Yagli güres is the Turkish National sport. It is commonly called Turkish Wrestling or Oil Wrestling because the wrestlers coat themselves with olive oil.
The wrestlers are called pehlivan, which means ‘hero’ or ‘champion’. They wear trousers (kisbet or kispet) originally made from the hide of a water buffalo, but nowadays calf leather is also used.
Unlike other forms of wrestling, matches in oil wrestling can be won by grabbing the kisbet in a certain way.
The goal of the pehlivan is to control his opponent by slipping an arm through the back of the kisbet. Winning in this way is called a paça kazik.
Originally, matches had no time limit and could sometimes last one or two days. This changed in 1975, setting the maximum match time for the baspehlivan category at 40 minutes and for the pehlivan category at 30 minutes.
If there is no winner at the end, there is an overtime of 15 minutes for the baspehlivan category and 10 minutes for the pehlivan category. During overtime, scores are kept to declare a winner at the end.
The annual Kirkpinar tournament has been held in Edirne since 1362. This makes it the oldest continuous sporting event in the world. In recent years, Turkish oil wrestling has been gaining popularity worldwide and is becoming popular in other countries, especially the Netherlands and Japan.