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Condi Chess

orthodox chess master Julius Arnas is running a camping, called Camping La Rochade, in Naujac sur Mer, in the Medoc area in France. The camping is special because, except for the usual things one can find at a camping, it also has many opportunities to play chess. It is sometimes visited by grandmasters, there are chess tournaments, chess training (in French) etc.

One of the events that is regularly held is Condi Chess - a combination of chess and physical exercise.

The rules of Condi Chess are simple: the game is played like speed chess (10 minutes per player for the entire game), but the clock is twelve meters away from the board - so after every move, the player must run to the clock...

The idea of combining chess with physical exercise is not entirely new. Alan Turing, the famous pioneer of computer science, is said to have played a similar game.


Written by Hans Bodlaender. Information based upon article and advertisement in Schaak Magazine, (magazine of the Dutch chess federation), May 1999.
WWW page created: May 19, 1999.