Plunge into the world of diving chess as record breaker's story comes to US TV

A record-breaking underwater chess player is set to be featured in an ESPN special all about his favourite pastime.

Michał Mazurkiewicz (Poland) broke the record for most simultaneous diving chess opponents in 2024 when he took on 16 opponents at once.

The three-time Diving Chess world champion took just one breath between each of his moves, swimming back down and straight to the next board.

In the end, he won 12 of his games, tied three and lost just one.

Now, his story is set to feature in TV show Diving Chess: World Tour, which airs on ESPN2 in the US this Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.

The programme will include coverage of diving chess events across the world, including the Diving Chess World Championships, held in Tarnowo Podgórne, Poland in May, which was organized by Michał.

The two-day event saw 62 players competing for a £10,000 cash prize.

In the episode, we’ll also see footage from the Freestyle Chess Grand Final in Cape Town, South Africa, last December, and Michał will chat about his world record and the time he played chess while cage diving around sharks.

Looking back on breaking his world record, Michał told us: “First of all, I wanted to test my own limits. Honestly, when GWR came back to me with the requirements I thought to myself, ‘that’s just not possible’.

“But, even though I’m not a pro athlete, I decided to believe in myself and train even harder… you know this scene when Rocky runs up all the stairs for the first time? Secondly, with all that effort and their recognition, I wanted to make the discipline more popular, to put it on the map.”

Explaining how it all works, he added: “So, diving chess is still chess but underwater, obviously. The board is placed on the bottom of the pool and we don’t have a clock. Time per move is determined by our lungs - you have to make a move using exactly one breath.

“Emerging without making a move - that’s a loss! And when your opponent emerges you have to go down immediately - that’s also crucial. By the way, you’re not allowed to use any diving equipment other than glasses.

“I think that the biggest challenge is facing both psychological and physical pressure at the same time, which requires from the players quite an endurance. It’s not a professional sport of course, but still we need to train in chess and swimming a lot to make a progress.”

Read about more cool records like this in our Hobbies and Skills section.

Michał said his favourite moment was winning his last of the 16 games and realizing he’d done enough to clinch the record title.

The chess diving format was created in 2012 by Etan Ilfeld, National Master and current CEO of Mind Sports Olympiad, Michał explained.

He said: “His goal was to make chess even more interesting and physically demanding. Since then World Championships have taken place mainly in London.”

Michał says the story of how he got into diving chess is a “little bit tragic”.

It all began after he suffered a serious back injury during the coronavirus pandemic. He couldn’t walk for a couple of months and had to give up a lot of activities that he loved, like football.

“So I started swimming a lot, couple of times a week, which helped me with the recovery,” he said.

“At some point my friends told me about the Polish Diving Chess Champs. I thought I’d been playing chess from childhood, have a scuba diving certification and now I’m also a regular swimmer, not even close to professional level of course, but still, so it feels like this discipline is created for me!

“And I won it pretty easily. After some time I also learned about the World Championship. I wrote to Etan, he invited me to London, and achieved gold three times in a row. Then the Guinness World Records title and South Africa - we just want to show diving chess to the world and make it more popular.”

Michał plays chess almost every day and swims five to six days a week. While he still doesn’t consider himself a pro in either area, he says they are his two biggest passions in life so having the opportunity to combine them is a dream.

Michał has previously featured in Diving Chess: Duel in the Depths.

Watch that here…

See him in Diving Chess: World Tour on ESPN2 this Saturday at 8 a.m. ET.