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Meet the New Chess Boxing Champion of the World
Attila Dimedici writes "A Russian man has just been crowned world champion in the sport of chess boxing. Apparently the idea originated in a French comic strip from the early '90s. In 2003 a Dutch artist decided to bring the 'sport' to life. The 'sport' is played by starting a chess match in the middle of a boxing ring. After four minutes, the chess board is cleared and the opponents box for three minutes. A match consists of six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing. A match is decided by knockout, checkmate, or points."
I was rather hoping for a BattleChess like game where the players box it out to decide which piece captures which. This just sounds ... weird.
Once I started RTFAing the repeated comments about concentration and ability to shift modes starting getting my attention. Modern pentathalon started out as a way to simulate certain kinds of combat, and, for its time, made quite a bit of sense. I'm willing to bet that we'll see some very serious people start to get into this as a way to hone skills used for activities that aren't cheesy at all. A way to test one's ability to think strategically and tactically while out of breath and in pain is a damn good thing for anybody who is expected to function in combat. Even first responders in non-violent professions might gain from this.
Gotta say, not for me, to say the least, but I'll be very curious to see how this evolves and what kinds of people end up getting into it.
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
I thought the same thing, and figured they must have rules against this type of play.
But then couldn't a boxer like Mike Tyson immediately win the world champion title in the second round of the fight?
No, the WCBO's statutes foresee a minimum ELO ranking of 1800 in chess. Each competitor has to fulfil this minimum standard in order to participate in an official chessboxing fight. Someone like Mike Tyson would need years of training to reach this standard...
In addition, there's also the zugzwang rule. When a chessboxer doesn't make a move and the referee has good reason to believe that he or she is doing this deliberately, a warning is issued. When the chessboxer still fails to make a move, a second warning is issued whereupon he or she is forced to make a move. If no move is made upon the second warning, the player is immediately disqualified.
I want to see No Holds Barred Halo Boxing. Then I get to beat the crap out of the guy who thinks hes so cool with the sniper rifle.
Let's see you pwn me now!
Seriously though, this is really awesome. I have never really been into boxing or UFC, but if that dude also had to beat the guy at Chess or some other game of skill, then that makes it very very interesting.
Not just brute force.
I can see some little nerd being undefeated in the ring since he could never lose the match within 4 minutes... but going to the hospital the day he does.
Whats up with the news.com.au logo next to the article: http://images.slashdot.org/articles/08/07/07/0427228-1-thumb.png?
Is this some new way of cashing in by directing links to websites?
1. Sign advertising agreement with other news website
2. Post article to idle.slashdot.org (?????)
3. Profit!
Yeah. My Linux and programming teacher in college was also competing for finnish championship on heavy weight boxing, he taught Krav Maga and free wrestling (not with shows and faking but the real thing) on evening and had been years to israel to study Krav Maga. Needless to say, he had a decent authority at keeping the class quiet. Anyways, the said teacher would propably have exceled at this sport. I don't think that my 9th grade math teacher who was a basketball player and over 7 feet tall would have totally sucked in it either. The SEO guy next to me (I work at internet marketing company and yeah, I should be working right now) played on finnish championship level in icehockey. My boss used to do thai boxing.
Fine print: I work in internet advertising.
"The chess part is speed chess, which can be quite difficult and heavily favors those who are well practiced in strategy and able to make decisions faster." Mistake. Huge mistake. Those who are able toplay blitz/bullet/speed/whatever-u-want-to-call-it Chess are excellent TACTICIANS. Strategy, the long-term plan in Chess, is almost always sacrificed in favor of shorter-term, more easily calculated variations designed to trap/x-ray/skewer/check/checkmate your opponent. There simply isn't time to formulate anything strategically. In speed Chess, it's tactics. On the other side of the coin, if you play a few rounds of speed Chess and then try your hand at a non-speed game, you'll find yourself being a lot more impulsive and blundering due to lack of foresight and proper calcuations to thwart your enemy's plans.
Looking at the pentathlon, it seems interesting, but kind of a downer that they put shooting, and fencing as the first two events. I am of course assuming that they listed the events in the order in which they are usually done. It would be much more challenging to try and steady a gun after running and biking, than at the beginning of the competition. Which is why I find the biathlon kind of interesting. I have enough trouble aiming a gun that accurately (although I've only ever shot pellet guns, which are notorious for bad aim). I can't imagine having good aim after cross country skiing for any length of time.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
It's not as hard as you would think. You can't hold a rifle pointed at a target anyways, no one can. You hold it so it traces a predictable pattern that intersects your target, then time your squeeze so everything comes together. Personally, my muscles tend to move my sight in a squashed figure 8 pattern. When you're tired and out of breath, the pattern will get larger, but it will remain the same shape, and be just as predictable.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
That is best, but you don't always have the leisure to pick your shots from a position of rest. When you're doing sprint drills across a field with an assault rifle in your hands and you have no chance to catch your breath before taking your shot and continuing to sprint, you need alternative techniques that will accommodate the physical condition you're in.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
I have 2 years of training at a Rickson Gracie academy, and I guarantee you punching is something you do in a fight. I'm also an amateur cage fighter, where they let you do so many things that they explain the rules entirely in the things you are not allowed to do. Punching works. It's part of a toolset. A great Jitz guy without any wrestling is gonna get destroyed by a man who can sprawl and box.
Think Rani Yahya vs. Kid Yamamoto, or for more proof go back and watch Jeremy Horn's second fight with Chuck Liddell. You need the whole game against good fighters, and punching power and size will win the fight just about every time against someone with poor wrestling.
My fellow Americans, let's restore the death penalty for child rapists. Let's do it . . . for the children.