A documentary following a self-defeating promoter from London and a self-promoting artist from Berlin as they fight over control of professional chessboxing, a sport which taxes mind and body through alternating rounds of chess and boxing. It's Rocky meets The Queen's Gambit.
In 2003, performance artist Iepe Rubingh became the first world champion of a sport he had invented earlier that year called chessboxing. Consisting of alternating rounds of chess and boxing, it was his most ambitious project to date - the ultimate test of brain and brawn.
The mind-bending clash of opposites blew the audience and media away, and Iepe saw an opportunity to make his mark by turning this quirky art performance into something real. Dreaming of glitzy pro chessboxing events in Las Vegas and Moscow, Iepe founded the World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO) to court the major sponsors he needed to finance his vision. With a
television deal in the works, chessboxing was about to hit the big time. Then, like an uppercut to the jaw, the 2008 financial crisis hit. The sponsors jumped ship, delivering a knockout blow for Iepe and chessboxing. Or it would have been so if not for Londoner Tim Woolgar, who fell in love with the sport after discovering it in Berlin a year earlier. He quit his lucrative but unfulfilling job as a TV journalist and dumped all his savings into building chessboxing in the UK – an impulsive decision that caused great tension in his marriage. But for Tim this was a chance to be his own boss and show the world what he's capable of. Through sheer passion, he built a tight-knit community and began hosting DIY chessboxing events in grungy venues where the raucous crowds generated an electric atmosphere which was lacking in Iepe's more sterile version of the sport. Chessboxing was back in the spotlight, and Iepe made sure that he was too. While Tim toiled away and carried all of the financial burden, Iepe used his status as the sport's inventor to garner all of the media attention at his events. Once Tim caught on to Iepe's efforts to undermine him, he cut ties with Iepe and the two squared-off in a behind-the-scenes battle to decide who would become the 'Don King of chessboxing.'
