THE SUNDAY POST/ March 20, 2011 45 This chess match is a knockout SVEIN CLOUSTON and Alan Riley are assured of a place in Scottish sporting history next week. “I used to play a lot of chess but I stopped for a few years so I’ve been playing morning noon and night in the run up to the fight.” His opponent Alan Riley was born in Japan but considers Edinburgh his home town. “When I first heard about chessboxing I thought it was just some East London craze, but when I went along I was hooked. “The chess gives you a breather from the boxing but mentally you are still having to work hard.” He says he’s looking forward to a big Scottish contingent turning out. “We both have family and friends coming down from Scotland and my boss has even said he’s coming across from Germany to watch. It should be quite a night.” for participants from around Britain. Crowds of several hundred turn out to watch matches. Aberdeen-born Svein (32) represented his school at chess and became a keen fell- runner and triathlete while studying at Stirling University. He started chess boxing last summer. Stronger “Alan is a lot stronger than me, but my strength is my fitness and speed. We’re fairly evenly matched at chess, so I think it will be decided in the ring.” With no experience in boxing before he went along to a chessboxing class last summer, Svein admits it has been a steep learning curve. “I couldn’t move for a week after my first class because you are using muscles you never normally use. A lot of boxing is about technique so hopefully I’ll be able to hold my own in the ring. That’s because they will be battling it out for the honour of being the country’s first ever Chessboxing champion. In London on Saturday the pair will fight for the Scottish Middleweight championship, organised by the Great Britain Chessboxing Organisation. The sport, which sees contestants take part in a boxing match interspersed with sessions at the chess table, was introduced to Britain two years ago by Tim Woolgar, who was raised in Ayr. As a fan of both boxing and chess Tim was fascinated to learn that a sport combining the two was established in Europe. After attending a competition in Germany, he was determined to get it off the ground in Britain. He’s since established a club in London which holds regular contests By Gavin Sherriff ➤➤➤ Titchmarch’s Garden Tips P64 Seconds out! Pawns will replace punches ■ A CHESSBOXING contest consists of up to 11 rounds of boxing and chess, starting with four minutes of chess followed by three minutes of boxing. ■ There’s a one- minute break between rounds and speed chess is used, meaning that each player has a maximum of 12 minutes to make their moves. ■ Contestants can win by a knockout, a checkmate or if their opponent exceeds 12 minutes for his moves. ■ If the chess match reaches a stalemate, the scores from the boxing part of the contest are used to determine the winner. ■ The sport was dreamed up in a 1992 graphic novel. Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh read the book and was inspired to create the sport for real. Check out the boxing rules! ■ Svein Clouston. ■ Boxers wear earphones during the chess contest to block out the noise of the commentary. Blue do for shoes THE average person in Scotland owns 14 pairs of shoes but, according to the Stroke Association we don’t spend enough time walking in them. Despite the fact that trainers — costing as much as £40 a pair — are the most common shoes found in our wardrobes, most Scots walk fewer than 40 minutes a day. However, the Stroke Association, Scotland, say that if we wore those fancy trainers and walked 10,000 steps over an hour and a half we could cut our risk of stroke dramatically.