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Chess boxing
- rememberlenny 8y agoI went from not knowing anything about Chess Boxing-to-seeing it multiple times today. I came across this: Chess Boxing's role in empowering young women in India. https://www.newsdeeply.com/womensadvancement/articles/2018/05/10/chess-boxing-offers-a-way-out-of-poverty-for-young-women-in-india https://www.newsdeeply.com/womensadvancement/articles/2018/0...
- jordan314 8y agoI thought I might be good at chessboxing until I saw the champion. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84863-World-Chess-Boxing-Champion-Crowned http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84863-World-Chess-...
- Pxtl 8y ago.... of course the champ is Russian. Seriously, the only way this sport could be more Russian would be if they somehow added a vodka-drinking contest round.
- mlvljr 8y agoDoes that currently count as doping, in fact?
- Retra 8y agoSomebody seriously needs to write a strategy article on drunken chess boxing.
- executesorder66 8y agoAnd you have to play the chess round while squatting.
- lambdadmitry 8y agoThat's pretty racist, just so you know.
- TimTheTinker 8y agoI’m sick of that label/epithet getting tossed around. No it isn’t. Racism is a prejudiced attitude towards individuals on the basis of their ethnic or national origin. The comment demonstrates none of that. Seriously, is the world really a better place if we can’t laugh at one another and especially ourselves? Moreover, it sounds to me like the commenter is showing a decent level of respect (or sportsmanlike admiration) towards Russians in general.
- V-2 8y agoWell, he's the heavy weight champion though (formerly light heavyweight, but heavy nevertheless). They, too, have weight divisions in the sport.
- fvrghl 8y agoThe Wu-Tang Clan Classic: Da Mystery Of Chessboxin' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk0p-98Xzc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJk0p-98Xzc
- errantspark 8y agoWhen I saw the title I immediately thought "The game of chess is like a sword-fight, you must think first before you move." ; )
- ErikAugust 8y agoFunny how the song predates the sport by 10 years.
- evan_ 8y agoThe song is predated by the Kung-fu movie "The Mystery of Chess Boxing" by 14 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_of_Chessboxing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystery_of_Chessboxing
- kickingvegas 8y agoThanks for posting this, because if you didn't I would. That said, here's a remix. https://soundcloud.com/wugazi/03-another-chessboxin-argument https://soundcloud.com/wugazi/03-another-chessboxin-argument
- netvarun 8y agoOn a related note, RZA is big fan of chess. Doesn't surprise me to see the Wu-Tang clan have a chess themed song. In a 2007 interview [2] he says that, based on Josh Waitzkin's appraisal, his (unofficial) ELO rating would be around ~1400 ELO [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/arts/music/07clan.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/07/arts/music/07clan.html [2] http://www.uschess.org/content/view/7924/349/ http://www.uschess.org/content/view/7924/349/ Edit: Updated with source
- EngineerBetter 8y agoI did some chess boxing once as part of a stag (batchelor?) party for a fellow jiu-jitsuka. It was great fun, and folks take it seriously. We were embarrassingly bad at chess by comparison (and pretty ropey at the boxing too).
- wimagguc 8y agoI went to see one of the championship finals a few years ago, and it is excellent fun. There are two built-in moments which are bound to be awesome: (1) when the box round is over, tension is through the roof, and the boxers are sat down around a chess board with classical music on, and (2) when two steps before a chess mate, the about-to-lose guy has three minutes to beat out all the smart from the opponent. Best spectator sport I can imagine, can only recommend to see one.
- airstrike 8y ago> (2) when two steps before a chess mate, the about-to-lose guy has three minutes to beat out all the smart from the opponent. LMAO... I hadn't thought of that angle... This may have single-handedly convinced me that this the best spectator sport ever
- mstade 8y agoI can confirm this sport is excellent from a spectator standpoint. I also went to see some championship (I think) fights in London a few years ago and having never seen it before I was very skeptical. After the event however, I raved about it to anyone willing to listen – still do, evidently!
