Ilfeld is the inventor of Diving chess[1] and the author of Beyond Contemporary Art,[2][3][4] co-author of Duchamp versus Einstein and the creator of the Synchronicity Oracle.

[11] Ilfeld launched an additional imprint within Watkins Media called Repeater Books in 2016, which focuses on politics and philosophy.

[14][15] Ilfeld is a competitive strategy games player having won the World Amateur Poker Championship title at the Mind Sports Olympiad in 2010.

[27] Ilfeld produced Pentamind – The Ultimate Mind Sports Championship directed by Hassan Amini, which won best documentary at the 2020 Gen Con Film Festival and follows five of the world's most decorated mind sports athletes as they compete to become the best all-round board games player in the world.

[30] New Kind of Cinema was programmed in Mathematica and inspired by the usage of cellular automata after training with Stephen Wolfram in Pisa during the summer of 2009.