Chessboxing!

Photo:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/saschapohflepp/ / CC BY 2.0

I have come across a rather bizarre sport this morning, that of chessboxing. It does exactly what it says on the tin, it's a gentlemanly game of chess combined with the bloody onslaught that is boxing!

The basics behind it are that chessboxers alternate rounds of chess for rounds of boxing in a boxing ring, whilst wearing full boxing gear. The only difference is that during the chess rounds they replace their boxing gloves and helmets for earplugs and headphones (to aid concentration.) The chess rounds last a gruelling four minutes followed by a tactical three minutes of boxing, after a one minute break. There a total of 11 rounds, six chess and five boxing, with the winner being the first to either checkmate or knock out his opponent.

The game was created in 2003 by Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh and even has WCBO (World Chess Boxing Organization) which "propagates the spread of chessboxing to all five continents." The WCBO motto reads :"Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board"

This all seems very bizarre to me, of all the sports to combine, chess and boxing?! But then again with the basic principles of the game being to combine a physically challenging sport with a mentally challenging sport to create the ultimate all round sport, it kind of, just kind of, makes sense!

Here is part of the first ever World Chessboxing Championship (check out http://www.youtube.com/user/worldchessboxing for more videos) :

and part two:




If this has intrigued you, interested you, perhaps even made you consider a new sporting venture, then be sure to check out the WCBO website at: http://wcbo.org/content/index_en.html and be sure to leave me a comment letting me know what you think of the sport that "demands the most of it's competitors - both physically and mentally."