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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."
and I can't wait to watch it.
Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
Hmmm....
I have come up with a new sport come April
Tax-Sex
You sit in the middle of the Kitchen and agonize over deductions for 10 minutes, then do it doggy style on them thar reciepts.
Never play chicken with a passive aggressive.
Wouldn't this heavily favour brawn over brains? I mean any half decent bruiser could just avoid getting checkmated right away and then knock the nerd out in the first round.
I have seen the future of sports and it says 'I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That's why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king,'
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
He goes head-to-head against the world champion of Kung-fu Go.
Yeah, we have something like that at my company called codeboxing.
Developers receive documentation and go off to work on something. The moment they run into an ambiguous or poorly defined requirement, they jump into the ring with the person who wrote it for up to 6 rounds of boxing. Between rounds, they refine the language of the requirement. The match is decided by a panel of managers, agreement between the two parties, or knock out.
M
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.
They can't televise it!
The First Rule of Chess Club is You Do Not Talk about Chess Club!
I don't think it's ridiculous at all. Anyone trained in any martial art (not just eastern, count boxing, fencing, etc. as well) will probably agree.
Keeping your senses and your ability to think during a fight is anything but trivial, and requires a lot of training.
Most regular people would probably have trouble just remembering how the pieces move after a few minutes of fighting, with all the adrenaline pumping and your whole body in "I have no time for thinking" mode.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
The funny thing about this sports is that a champion is bound to loose its title quickly, the more the champion boxe, the worst he must be getting at chess. Since after a year or two having your face punched turn your brain into molasses...
Sort of. 20 some odd years ago my room mate considered combining rugby and chess and called it "full contact chess".
We played beer chess instead. Somebody had a 4'x4' chess board. Pawns were Mickey's, rooks were Fosters, queens were a bottle of wine etc. Every time a chess piece was taken you had to drink it. We rarely lost; against the beer drinker types we just out played them, against the chess player types we'd trade down pieces early and out drink them.
Simpler times ...
Belthize
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
I don't think it's ridiculous at all. Anyone trained in any martial art (not just eastern, count boxing, fencing, etc. as well) will probably agree.
Keeping your senses and your ability to think during a fight is anything but trivial, and requires a lot of training.
Most regular people would probably have trouble just remembering how the pieces move after a few minutes of fighting, with all the adrenaline pumping and your whole body in "I have no time for thinking" mode.
Perhaps ironically for a geek, I don't know what it's like to be good at chess, but I do know what it's like to be good at fighting.
A lot of intelligent people aren't good at fighting because they overanalyze a fight. It's helpful to watch other people fight and analyze, but in a fight you have to be in the moment. I knew an architect who was very physically powerful, but never able to fight well because he tried to think strategically during a fight. He was always thinking, if I do this, then he'll do that, then I'll do this etc. A cunning fighter is one who reacts in the moment, in a way that is both appropriate and unpredictable.
"Thinking" in a fight -- if it can be called that -- is not sequential, nor is it analytical. It's more wholistic and intuitive. Even a swift reasoner cannot project future scenarios fast enough to keep up with the present, and being in the moment is critical. The reason the average person can't remember the details of a fight is that he isn't paying attention. He's thinking about the past ("that punch hurt") or the future ("I'm going to get murdered.") An experienced fighter is aware of every detail without being stuck on any one.
Although I can't say from experience, I wonder if this means being good at chess isn't a little like being good at sparring. My faults as a chess player are like the faults of my architect friend as a fighter; although I have formidable analytical skills, they aren't a match for somebody who moves with the swift assurance of being familiar with the scenario. I spend too much time dealing with the shambles of my "strategy" to take advantage of the opportunities my opponent's moves create.
As far as silliness is concerned, all sports are silly if you look at them the right way. Chess and barehand fighting are individual sports pared down to the minimally interesting essentials: two individuals striving to gain advantage over each other. Perhaps arm wresting is more basic, but not sufficiently complex to invite tactical analysis.
In any case, Chess Boxing is clearly a sport tailor made for Russia.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
They can't televise it!
The First Rule of Chess Club is You Do Not Talk about Chess Club!
Oddly enough, The First Rule of Date Club is also You Do Not Talk About Chess Club.
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