- regnerba 8y agoCCP Games holds an event every year in Iceland called Fanfest where they invite players for EVE Online out to hangout with devs, drink, party, learn about upcoming EVE Online changes, etc. I bring this up because most years they do something crazy for one of the nights. Back in 2011 they did a chessboxing match. Here was there promo/announcement video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaBWBmYfqVQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaBWBmYfqVQ And the actual match: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJy2kIWtyvQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJy2kIWtyvQ It was pretty crazy. It's one thing to know whats going to happen, but when blood actually started being drawn it just went to a whole new level.
- daviddumon 8y agoCCP also have the best recruiting video ever made :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvM7av1o1Q https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgvM7av1o1Q
- galaxyLogic 8y agoSo nobody here sees nothing wrong trying to hit somebody as hard as you can in their face? And encouraging the youth to be good at it? Personally when I see a boxing match and see somebody hit in the face it hurts me. I think that's called empathy. Getting used to boxing means you get used to seeing violence and it doesn't hurt so much any more. Then when the moment comes for you to hit someone in the face I guess it just feels like good sport. No?
- nyolfen 8y agothis is more than a little condescending towards boxers. thank goodness we have the blessed empath to show us the error of our ways.
- tentakull 8y agohallowed be his name, let his gentle nature guide us to a more gooder future
- tomsthumb 8y agoThe most common comments I hear from people who have become proficient at various types of violence are: They experience less desire to assert themselves physically because they understand who they are and feel more secure in themselves. They understand that you can’t really tell who is and isn’t worth getting into an altercation with just by looking at a person. There are a lot of very unassuming people who are quite good at handling themselves physically. Out of continually confronting contained (often consensual) violence they develop a deep respect for what people, both themselves and others, are capable of. The idea of casually entering into real violence without good reason is not taken lightly.
- Swizec 8y agoMy favorite part of [good] boxing gyms is that anyone who comes in there expecting to do violence quickly gets paired with the most seasoned opponents who put them back in line. These violent types then either never show up again, or get the hint and start playing nice. Personally I like boxing because there's something incredibly confidence building about knowing that you can handle getting punched in the face and keep going. Very empowering. It's a lot less unpleasant than most people imagine.
- m3kw9 8y agoFor a moment I thought I saw Chest Boxing
- twic 8y agoAn operating theory of chessboxing i have heard is that it's really, really hard to play chess very well at all once you've been punched in the head. As such, chessboxing is essentially boxing, with extended breaks between rounds, during which the contenders happen to play chess.
- bluGill 8y agoBut if you can defend in the ring, and find the quick win on the board...
- dbasedweeb 8y agoIn the words of David Mitchell (paraphrased) Mike Tyson would be a very good chess boxer given that after the first boxing round, his opponent would be unconscious.
- sleepydog 8y agoIn the words of Mike Tyson: "Everyone has a plan 'till they get punched in the mouth."
- sacado2 8y agoAnd AFAIK, that's the reason why the first round is a chess round.
- darepublic 8y agoTyson vs Kasparov. I think it would be easier for Tyson to avoid mate in 1 round of chess than for kasparov to avoid a knockout in one round of boxing
- the_af 8y agoThe most important thing about chess boxing is that it was inspired by an awesome sci-fi comic by an even more awesome artist: Enki Bilal. If you haven't already, you should read his comics, at least the Nikopol Trilogy.
- jicea 8y agoI totally agree with you, awesome comics! I was so surprised to see in the first lines of the Wikipedia page that "Chessboxing was invented by Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh.". I find this attribution quite controversial, even if Enki Bilal is cited later in the article. A better wording could have been "Chessboxing was invented by Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh, inspired by French artist Enki Bilal’s comics."
- Hoasi 8y agoIndeed what Rubingh did was implementing Enki Bilal's idea in real life competitions. The idea of the sport itself is explicit in the Nikopol comics: https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&q=enki+bilal+chess+boxing+&chips=q:enki+bilal+chess+boxing,online_chips:froid+equateur&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiEvqCb8InbAhUQEVAKHYiuA9wQ4lYIJygB&biw=1259&bih=646&dpr=2 https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbm=isch&q=enki+bilal+ch...
- Theodores 8y agoYou may be surprised to learn that chess does get played in prison, not by many people but those that do indulge can end up extremely good at it after a year or two (or more!!!) inside. In this other world of chess there can be betting involved too, so the stakes can be high, which is good for improving skill levels. After all, who wants to lose a game if one's mates have bet significant sums on you winning? Chess boxing seems to be in a similar vein of getting people to play the game, reaching out to those that otherwise might not play.
