Chess boxing is a hybrid sport that combines two traditional disciplines: chess and boxing. Two combatants play alternating rounds of speed chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout.

A match between two players is made up of up to 11 rounds of boxing and chess sessions, starting with a four-minute chess round followed by two minutes of boxing and so on. Between rounds there is a one-minute pause, during which the players change their gear.

The only role is to play chess and box consecutively.

To play the sport, each player has boxing gloves which are removed for the chess round. Head phones are given to the players when taking part in chess so not hear advice from the audience.

Iepe B. T. Rubingh was a Dutch performance artist, athlete and the founder of chess boxing and World Chess Boxing Organization.