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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."

4 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Mediocrity, or supermen? by c.emmertfoster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I figure that this will attract mostly people who are moderatly good at both, considering how little it really adds, and I can't imagine what kind of person would enjoy watching it. It's not exactly recognized as an olympic sport, either.

    'Iepe the Joker' is somewhat proficient at both boxing and chess? So what? I bet I could beat him at writing web-code, and playing Starcraft. We could call it "DHTMLStarcraft: the sport of the future!"

    I doubt it. The real sport of the future will involve people in giant robots beating the shit out of each other.

    --
    We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
  2. Those chess machines by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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

  3. 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
  4. Too weighted towards boxing by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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...