I went to boxing and a chess game broke out

I missed this 10.16 piece in the Globe and Mail story on the rising popularity of chessboxing in the U.K. (thanks, Vern). As you can imagine, this “sport” combines chess and boxing as two players/fighters alternate between four-minute chess rounds and three-minute boxing rounds with a winner determined by checkmate or knockout. As the story explains, “It’s like the Fight Club, only with tiny plastic queens.”

This doesn’t surprise me a bit. MMA has been described as kinetic chess. My club has a chess board set up in the reception area where members often play a game before or after rolling. Chessboxing just takes it to the next geeky level. Although sometime around the third or fourth round I think all I could manage is checkersboxing.