9 & 10 News
Two Canadian men played a game of chess in a way that few could enjoy.
Ron Batuigas and Nick McNaught of Ontario cut some holes in the ice of their local lake, set up a chess board, and jumped in.
When they decided to spend more than five minutes in the icy water, they chose chess to help get their minds off the cold.
We didn’t learn who won the game but the water was warmer than the air.
Nick said the air was -4 degrees Fahrenheit when they made the plunge.
“Part of it is a battle between body and mind and finding that peaceful space with the discomfort,” McNaught told HuffPost Canada. “Turns out that you can kind of work towards the ability to concentrate on something completely different while sitting deep in the frozen lake.”
Reuters picked up on the time-lapse video that was also posted, and the pair has been interviewed by plenty of media outlets.
They’ve had to cut through about five inches of ice to do the exposures as temperatures have dropped. They estimate the chess game took about five to six minutes.
With a group of like-minded friends, they’ve also had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows in the lake, using a chunk of ice as the fire’s base.