# Finally, an intellectual blood sport -- chess boxing **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [July 17, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785 "2008-07-17T01:55:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/1 "2008-07-17T01:55:40Z")
[AP story here.](http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hRW0gsSHajHY1eO0jrCF3RQGufrAD91V3HBO1) Play 4 minutes of chess. Box a round. Rinse. Repeat. If someone wins the chess game, they win the match. If someone is knocked out, they lose the match. If the chess game isn’t completed and both are still on their feet at the end, the victory goes to whoever is ahead on points in the boxing match. It reads from the decription as if a couple of people were pounded out of their ability to focus on the chess, which I guess is no big sutprise. I have to admit, if this was held locally, I’d go see it. ---
**Author:** ![Sanity\_Challenged](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de053/32.png) [@Sanity\_Challenged](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanity_Challenged)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/2 "2008-07-17T03:38:50Z")
Well it’s about time. I always felt chess and boxing were a perfect match, like peanut butter and jalepeno peppers. Hopefully this will open the doors for a new breed of cross-discipline competition - I eagerly await the day I can watch an exciting Dungeons & Dragons / Elimidate hybrid championship. ---
**Author:** ![WoodenTaco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@WoodenTaco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WoodenTaco)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/3 "2008-07-17T03:40:09Z")
Chess is even worse as a spectator sport than you’d expect. I guess if you have a couple huge guys huffing and puffing and bleeding all over the place, it’d be more exciting, but it still would be slow. Regardless, very cool. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/4 "2008-07-17T05:02:21Z")
“Finally”? There has been at least 1 thread per year about this as long as I’ve been posting here. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/5 "2008-07-17T05:03:30Z")
Dammit, I’m disappointed. I had a picture in my mind of a huge chessboard with actual human boxers representing each of the chessmen, and they would have to beat the shit out of each other. ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/6 "2008-07-17T05:03:58Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] “Finally”? There has been at least 1 thread per year about this as long as I’ve been posting here. [/QUOTE] That’s what I was thinking. This thread is so late '90s. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 9:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/7 "2008-07-17T09:25:57Z")
It’s okay, I suppose, but it’s never going to replace Sumo Go. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/8 "2008-07-17T10:02:10Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Dammit, I’m disappointed. I had a picture in my mind of a huge chessboard with actual human boxers representing each of the chessmen, and they would have to beat the shit out of each other. [/QUOTE] Ah, [that’s](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chessmen_of_Mars) 1920’s-style “death chess”. ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/9 "2008-07-17T10:14:57Z")
This is funny… because a guy I know always claimed he should be the “Combined Chess/Boxing World Champion” – because, he claimed, he could box the snot out of the World Champion Chess player, and could easily beat the World Heavyweight Champ at chess… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/10 "2008-07-17T10:27:38Z")
They should make them keep the gloves on when they move the pieces. ---
**Author:** ![Hoopy\_Frood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hoopy_frood/32/8452_2.png) [@Hoopy\_Frood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hoopy_Frood)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/11 "2008-07-17T12:15:59Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] They should make them keep the gloves on when they move the pieces. [/QUOTE] Well, Strongbad manages to type with his gloves on… ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/12 "2008-07-17T12:45:42Z")
[QUOTE=Noone Special] This is funny… because a guy I know always claimed he should be the “Combined Chess/Boxing World Champion” – because, he claimed, he could box the snot out of the World Champion Chess player, and could easily beat the World Heavyweight Champ at chess… [/QUOTE] I’m gonna borrow that one…where do I send the cheque? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/13 "2008-07-17T13:29:04Z")
As a weedy chess international, I expect the boxing part would outweigh the chess… ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/14 "2008-07-17T15:03:55Z")
[QUOTE=Noone Special] This is funny… because a guy I know always claimed he should be the “Combined Chess/Boxing World Champion” – because, he claimed, he could box the snot out of the World Champion Chess player, and could easily beat the World Heavyweight Champ at chess… [/QUOTE] Not when Lennox Lewis was champion. He is a phenomenal chess player with a rating of about 2000. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/15 "2008-07-17T15:07:31Z")
[QUOTE=Sanity Challenged] Well it’s about time. I always felt chess and boxing were a perfect match, like peanut butter and jalepeno peppers. Hopefully this will open the doors for a new breed of cross-discipline competition - I eagerly await the day I can watch an exciting Dungeons & Dragons / Elimidate hybrid championship. [/QUOTE] Now that I might buy tickets to. ---
**Author:** ![villa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc79bd/32.png) [@villa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/villa)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/16 "2008-07-17T15:09:00Z")
There used to be, and may well still be, a chess tournament in a London pub where 8 games of 10-minutes per player chess were played. In between games was a 10 minute break. Each player had to drink a pint during each game, and if they won they had to drink a pint in the gap in between games. So to go 8-0, one would have to drink 15 pints. I can’t help but imagine that a few of those matches decended to chess boxing. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/17 "2008-07-17T15:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Not when Lennox Lewis was champion. He is a phenomenal chess player with a rating of about 2000. [/QUOTE] Hmm… Wikipedia gives two different formulae for converting ECF gradings[sup]\*[/sup] to Elo, on either of which Lennox would beat me though not by much. I’m guessing **glee** (who’s considerably better than me) could handle Lennox though. [sup]\*[/sup]At the last count I was ECF graded about 125, but I’ve never been Elo-rated. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/18 "2008-07-17T15:31:15Z")
[QUOTE=Cisco] Not when Lennox Lewis was champion. He is a phenomenal chess player with a rating of about 2000. [/QUOTE] Drs. Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko are supposedly no slouches, either. Vitali is buddies with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and plays with him regulalry, and he once lost a respectable game to Deep Fritz. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/19 "2008-07-17T17:47:36Z")
[QUOTE=pravnik] and he once lost a respectable game to Deep Fritz. [/QUOTE] Which raises the question, when will we have a computer that can beat any human at chess boxing? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785/20 "2008-07-17T18:26:06Z")
[QUOTE=tim314] Which raises the question, when will we have a computer that can beat any human at chess boxing? 😉 [/QUOTE] Heh. “And in the Deep Blue corner…” I could see getting into chess boxing, if such a thing were anywhere near here. My boxing is decent, but my chess would need some serious brushing up. When I was a kid I studied and played all the time, when I was in Prague I played a lot because everyone did, but not so much lately. I rented Chessmaster for my PS2 a few years ago, all the various difficulty levels were given little avatars and personalities, a grandmaster at the hardest level, then professors, businesspersons, students, an so on in the middle, down to children, etc. I started in the middle, lost, worked my way down, lost, until I was on the easiest level. The character was a monkey who allegedly moved the pieces around almost at random. I couldn’t beat the damn monkey. :smack: [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/finally-an-intellectual-blood-sport-chess-boxing/456785.md?page=2)