Anyone For Chessboxing?

To the uninitiated, watching a chess match must seem only marginally preferable to watching paint dry.

Unlike casual spectators at a tennis match or football game who can understand and enjoy the action at least at a basic level, following a chess game needs a level of understanding that requires a degree of personal practice and study.

As the first chess world champion Steinitz once caustically responded to a dumb question from a patzer, "Have you ever seen a monkey examining a watch?"

Well, for all the monkeys out there we now have the new hybrid sport of chessboxing.  If you haven't already heard of it, it's not a joke.  You can check out the informative Wikipedia entry here.

By all accounts chessboxing seems to be a hit with spectators, and is here to stay.  So if your chess rating has stalled some way short of Grandmaster status and you're in good physical condition, get in training now - you could be the next chessboxing champion!

If you prefer not to have your facial features re-arranged, you could go along and watch a chessboxing match to see what the fuss is about.  The official World Chess Boxing Organisation website is here, and if you live in London, there are a series of contests coming soon.