First time I heard about chessboxing I thought it was another April joke. I just could not imagine the royal game of chess combined with a brutal boxing in a single “game”. It seemed almost like playing tennis with rocks or sprinting underwater. Later, I figured that April fool’s day is gone long time ago, but chessboxing is a reality.  Anyways, chessboxing is a combination of chess (game of brains) with boxing (game, no, sport of punches). According to WCBO (World Chess Boxing Organization) the chessboxing match starts with a 4 minute long round of chess, alternating with 3 minute boxing rounds. There are maximum of 11 rounds possible: 6 chess rounds and 5 boxing rounds. Checkmate, lose on time in chess or knockout in boxing means loosing. WCBO writes that to be eligible for a professional chessboxing an athlete must be in excellent physical condition, be under 35 years old and most importantly to have at least 1800 ELO. It means that professional boxer needs years of training to achieve the chess standard. However, I think, an average chess player needs a lot more time to become a good boxer. There are about 60% chessboxers came from the boxing world and only about 40% from traditional chess. I would be feeling very nervous if  knew that after 4 minutes of chess I would have to face an angered pro boxer who just fell into that cheap “forking trap” and lost a piece. Most likely I will not be able to continue that won chess game after those 3 minutes of boxing … This sport is more suitable for boxers, not for the chess players.

This year was very important for chessboxing since World Chessboxing Championship took place in Berlin, Germany about a week ago. Nineteen year old mathematics student from Krasnoyarsk University, Russia Nikolai Sazhin defeated the current champion Frank Stoldt of Germany and became the second Chessboxing World Champion.  

Nikolai has 1911 Elo, while Frank has 1960 Elo, but only 25 boxing fights.

Frank  Stoldt commented after the game: "I took a lot of body blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration, That's why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king." (chessbase) 

More about chessboxing:

http://site.wcbo.org/content/index_en.html

http://www.chessbase.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing