Chess and fighting games

Now, I've already heard of chess boxing, but such a combination is most probably ultimately detrimental to chess skill of any players in the field who aren't competent or lucky enough to plough victoriously through all of their chess games before they "drink" a few "headshots", seeing as it's not quite in the nature of chess pros' jobs to lose their minds in such a fashion, exactly.

Instead, why not make Virtual Chess Fighting (or however you'd like to call it - other name suggestions, please? I feel mildly awkward about this one at the moment xD) a professional mixed discipline? Surely, the viability of such a concept is undeniable, if not outright impeccable! I think chess and fighting games really require remarkably similar skillsets - in fact, the parallels run so deep that I'm not even the first person to notice, even though I haven't found any real propositions for this kind of a "biathlon" anywhere else!

Just so I don't go analysing all the possible formats for such a competition before I get any real input about this idea of mine... what do you think about it?

I dont think spamming combos and chess have much to do with eachother because fighting games require good reflexes . There is something like this in a mortal combat game where you play chess and in between captures you fight characters , although you can be bad at chess and still win in that type .

Talekhine has a point. Me and my friends play in chess tournaments, however on our free time we play soulcalibur together and strangely enough, our skills in both areas not only parallel but also complement eachother. It's odd, but sometimes when I learn new techniques with a character or learn a little bit more about how to play better, the next time I play chess i get slightly better and vice versa. Also, I find that certain characters play like certain openings. For example, when I taught my friends how to play Ivy, I began with "Learning Ivy is like learning the Sicilian defense. She's a lot of memorization and sharp play, but is rewarding to those who have the ability to learn her."

I think it has to do with where chess and these games are stored in the brain. From what I've heard, chess patterns are stored in the same part of our brain as facial recognition. So learning a new opening is like meeting a new person, and the more you learn about it, the more gets stored in that file of the brain. Similarly, just like how I have memories separated into different places such as who my mom and dad are, who my boss is, who my friend is, etc., there are also special files for what the sicilian defence is, what the french defence is, what combos are for Ivy, what combos are for Amy and so on. Therefore whenever you learn something new, it separates itself into those files.

Chess is also connections made between patterns you've seen before. So, as a fighting game player, subconsciously I may make a connection between say, the french defence and Sophitia, as both are play in a classical defensive yet counter-attacking style. Chess players do this all the time, making connections between openings, pawn structures, and endgames. Without making connections with different patterns you've seen in the past at the most basic levels, endgames would be impossible. Thats why a tournament play is able to do, say, the rook and king mate very easily and quickly, wheras it would take someone who just knows how the pieces move possibly an hour to do the same.

I think it's pretty cool that I can improve my chess game by relaxing on the couch wrecking my opponent with Sophitia. Fighting games are also not the only thing that can improve this either. Math is also pattern and process based, so those who are good at or love math (not me haha)  also learn similarly and can improve in parallel.

First of all, have you ever tried just spamming combos in anything more than a completely casual mashfest? Knowing when exactly to spam combos is half the battle! Besides, good reflexes are always needed, unless you're playing chess under a particularly long time control (like classical), and even then you can get into various sticky situations timewise! The input's fundamentally the same, it's just that the outputs differ! It is very important that your "controller" isn't broken, especially if it works on muscle memory, but aside from that, it's about filtering your options through intuition and arriving at the best ones, then just playing them out! That's the most universally practical way to go, even in chess, because it's essentially the best possible resource management all-around, if only in theory!

As for the Chess Kombat in MK: Deception/Unchained, I've played it, as well as its Battle vs. Chess counterpart, and even though I liked them, that's not what I had in mind here gameplay-wise. Instead, I was just exploring the possibility of players competing in two separate yet equally important disciplines within a single sport that is VCF: chess and a fighting game.

And Knitro, just so I keep my impression of your post as simple as possible - you absolutely nailed it.

Now, any ideas on the possible overall format of such a competition?

Fighting games is like bullet chess, you have to make decision in limited time, but in fightings is also hard to execute combos. It's nothing like GTA or Need for speed games those even little kids could play, they don't required that much skill or knowledge. Good video explaning how hard is fighting games 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGrIR_jlLno

Well said! From my personal experience (acquired a year after posting this topic), a chess game under a 3 0 time control feels pretty close to a decent fighting game round reaction time-wise, whereas bullet chess feels more like a mindless mashfest. xD Also, I've seen that Core-A-Gaming video, there's a lot of useful stuff to gather from the analyses on that channel!

Its clear that noone in this thread has played fighting games competitevely

Well, most seemed to be quite positive towards fighting games. Most who aren't usually just played at home or arcades with friends and think that spamming single button with blanka or just mash away with eddie is hight of fighting games when in reality one need to spend very long time to "git gud".

Problem is, though, that combination chess and tekken just isn't as appealing. In chess and boxing we at least have an ideal of reaching physical and mental peak. Removing boxing is removing the whole physical part. Could be batter to change boxing to brazilian jiujitsu since it is physical 3d chess and have much lower risk of brain damage.