Let's Play Chess....and Boxing
Yes, there is such a thing.
Chessboxing features two players alternating rounds of chess and boxing until one wins by checkmate or knockout. It is also possible to win by time penalty as in normal chess and by boxing decision if there is a draw in the chess round.
The purpose of the sport is to either beat your opponent via legal techniques until he’s unable to continue or to defeat him via checkmate in alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The opponent can also forfeit in boxing rounds or chess periods, plus you can also win via boxing decision.But there is another goal of this pretty much new sport – to test the opponent’s brain skills and the ability to adjust to the new situation, to quickly transition between chess rounds and boxing periods. Good chess players get an opportunity to square off against great boxers and vice versa.
This "sport" is governed by the World Chessboxing Association and World Chess Boxing Organization.
So, who in their right mind came up with this?
The idea was birthed in 1992 by cartoonist Enki Bilal as a match of chess boxing was a big story in his graphic novel "Froid Equateur". Lepe Rubingh, a Dutch artist, took the idea and started the sport in the spring of 2001.
A match consists of eleven alternating rounds of chess and boxing, starting and ending with chess. Each boxing round lasts three minutes, followed by a one-minute break. The chess rounds are played under time control, with a total of nine minutes allotted to each player and no increment added to either player's clock after a move is made.
Sergio "The Phoenix" Leveque from Italy and Nikolay "The Chairman" Sazhin of Russia are the current World Heavyweight Champions in chess boxing. Morgan Rose Johnson is the current top chess boxer in the United States.
The most recent event was the Chessboxing Federation Cup 2024 which was held September 19th in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Here is a video explaining chess boxing: https://youtu.be/7MBcs5Z4KC4?si=TYArFvuTKJpXW39r
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