Chess players exhibit their conquest skills — and too their lung capacities — underwater at the World Dive Chess Championships.
The subaquatic chess tournament, which transpired on Saturday in London, showcased players taking turns diving underwater to produce their moves on a chess board submersed in a pool.
Players use magnetic pieces and a magnetic board, while the rules stay the same, the playing environment is a bit more slippery.
Players are only permitted to make moves while submersed without any breathing apparatus in a swimming pool.
Once players have plunged under the surface they can’t come back up for oxygen until they have made their move (video below).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LEbLydbuPg
The tourney is played over 4 rounds with every match lasting up to sixty minutes, but average games last around 30-to-40 minutes.
The uncommon hybrid of water sports and chess integrates a physical element into chess to make it more zany and fun.
Most people in relatively good health can hold their breath underwater for approx two minutes.
Stig Severinsen, 4-time world free-diving champ and holder of multiple Guinness World Records, held his breath underwater once for 19 minutes and 30 seconds.
In 2012, German frogman Tom Sietas held his breath underwater for 22 minutes and 22 seconds, eclipsing Dane Stig Severinsen’s previous Guinness record by twenty two seconds.
The Guinness World Record currently for holding your breath underwater (with the benefit of breathing pure oxygen first) is held by Aleix Segura of Spain at a walloping 24 minutes 3 seconds.
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