Exchanging blows on the ring and strategic positioning on the board, chess boxing combines the extremes of a physical and intellectual clash. Chess boxers are put under the trials of focus, tactics, and strength to determine the athlete superior on both fist and mind. Chess boxing’s popularity was on a steady rise but it found a way to burst into the spotlight during the pandemic.
Chess boxing is a sport fought between two athletes in 11 three-minute-rounds of alternating chess matches and boxing rounds. The victor is declared when they get a checkmate in chess or a knockout in boxing, whichever comes first. In case this does not happen, the winner is decided by the points they garnered in boxing. If a tie still exists, the king of the black pieces in chess would be the winner.
The credit for the birth of this hybrid sport is given to the 1992 comic “Froid Equateur.” This comic piqued the interest of a Dutch performance artist Iepe Rubingh. Rubingh created performances based on the comics but he wanted something more out of it. He wanted to make this an official sport, so he refined the rules to adapt it to the real world. Then came the first-ever official chess boxing championship in 2003, and bizarrely, the creator of the sports also became its first champion.
However, this hybrid sport is not widely known in the Philippines. There were no official Chess Boxing competitions held in the country. This sport is yet to pique the interest of the Filipinos. In the world of boxing alone, Filipinos have one of the world’s greatest boxers, Manny Pacquiao. The Cavite-born Chess Grandmaster Wesley So, now representing the United States, also rules the world of Chess with his exemplary skills.
The existence of this sport is a game-changer in the whole sports industry. Sports used to be just a matter of being more physically fit and overwhelming the enemy with sheer raw power. However, with this sport, the elements of a human find their balance. Focus too much on your strength and you would be checkmated before you step into the ring, focus too much on your brain and you may just wake up laid down on a hospital bed.
