Left Hook Rook

July 14th, 2008 - 9:55 am

“Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board.”

Some people think peanut butter and chocolate don’t belong together. I may think they are crazy, but to each their own on edibles. I will tell you a combination I think is crazy. That would be boxing and chess.

The matches work like this: competitors alternate between three-minute rounds of boxing and four-minute rounds of speed chess with one-minute breaks in between to get the gloves off and hunker down at the chess table. The winner is determined by knockout, checkmate, or referee decision.

Apparently, proponents of this silliness say it is a way to teach children about strategy and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Unless the meaning of “peaceful” has changed recently, I’d say removing the boxing aspect and just sticking to chess games would do more to further that cause than introducing mini boxing matches in the middle of said chess games.

What’s next? NASCAR and backgammon?

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9 Responses to “Left Hook Rook”

  1. on 14 Jul 2008 at 10:32 am   Donna

    There was a recent episode of the television show “The Big Bang Theory” which used a similar brains meets brawn ’sport’(?)

    In the show, two of the scientists are sitting in a restaurant playing tetris and arm wrestling at the same time. I believe they called it Tresling.

    http://www.tv.com/the-big-bang-theory/the-peanut-reaction/episode/1198876/reviews.html?review_id=511150&flag=

    I was hoping that Youtube would have the scene online but in my cursory glance, I couldn’t find it. If you haven’t watched “The Big Bang Theory”, its very funny even if it is formulaic-2 geeky guys, hot female neighbor, one falls in love with her, etc

  2. on 14 Jul 2008 at 10:35 am   Donna

    Apparently I spoke too soon. Micheal found it on youtube.

    http://youtube.com/watch?v=Z1s1o_y7hSQ

  3. on 14 Jul 2008 at 1:13 pm   Ekim

    I can understand the concept. People think of chess masters as pencil-necked geeks and boxers as musclebound idiots. Being able to compete at both is something I could see people wanting to demonstrate.

  4. on 15 Jul 2008 at 1:08 pm   Ekim

    Thinking about it, I suspect there is another message involved. If you can hold out for three minutes in the ring and are a good speedchess player then you win without throwing a punch. Thus chess skills will be the way to win.

  5. on 15 Jul 2008 at 1:46 pm   Orb

    I’ve caught Big Bang Theory once. I should set the DVR to record it. It must be on at the same time as something I always watch, because I keep forgetting about it. Tresling. HA!

    And I have no doubt this new sport will eventually have a TV show and we can all see how it works. I mean, there’s “sport” shows for poker and all manner of other things. And I’ll still think it’s completely stupid. I mean really, who sits around and thinks up things like “Hey, let’s mix chess and boxing!”

  6. on 15 Jul 2008 at 4:48 pm   Ekim

    Probably somebody who saw that episode of Sliders.

  7. on 15 Jul 2008 at 4:55 pm   Orb

    Was there an episode of Sliders with something like this? I haven’t seen that show in years and barely remember it.

  8. on 15 Jul 2008 at 5:13 pm   Ekim

    It was the dimension where the sliding machine came from. Celebrities were adored for their brain power and the national ball game involved scoring goals on a pitch in mathematical patterns while answering physics questions for bonus points.

    Or something like that.

    I’ve not seen it for years either but then I only saw a few ever so I remember that one. Football mastermind.

  9. on 16 Jul 2008 at 4:15 pm   Donna

    The episode is called “eggheads” and is available on Hulu.

    http://www.hulu.com/watch/13500/sliders-eggheads#s-p1-so-i0

    Enjoy!