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Chessboxing - The Sport Of The Future?

Posted by simoniker on from the alternates-not-allowed dept.

eval writes "According to the Chessbase website, the new sport of chessboxing has been devised 'to combine the No.1 thinking sport and the No.1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors.' Sure, it sounds like a joke, but an actual match was held not too long ago at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which 'was packed with around 800 people' to see the world champion, 'Iepe the Joker' crowned."

13 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting by gasaraki · · Score: 4, Funny

    I imagine the competitors would start off great at chess, but get worse and worse at that while their fighting game improves over their career.

    1. Re:Interesting by gabec · · Score: 4, Funny
      When I first read the blurb I thought they were talking about Human Chess (a la your favorite Renaissance Festival) where the tokens fight and the winner of the round determines the success of an attack. That'd be pretty sweet. The chessmasters would have to adapt their strategies based on known fighting-skills of their players.

      Having the players box would make gameplay anticlimactic... Envision if you will... They're jumping around pounding away at one another jowls flopping, sweat spraying, a grunt of pain as a glove makes contact... the bell rings and... they stop.

      They pull off their gloves, whip out their favorite thinking caps and perhaps a calabash pipe spending the next five minutes staring fixedly at the plastic tokens before them.... yeah... that's rousing.

      They'd even have to switch announcers just to bring the rousing mood down further. Start off with a classic boxing announcer and end up with a golf-level announcer. *snore*

  2. How about Debating Box for POTUS ... by leoaugust · · Score: 4, Funny

    Personally I would love to see the sport of Debating-Box adopted in the US.

    The Presidential Contenders Debate for four minutes and then box for two minutes. They do it till one of them can spin the debate or there is a knockout.

    The winner then advances to do the same with the sitting President. Only thing is that to help the sitting president the rules are changed and now there is two minutes of debates and four minutes of boxing.

    --
    To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies ...
    1. Re:How about Debating Box for POTUS ... by roseblood · · Score: 4, Funny

      And Arnold though getting to Sacramento was going to be the peak of his political career! DC here he comes!

      --
      There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.
  3. Those chess machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So how long before a computer beats a human at this?

    1. Re:Those chess machines by bmnc · · Score: 4, Funny

      A long time since computers arent very good at boxing.

      I imagine when ppl begin to manipulate the rules a match will go something like this:

      Heavy Weight Boxer: So I have 12 minutes on the chess clock right?

      Chess Player: Yes. I will kick you ass in 20 moves.

      HWB: Great, I'll make one move then. This will ensure 3 rounds of boxing with you at 2 minutes each.

      CP: Ummmmm... Shit!

  4. chessboxing II: physics, too by eyenot · · Score: 5, Funny

    i like it, alternately i would set up a huge board with (very staminated,) human chess pieces. in order for a taking move to be successful, the pieces would have to put up their dukes in order to prove their position. alternately they could convince the other piece to battle them in a debate over physics until one cedes the point. this is stupendous!!! (i give it three exclamation points. but you noticed that. but, i digress.)

    --
    "Stratigraphically the origin of agriculture and thermonuclear destruction will appear essentially simultaneous" -- Lee
  5. Hmmm... by 77Punker · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll have to try this at my next chess club meeting at school!

  6. Re:Too weighted towards boxing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    a heavyweight boxer might be able to avoid losing in chess for four minutes, but a chess master may be able to keep from being KO'd in two minutes, if he's quick enough. Tyson certainly could beat the hell out of boxers who wanted to beat the hell out of him, but if someone was just simply avoiding him, could it last for two minutes? that's the real question.

    that said, I like the "Predator/Prey" role reversal idea in this game, but the game itself is recockulated.

  7. Chessboxing? Been there by bluethundr · · Score: 1, Funny



    My getting beat up on the way home from Chess club was a rather regular occurance. It wasn't regulation boxing, mind you. More like "Wrestling Team/Football Team/Baseball Team vs Chess Team". But I remember these "events" being on the bill nearly every week!

    --
    Quod scripsi, scripsi.
  8. Re:Too weighted towards boxing by visgoth · · Score: 3, Funny
    There might be some profound lesson in that observation...

    "Let the wookie win", mayhaps?

    --
    My patience is infinite, my time is not.
  9. american action movie by Hubert_Shrump · · Score: 2, Funny

    can we just get done with the whole sitting thing and have something blow up?!

    i can imagine most modern theatre would be improved by sporadic fisticuffs...

    and art museums.

    --
    Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
  10. Re:Harry Harrison by hublan · · Score: 2, Funny

    Bit like Canada, as I'm finding out.

    --
    My spoon is too big.