- toolslive 8y agoSome of theses chess addicted inmates become really good. Bloodgood, for example became 2700+. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bloodgood https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Bloodgood
- wepple 8y ago“You may be surprised to learn that chess does get played in prison” Growing up, I would have. But after moving to NYC my eyes were open d to how it isn’t “just a nerds game” and popular with a massively diverse group of people.. it’s really great to see actually.
- sailfast 8y agoThis reminds me of Squashboxing: https://youtu.be/pUQ8BfBlQww https://youtu.be/pUQ8BfBlQww I was kinda hoping that you could punch WHILE the other player was moving pieces so you'd be incentivized to play quickly to defend.
- zacharycohn 8y agoDuring the peak of my athleticism, another high level athlete friend and I got very interested in Chess boxing, but he was a FAR better chess player than I and I was a far better martial artist than he. We ended up settling on playing Scrabble-apples (non-referral link: https://www.amazon.com/Parker-Brothers-4979-Scrabble-Apple/dp/B001FYJBM8 https://www.amazon.com/Parker-Brothers-4979-Scrabble-Apple/d...), sort of a "each player builds their own scrabble crossword in front of them" game. Whenever you run out of tiles in your hand, you say "Peel!" and everyone draws an additional tile from the bag. We put the bag at the bottom of a snow covered, forested hill. 2+ hours of snowy hill sprints combined with trying to make words out of scrabble tiles later... I fully appreciate how difficult it is to transition back and forth between brain and body heavy activities.
- dlbucci 8y agoScrabble-apples sounds like a clone of Bananagrams, even down to yelling "peel!" I wonder which came first...
- captn3m0 8y agoBananagrams (2006) is before Scrabble Apple (2009). Scrabble Apples is Hasbro so likely a re-licensed reskin (BGG doesn't list it as such though) BGG also says that Bananagrams is a re-implementation of Pick Two! (1993).[0] [0]: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4975/pick-two https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/4975/pick-two
- zacharycohn 8y agoUgh I think I meant bananagrams?
- _sdegutis 8y agoThere were days when I had time to exercise for 2-3 hours straight, and I figured I would save time by trying to write some code or invent some app in my head while doing jumping jacks and other workouts. After a few hundred of them, I couldn't concentrate on anything but the counting and making sure my form was okay, and after a while even that took a lot of effort to focus on.
- synesso 8y agoI'm not looking forward to the day a computer beats a human at this.
- balazsdavid987 8y agoCongrats, you've just made my day!
- notyourday 8y agoIt is already winning half of the battle.
- mrguyorama 8y agoI'm pretty sure if you shoved a heavy enough server rack containing deep blue into the ring, you would have a hard time knocking it out. In fact, you'd likely hurt yourself in the process
- John_KZ 8y ago5-10 years.
- komali2 8y agoWasn't there some weird flash game you could play that was narrated by someone describing chess boxing?
- LambdaComplex 8y agoFrog Fractions? http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions/ http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions/ Edit: Just replayed it to that point. It's not talking about chess boxing, just (a very incorrect history of) normal boxing.
- paulific 8y agoCan't resist the chance to recommend the Japanese comic Bunburyoutou (文武両闘). There is a free trial (in Japanese) at http://maoh.dengeki.com/try/bunburyoutou/index.html http://maoh.dengeki.com/try/bunburyoutou/index.html but that is geoblocked an image search using the kanji above should give you the idea. Basically the author took the idea of chess boxing and then let his imagination run wild. For example: In one contest the fighters competed to factor a series of increasingly large numbers, with the winner getting the sum of the factors in seconds for a free attack on their opponent.
- GCA10 8y agoDoes anyone have a chess scoresheet (bonus points for annotation!) showing the caliber of board play? I'm assuming the openings are solid but the middle game and endings start to get very odd.
- stouset 8y agoWorld Champion chessboxers are apparently rated in the mid-1900s ELO, which is readily achievable by enthusiasts and not particularly impressive. As a chess player, this makes sense to me. A super-elite grandmaster will win eventually against a skilled amateur, but the amateur can often find ways to stall positions or drag things out. On the other hand, an elite boxer can literally kill their opponent in seconds if the opponent is sufficiently below their level. I can’t imagine a setup for this type of contest that doesn’t heavily weight boxing skill to making the chess component nearly superfluous (or at least effectively a tie-break). Mike Tyson against Magnus Carlson wouldn’t last five seconds longer than the first round of chess. A skilled amateur boxer vs. Magnus Carlson might take thirty seconds more than that.
