Konrad in Berlin

I arrived in Berlin on Monday at around 3.30pm and was picked up at the station by Nico. Soon afterwards I was finally able to meet Iepe and Christine, whom I had so far known only through email and phone. After this, I was shown the way to what would become my home for the next few days: the chessboxing „Built to Resist Camp“. The collection of posters and quotes on the walls, dealing with both chess and boxing, gave the place a particular, almost surreal feel. Nowhere before had I seen, or even imagined, that pictures of Muhammad Ali and Anatolij Karpov could co-exist next to each other in such harmony.

After some posing for publicity photographs, the time had come to make my way to the first training session in Berlin. Together with Sebastian, who is also scheduled to have a fight on Saturday, I participated in a work-out of the local boxing club. I had not trained in a proper boxing club for quite a while, so I was really interested in seeing if I still have the moves. The real test of that came when Sebastian and I squered off in the ring for some chessboxing sparring. This was it then. My first real chessboxing experience.

The first round of chess was fine, nothing spectacular, just normal opening moves. By that time I had realized that the temperature would rise quite markedly with the first round of boxing. Although the sparring was rather light, I was glad to see that I could still hold my own in the ring. The following rounds seemed to confirm this. I also felt quite comfortable with the switches from boxing to chess, much thanks to the advice of Sebastian, who very wisely told me to think twice before I make the first move right after coming out of the ring. And then to think again...

On Tuesday I was able to make a quick tour of some major sights in Berlin, a good diversion from the training atmosphere of the Built to Resist Camp. The highlight of the evening was the training session with Johnny Camaro. It is always a pleasure to train with somebody who is such an expert in this discipline. I felt like I really got a lot from this work-out, which combined elements of technique and tactics.