Landing right punches on chess board

India's 20-year-old Siddhant is set to compete in the Chess Boxing Worlds in Serbia from Sept 23

- Shahid Judge

In competitive sport, athletes frequently look for ways to evolve and reinvent. Siddhant Nath Jha took it several notches further.

Once a budding chess player who gave up the sport briefly in Class 9 to focus on his academics, Jha decided to get back to the board, this time while donning boxing gloves.

Enter, chess boxing.

Just over a year after taking up the fusion sport, the 20-year-old is set to compete in the seventh edition of Chess Boxing World Championship in Loznica, Serbia from September 23. "It is a sport that tests both the brain and brawn," Jha, who started training for boxing specifically for the hybrid sport, said to HT.

Chess boxing, which combines two traditional sports, was invented in the 1970s in the United Kingdom. It was acknowledged by the International Chess Federation in 2008. Around that time, it started to gain popularity as chess boxing clubs emerged across the United States and Europe.

The game's presence online, too, has been growing. Which is where Jha first saw it.

"I was into fitness and worked out a lot," he said. "Then when I saw chess boxing online, I thought this might be interesting. That's when I decided to take it up.'