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Puzzle Games (Games) Role Playing (Games) Entertainment Games

Chessboxing - The Sport Of The Future? 55

Posted by simoniker from the alternates-not-allowed dept.
eval writes "According to the Chessbase website, the new sport of chessboxing has been devised 'to combine the No.1 thinking sport and the No.1 fighting sport into a hybrid that demands the most of its competitors.' Sure, it sounds like a joke, but an actual match was held not too long ago at the Paradiso in Amsterdam, which 'was packed with around 800 people' to see the world champion, 'Iepe the Joker' crowned."
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Chessboxing - The Sport Of The Future? More

Chessboxing - The Sport Of The Future?

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  • Interesting (Score:4, Funny)

    by gasaraki ( 262206 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:18AM (#7784504)
    I imagine the competitors would start off great at chess, but get worse and worse at that while their fighting game improves over their career.

    • Re:Interesting (Score:5, Funny)

      by gabec ( 538140 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @11:54AM (#7786389)
      When I first read the blurb I thought they were talking about Human Chess (a la your favorite Renaissance Festival) where the tokens fight and the winner of the round determines the success of an attack. That'd be pretty sweet. The chessmasters would have to adapt their strategies based on known fighting-skills of their players.

      Having the players box would make gameplay anticlimactic... Envision if you will... They're jumping around pounding away at one another jowls flopping, sweat spraying, a grunt of pain as a glove makes contact... the bell rings and... they stop.

      They pull off their gloves, whip out their favorite thinking caps and perhaps a calabash pipe [sherlockholmes1.com] spending the next five minutes staring fixedly at the plastic tokens before them.... yeah... that's rousing.

      They'd even have to switch announcers just to bring the rousing mood down further. Start off with a classic boxing announcer [wrestlingclassics.com] and end up with a golf-level announcer. *snore*

  • It's April Fools' Day in the Netherlands, right? :P

  • Personally I would love to see the sport of Debating-Box adopted in the US.

    The Presidential Contenders Debate for four minutes and then box for two minutes. They do it till one of them can spin the debate or there is a knockout.

    The winner then advances to do the same with the sitting President. Only thing is that to help the sitting president the rules are changed and now there is two minutes of debates and four minutes of boxing.

    • Re:How about Debating Box for POTUS ... (Score:4, Funny)

      by roseblood ( 631824 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:44AM (#7784576)
      And Arnold though getting to Sacramento was going to be the peak of his political career! DC here he comes!

  • Mediocrity, or supermen? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by c.emmertfoster ( 577356 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:25AM (#7784522)
    I figure that this will attract mostly people who are moderatly good at both, considering how little it really adds, and I can't imagine what kind of person would enjoy watching it. It's not exactly recognized as an olympic sport, either.

    'Iepe the Joker' is somewhat proficient at both boxing and chess? So what? I bet I could beat him at writing web-code, and playing Starcraft. We could call it "DHTMLStarcraft: the sport of the future!"

    I doubt it. The real sport of the future will involve people in giant robots beating the shit out of each other.

  • Enki Bilal (Score:4, Informative)

    by Rxke ( 644923 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:34AM (#7784551) Homepage
    European 'bande-dessine' (comic, strip...) author Enki Bilal used this in his works *years* ago... But I can't remember any title...

    • Re:Enki Bilal (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      here it is : "froid equateur" (1992)
      http://bilal.enki.free.fr/bibliographie.ph p3?trier _par=date

      AND, Enki Bilal IS famous and well-known etc...

  • Those chess machines (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:34AM (#7784552)
    So how long before a computer beats a human at this?

    • Re:Those chess machines (Score:5, Funny)

      by bmnc ( 643126 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:42AM (#7784572)
      A long time since computers arent very good at boxing.

      I imagine when ppl begin to manipulate the rules a match will go something like this:

      Heavy Weight Boxer: So I have 12 minutes on the chess clock right?

      Chess Player: Yes. I will kick you ass in 20 moves.

      HWB: Great, I'll make one move then. This will ensure 3 rounds of boxing with you at 2 minutes each.

      CP: Ummmmm... Shit!

    • I'm not sure. When does Skynet become self-aware again?

  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:40AM (#7784565)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • chessboxing II: physics, too (Score:5, Funny)

    by eyenot ( 102141 ) <eyenot@hotmail.com> on Monday December 22, 2003 @04:59AM (#7784606) Homepage
    i like it, alternately i would set up a huge board with (very staminated,) human chess pieces. in order for a taking move to be successful, the pieces would have to put up their dukes in order to prove their position. alternately they could convince the other piece to battle them in a debate over physics until one cedes the point. this is stupendous!!! (i give it three exclamation points. but you noticed that. but, i digress.)

