Chess Boxing on The BBC.

I would call that Kick Dancing! 

Didn't see them do what I can do though. Handstand up the wall. 

My legs are sore 

you need to box in an official padded canvas ring, there is a good chance you'll die if you get knocked out and hit your head on the floor outside.

indeed

I remain fairly sceptical about chessboxing tbh.

Brains and brawn ?

Maybe in an ideal world, but in reality I somewhat doubt that you'll find a lot of intellectuals who enjoy a sport of beating on each others heads until one participant loses consciousness.

Brawn and pattern recognition maybe...

Somehow I can see Mike Tyson doing really well at this even at his advanced age.

I mean what does it matter if he hangs two pieces in the first 5 moves ? Against the type of boxer who participates in this he's not very likely to need more than a single round of boxing...

Do they even have weight classes in chess boxing ?

Not a sport, but a staged freak show if you ask me.

You don't think a professional heavyweight boxer could dance circles around old Tyson for three minutes?

Actual boxing professionals only have a fairly limited number of years to earn money. They will need to train a lot to become proficient at boxing and find a promoter who actually gets them fights worth money.

After that they need several fights to build up a reputation, maybe find some sponsors and if all those go well, then maybe they get a shot at the type of fights where the real money is.

If they achieve this (and many fail before that), they need to pay for one of the really capable trainers in the sport, for sparring partners, for travel expenses with a large staff, medical bills after the fights etc.

Each fight not only needs to bring enough cash to live and train in the months between fights, but they will also want to accumulate enough cash so they can have financial security after their career ends.

During all that time, there is always the risk of an injury causing them to lose some of that valuable time they have to make money while accumulating living/medical expenses and facing the challenge to get back up the the level of fitness they were before the injury, while their sponsors want them to fight again as soon as possible.

And the risk of injury that might end their career.

All these things combined don't make it very likely that a capable boxing proefessional who is really competitive (and therefore able to earn real money with boxing) will risk his livlihood for a chessboxing event which will not pay a lot of money.

Also, fighters train specifically for fights and cannot simply have two competitive fights in a time period where they would normally have only one, so the boxing professional would have to neglect his actual career fights for a chessboxing event.

I don't think this is the type of boxer you're likely to see in chessboxing. It's more like the participants aren't good enough to earn a lot of money with real boxing, or are at the end of their career anyway.

If you ever see a world-class professional boxer in his prime in a chess-boxing event then the fight is probably staged to give the viewers a good show, but I just don't see someone like that neglecting his actual career and risking injury in a low-pay event.

Thats what I meant when I talked about the type of boxer participating in this. Against a fairly unskilled boxing washout or a young and healthy hobbbyist boxer who never fought professionally I think Mike Tyson would have a decent chance on a first round knockout even today.

And as I said before, it's probably a fake freak show anyway. It's probably not particularly difficult to find two boxers who are hobby chess players with like 1500 rating and have them memorize a single game that was designed beforehand that was designed by two chess masters so it looks good and professional.

A friendly boxing match where noone really gets hurt, a pre-designed chess match (because the spectators coming to the event don't want to see no action in the ring because of a blunder on the chessboard, that's bad for buisiness) and you have an easy and mostly risk-free event that can be promoted.

I don't take this "sport" any more serious than pro wrestling, sorry.

The idea of chessboxing is so bizarre and farcical and whimsical that it was good for a minute as a "so bad it's good" type of way. 

Its time is long gone however. I can't believe people are actually trying to take it seriously. 

Chess must really be on desperate, desperate times that this is what they've resorted to. 

Girls can do chess knitting if they prefer. I'll knit one row of a jumper then make a move. 

Not sure what I'm worst at, chess or knitting.

Is there a thread about it?

You cotton on quick. 

I played Poly Ester and lost.

Her real name's Pearl but she looks quite plain.

Her body was found bobbin in the water.