THE SUNDAY POST/ March 20, 2011 45

This chessmatch is aknockout

SVEIN CLOUSTON and Alan Rileyare assured of a place in Scottishsporting history next week.

“I used to play a lot ofchess but I stopped for afew years so I’ve beenplaying morning noonand night in the run upto the fight.”

His opponent AlanRiley was born in Japanbut considersEdinburgh his hometown.

“When I first heardabout chessboxing Ithought it was just someEast London craze, butwhen I went along I washooked.

“The chess gives youa breather from theboxing but mentallyyou are still having towork hard.”

He says he’s lookingforward to a bigScottish contingentturning out.

“We both have familyand friends comingdown from Scotlandand my boss has evensaid he’s coming acrossfrom Germany towatch. It should bequite a night.”

for participants fromaround Britain.

Crowds of severalhundred turn out towatch matches.

Aberdeen-born Svein(32) represented hisschool at chess andbecame a keen fell-runner and triathletewhile studying atStirling University.

He started chessboxing last summer.

Stronger“Alan is a lot stronger

than me, but mystrength is my fitnessand speed. We’re fairlyevenly matched atchess, so I think it willbe decided in the ring.”

With no experience inboxing before he wentalong to a chessboxingclass last summer, Sveinadmits it has been asteep learning curve.

“I couldn’t move for aweek after my first classbecause you are usingmuscles you nevernormally use. A lot ofboxing is abouttechnique so hopefullyI’ll be able to hold myown in the ring.

That’s becausethey will be battlingit out for the honourof being thecountry’s first everChessboxingchampion.

In London onSaturday the pairwill fight for theScottish Middleweightchampionship,organised by theGreat BritainChessboxingOrganisation.

The sport, which seescontestants take part ina boxing matchinterspersed withsessions at the chesstable, was introduced toBritain two years agoby Tim Woolgar, whowas raised in Ayr.

As a fan of bothboxing and chess Timwas fascinated to learnthat a sport combiningthe two was establishedin Europe.

After attending acompetition inGermany, he wasdetermined to get it offthe ground in Britain.

He’s since establisheda club in London whichholds regular contests

By Gavin Sherriff

➤➤➤ Titchmarch’s Garden Tips P64

Seconds out! Pawnswill replace punches

■ A CHESSBOXINGcontest consists ofup to 11 rounds ofboxing and chess,starting with fourminutes of chessfollowed by threeminutes of boxing.■ There’s a one-minute breakbetween roundsand speed chess isused, meaning thateach player has amaximum of 12minutes to maketheir moves.■ Contestants canwin by a knockout,a checkmate or if

their opponentexceeds 12 minutesfor his moves.■ If the chessmatch reaches astalemate, thescores from theboxing part of thecontest are used todetermine thewinner.■ The sport wasdreamed up in a1992 graphic novel.Dutch performanceartist Iepe Rubinghread the book andwas inspired tocreate the sport forreal.

Check out theboxing rules!

■ Svein Clouston.

■ Boxers wear earphones during the chess contest to block out the noise of the commentary.

Blue dofor shoes

THE average person inScotland owns 14 pairs ofshoes but, according to theStroke Association wedon’t spend enough timewalking in them.

Despite the fact thattrainers — costing asmuch as £40 a pair — arethe most common shoesfound in our wardrobes,most Scots walk fewerthan 40 minutes a day.

However, the StrokeAssociation, Scotland, saythat if we wore thosefancy trainers and walked10,000 steps over an hourand a half we could cutour risk of strokedramatically.