- CGamesPlay 8y agoFrog Fractions [1] had a great history of boxing in narration form. Video form is here [2]. [1] http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions/ http://twinbeard.com/frog-fractions/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIlTJIJS8p0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIlTJIJS8p0
- navalsaini 8y agoI like playing chess and working out. So I combined chess and workouts. There are several variations, * Do X crunches every 2 or 3 moves. * Do X pushups/pullups/situps/skipping/etc every 2 or 3 moves. Disclaimer: I am also creator or a chess variation halfchess.com
- TheSpiceIsLife 8y agoWhat a great game! I lost of course. I like that it makes the next game easier, and that you can play with eight or ten pieces. Did you try with six?
- navalsaini 8y agoNo I didn't try with six pieces. :-) Thanks for the like. I am working on a two player version that connects random people to play against each other for the next version.
- V-2 8y agoI won fairly easily. The engine is quite weak, it falls for basic tactics (is it custom made?). But, obviously, I assume that's not the point... it's just fun to play :) For a chess player it feels kind of like 2048. Plus, I guess, good exercise for some endgame training.
- p3llin0r3 8y agoThis is cute, but with what we now know about CTE, I can't help but find boxing, football, etc disgusting. I'm not just being a pretentious nerd, I actually like sports and I used to love watching boxing / MMA. It is so so so much worse than what we thought. Dave Mirra, Chris Benoit, Aaron Hernandez, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_players_with_chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy#High_school_football_players_with_CTE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_NFL_players_with_chron... https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/football/nfl-cte.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/07/25/sports/footba...
- sneak 8y agoEven without the long-term damage associated with CTE, there is limited intellectual value to any sport that involves hitting others in the head.
- MikkoFinell 8y agoWhat do you mean by "intellectual value"? I find it interesting to watch combat sports, because it's like an experiment in human physique and psychology that reveals of what kind of self defense is actually effective and how humans function under extreme conditions. For me, that is valuable even if I never got in a fight for the rest of my life.
- omginternets 8y agoThere is such thing as value that is non-intellectual.
- pc86 8y agoGod forbid someone not spend their life minmaxing for "intellectual value" (whatever that means).
- montalbano 8y agoWithout going to boxing I never would have developed the discipline and endurance necessary for my university degree. How's that for intellectual value?
- boffinism 8y agoI've seen a few chessboxing matches. The thing about boxing is that it's very rare to end by KO (especially at the level of your typical chess-boxer), so it would normally be decided on points. However, because it's speed chess they're playing, and adrenaline is high, it's fairly hard to get all the way to the final round without a checkmate. So every single match I've seen has been won by the better chess player, and the boxing has just been an interesting diversion.
- exeterfan 8y agoI saw this in London as few years ago. During the chess rounds the competitors wore headphones and a commentator came into the ring and explained what were good moves, which were mistakes. Really helped novice like me. Someone had also had a banner which read "Take his queen, punch his spleen"
- Mysterix 8y agoThere is a Chess&Run tournament every year at Enghien-les Bains (north of Paris, France). Each player has 10 minutes for the whole game, like in a classic blitz game, but the clock is 10 meters away. Next one is on May the 19th. http://www.echiquierdulac.fr/?p=2744 http://www.echiquierdulac.fr/?p=2744 (in french) Demo : http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/0thPHAyqDOpc http://studio.stupeflix.com/v/0thPHAyqDOpc
- gaytards 8y agonow that is just fucking autistic
- jaboutboul 8y agoThere’s a Wu Tang Clan song called Da Mystery of Chessboxin’. Just sayin...
- talltimtom 8y agoIt’s sort of weird that they have weight classes but not IQ classes.
- dboshardy 8y agoAnecdotally, I play chess much worse when resting between sets in the gym than when I'm sitting at my desk or on my couch. After a few profoundly stupid moves while playing chess during workouts, I remembered hearing about chessboxing and it making a whole lot of sense given what had just happened to me.