Chessboxing - The Sport Of The Future?

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."

Comments

Chess Around the House

[Tal Cohen]

A much better alternative is "Chess Around the House", played by Alan Turing and friends over 50 years ago. It was described in GEB and elsewhere.

The idea is simple: make a chess move, start running a (cyclic) track. Your opponent has to make a move before you return. The faster you run, the less time your opponent has. So unlike chessboxing, there's a real, meaningful connection between the two activities. It requires good stamina, chess skills, and some thinking ahead, too (if I sprint now, he'll have less time for this move, but I'll be very tired for the next run and he'll have more time then; etc.)

Very enjoyable!

Harry Harrison

[amcguinn]

I seem to remember "Planet of the Damned" by Harry Harrison started with a kind of "decatholon" involving weightlifting, running, poetry composition and chess, among other events. It took place on a planet that was ice-bound for most of the year and had a brief summer when everyone went wild, or something like that.

Too weighted towards boxing

[Dr. Spork]

Suppose (per impossible) that this sport made it big, with large amounts of prize money. Well, then it would essentially turn into straight boxing.

I read the rules, and though you begin with chess, it goes only four minutes, and then it's a round of boxing. Even Mike Tyson could learn to not lose a chess game in four minutes (by stalling or whatever). And then, seriously, who can go a whole round against a top-rated heavyweight boxer? Only another top-rated heavyweight boxer. (In his prime, Tyson would regularly KO the second-best boxer in the world in the first round. What chess players would have a chance?)

When you think of it, any intellectual activity/boxing hybrid will most likely be decided in the boxing segment. There might be some profound lesson in that observation...

This reminds me of a contest

[TerryAtWork]

I invented some years ago.

It was designed to eliminate people in widely contrasting contests of mind and body - for example the first one was a marathon. the top half of competitors would move on a tournament in say, some lesser board game like checkers.

Then the top half them run 100 meters - the top half of that play another game etc.

In the end the top 16 play a chess tournament then the top 8 chess players run 5 miles then the top 4 5-milers play Go and the best two Go players fight it out in a Ultimate Fighting championship sort of thing (but this was some years before UF)

Who knows - this could catch on!