A viscous uppercut followed by Knight to e7.
Check. Mate. K-O.
The BBC’s Steve Rosenberg wrote a piece that shed some light on a sport called “Chess Boxing.”
If you’re confused as to what that entails, fret not. It is one round of boxing followed by one round of chess. The match ends when you’ve either knocked out or checkmated your opponent, whichever comes first. Kind of like Foxy Boxing, except not really. The sport was created by Iepe Rubingh, a Dutch artist, who saw the need to prove to the world that individuals can have both brains and brawn. From the article:
“Chess and boxing have lots of things in common” … “If you move the pawn, it’s like moving your jab. If you come with the knight, it’s like a hook. If you come with the rook, it’s a straight right. And if you march in with the queen, it’s a knockout”
(image: BBC)
The competitors are in it to eliminate the common stereotype that boxers are not too bright. I wonder how people could be so foolish to rush to that stereotype in the first place.
It’s not Greco-Roman Sudoku, but it gets my vote for the next Olympic Sport.
mulliniks
Greatest logo ever:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/fe/Logo_wcbo_170px.gif
November 9, 2007 at 1:47 pm
hroman
That logo is awesome. Looks like the offspring of Tetris and the black panthers.
November 9, 2007 at 3:07 pm
halejon
I wish I could find the list of moves for the championship game. I know Black played the Scandinavian, which is pretty smart. Don’t want to end up in a closed position or attacking the queenside if things go bad in the ring.
Apparently the minimum requirement is an 1800 ELO rating. So these guys are not just meatheads who can push a pawn or two until they can get back to busting heads…that’s pretty damn good- not exactly master class, but takes some smarts and study.
November 10, 2007 at 1:43 am
R-Shizzle
dunno how good they are but the Kitschko’s are both avid chess players, I think…
as a side note, sudoku was officially made an english word according to Webster last year… that always surprises the crap out of my students because some of them don’t know what it is
)
November 10, 2007 at 6:07 am
romi41
I have been waiting for AGES for the world to invent a competition which would showcase both my brains AND brawn….look out world, here I come!
November 11, 2007 at 11:20 pm
halejon
I heard that Kitschko offered to play Lewis in a game of chess before their big bout and is interested in ChessBoxing as well. I think the whole idea might break down as soon as it stopped being amateur boxers…
November 14, 2007 at 12:07 am
hroman
Kitschko vs Lewis on a chessboard is something I would pay to see.
November 14, 2007 at 12:34 am