  • Still a Joke (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Chasuk ( 62477 ) <chasuk@gmail.com> on Monday December 22, 2003 @05:24AM (#7784686)
    Sure, it sounds like a joke, but an actual match was held not too long ago

    Because an "actual" match was held, it can't be a joke?

  • Harry Harrison (Score:4, Interesting)

    by amcguinn ( 549297 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @07:30AM (#7784952) Journal
    I seem to remember "Planet of the Damned" by Harry Harrison started with a kind of "decatholon" involving weightlifting, running, poetry composition and chess, among other events. It took place on a planet that was ice-bound for most of the year and had a brief summer when everyone went wild, or something like that.
  • I couldn't help but think this has got to be a joke upon first reading the article... All I've gotta say is this cannot end well.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Too weighted towards boxing (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dr. Spork ( 142693 ) on Monday December 22, 2003 @08:46AM (#7785181)
    Suppose (per impossible) that this sport made it big, with large amounts of prize money. Well, then it would essentially turn into straight boxing.

    I read the rules, and though you begin with chess, it goes only four minutes, and then it's a round of boxing. Even Mike Tyson could learn to not lose a chess game in four minutes (by stalling or whatever). And then, seriously, who can go a whole round against a top-rated heavyweight boxer? Only another top-rated heavyweight boxer. (In his prime, Tyson would regularly KO the second-best boxer in the world in the first round. What chess players would have a chance?)

    When you think of it, any intellectual activity/boxing hybrid will most likely be decided in the boxing segment. There might be some profound lesson in that observation...

    • Re:Too weighted towards boxing (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      a heavyweight boxer might be able to avoid losing in chess for four minutes, but a chess master may be able to keep from being KO'd in two minutes, if he's quick enough. Tyson certainly could beat the hell out of boxers who wanted to beat the hell out of him, but if someone was just simply avoiding him, could it last for two minutes? that's the real question.

      that said, I like the "Predator/Prey" role reversal idea in this game, but the game itself is recockulated.
      • I'd assume they still have weight divisions in this. Would be pretty unbalanced if the 100kg chess player gets to beat the crap out of the 70kg chess player.
      • Tyson certainly could beat the hell out of boxers who wanted to beat the hell out of him, but if someone was just simply avoiding him, could it last for two minutes? that's the real question.

        Funny picture! It wouldn't look much like boxing then, would it? It would be a lot of ducking and running. Really, a great recipe for a spectator sport.

        • Running away would be a sign you are unable to defend yourself.

          In most boxing matches, if you do not defend yourself, the rules state the referee must stop the fight.

          This rule is really intended to save boxers who are too tired / beat up to keep their arms up, but are too thickheaded and determined to fall to the mat. But it also can apply to fighters making a mockery of the match, so no boxing stance, no win.
    • There might be some profound lesson in that observation...

      "Let the wookie win", mayhaps?

  • Hmmm... (Score:2, Funny)

    by 77Punker ( 673758 )
    I'll have to try this at my next chess club meeting at school!
  • Hey, has Go been brought up in this article on Chess yet?


  • My getting beat up on the way home from Chess club was a rather regular occurance. It wasn't regulation boxing, mind you. More like "Wrestling Team/Football Team/Baseball Team vs Chess Team". But I remember these "events" being on the bill nearly every week!

  • american action movie (Score:3, Funny)

    by Hubert_Shrump ( 256081 ) <cobranet@@@gmail...com> on Monday December 22, 2003 @11:28AM (#7786205) Journal
    can we just get done with the whole sitting thing and have something blow up?!

    i can imagine most modern theatre would be improved by sporadic fisticuffs...

    and art museums.

  • This reminds me of a contest (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TerryAtWork ( 598364 ) <research@aceretail.com> on Monday December 22, 2003 @11:55AM (#7786396)
    I invented some years ago.

    It was designed to eliminate people in widely contrasting contests of mind and body - for example the first one was a marathon. the top half of competitors would move on a tournament in say, some lesser board game like checkers.

    Then the top half them run 100 meters - the top half of that play another game etc.

    In the end the top 16 play a chess tournament then the top 8 chess players run 5 miles then the top 4 5-milers play Go and the best two Go players fight it out in a Ultimate Fighting championship sort of thing (but this was some years before UF)

    Who knows - this could catch on!

  • ooo
    aaa
    ooo
    aaa

    raw i'm a give it to ya
    with no trivia
    raw like cocaine straight from bolivia

    (sorry, it just popped in my head when i read the headline. there's gotta be some other wu fans on /.)
  • I couldn't help but think of this Harry Potter dialogue:

    Hermione: That's totally barbaric!
    Ron: That's Wizard's chess!
  • Did anyone else see the "more pictures of the championship"? They also had a RAP BATTLE, I assume in Dutch?

    Chess-Boxing and Dutch rap battles at the same time.....my mind is officially blown.

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