (another Macalester wrestler). Logan Leybold played 1. g3, attempting to sit back and avoid any tactics in the opening, but allowing me to take the center with 1. ... d5. “Very balanced,” Bartholomew commented as Logan was being especially careful for a 1200-rated player, developing his pieces and avoiding interacting with mine. With thirty seconds left on the round clock, Max added, “Sofia is looking flustered,” as I was attempting to put pressure on a pinned piece in order to complicate the game enough for him to blunder. However, Logan didn’t fall into any traps set, and we moved into the wrestling portion.

“Sofia doesn’t have the weight advantage here.” Max shook his head, as Logan tried to immediately push forward on my shoulders. I lowered my level, attempting to go under his grip and grab a leg (or, a "shot," in wrestling terms). However, he dropped his hips onto my head, keeping me at bay by wrapping his arm under mine. I spun around to get his weight off me and got up after some hand fighting, now in position around his head to execute a throw. Unfortunately, he didn’t budge, and if I had switched to a different move instead of spending an extra second trying to muscle my way to complete it, I might have avoided being picked up off the ground like a sack of potatoes on camera. However, I managed to avoid getting both shoulders pinned, lasting long enough to move back into the chess match.

Logan, disheveled and exhausted, but knowing he could hold out until the next wrestling match, soon blundered a queen, allowing me a chance to win. However, three minutes was not enough time to checkmate, as there were too many pieces around his king. In the wrestling portion, I desperately went for a throw, then faced him and dragged his arm by instead to create another opening, attempting to win more than to defend. “If she had strategized before, she might have stood a better chance,” National Arbiter Jiten Pitel, who was monitoring the chess side, said to the audience after Logan won.

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John Bartholomew’s first impression of Ethiopian food. (Photo courtesy of Sofia Doroshenko)

Over some Ethiopian food after the event, players and volunteers shared their impressions of the event, Bartholomew exclaiming, “I can see how wrestling is similar to chess!” as both chess and wrestling are individual sports that require thinking more than one move ahead. In chesswrestling, this means that the competitor must strategize on the chessboard while also managing their physical endurance and composure on the mat. 

Chesswrestling Breakdown

Chess Round:

• Players start with a 5-minute chess game.
• After 3 minutes of play, the game pauses.

Wrestling Round:

• A 2-minute wrestling bout ensues.
• The objective: pin your opponent's shoulders to the mat for 3 seconds to win.

Alternating Rounds:

• The cycle repeats: 3 minutes of chess, 2 minutes of wrestling.
   

How to Win

In Chess:

• Checkmate
• Opponent's time running out
• Opponent's resignation

In Wrestling:

• Securing a pin (holding opponent's shoulders to the mat for 3 seconds)

Draw

• If a draw occurs on the chessboard, the remaining wrestling bouts continue with a 30-second rest in between. If no pin occurs, the winner will be determined by wrestling points.
   

Wrestling Point System

Takedown: 2 points
A move where you bring your opponent down to the mat and gain control.
Example: Shooting for your opponent’s legs and driving them to the ground.

Escape: 1 point
When you free yourself from your opponent’s control and return to a neutral position.
Example: Breaking their grip and standing back up.

Reversal: 2 points
Turning the tables by moving from a defensive position (being controlled) to an offensive one (gaining control).
Example: Rolling your opponent over to take control after they’ve taken you down.

Near fall: 2 points
When you almost pin your opponent by holding their back close to the mat for a short time but don’t secure the full pin.
Example: Getting their shoulders within inches of the mat without holding them down for the required 3 seconds.