I’ve spent an entire morning reading about the fascinating sport of chessboxing. A combination sport, chessboxing brings together the sport of boxing and the mindsport of chess.

Wait… What?

Even though this is a bridge column, I was instantaneously distracted by the sport enough to formulate a post. If this thing exists, then I think I’ll need to tell more bridge players about it.

I’m not much of a physical sports player, though I can enjoy watching a wider range of sports I’ll ever participate in.

All of a sudden, chessboxing is one of them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself by a little. Here’s a look at the great combination sport of chessboxing – and ideas for what we could mix in with bridge.

Quick facts: What is chessboxing?

According to Wikipedia, chessboxing was invented by a Dutch performance artist (Iepe Rubingh) after spotting a fictional match in a 1992 French comic book called Froid Équateur.

Let’s just take a moment to appreciate the creativity of the artist. Let’s take another moment to also admire the dedication of the inventor, some time after the comic book.

The rules of chessboxing are standard. Competitors play 11 alternating rounds of each, starting and ending with the mindsport. Apparently, players receive a 1-minute intermission between each round.

I’d guess the break in-between rounds is just to keep players conscious.

The first chessboxing championship match took place in 2003, between Rubingh and Jean Louis Veenstra. Rubingh won, and the sport has spiked in popularity.

There’s something particularly Gladiator-like about watching two competitors launching punches at one another, and then seeing them play chess. It’s like watching the fight you’ve been expecting to break out a bridge club for years – but legally, and with rules.

If you’d like to indulge your own interest in the sport further, there are matches available on YouTube. Matches can also be viewed on Twitch.tv, where many viewers know to find bridge matches already.

There are official organisations for the sport, including the World Chess Boxing Organisation.

It’s wildly popular worldwide. Fans include presidents of FIDE such as Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, and Vogue sub-editor Ro Elfberg. Never would I have imagined that the cross-over between chess and boxing fans would have been this close.

I think I’ll be watching some more chessboxing.

While on the topic of combination sports, what do you think about the idea of competitive bridge target shooting? If not, let’s combine first-person-shooters like Call Of Duty with a good old online bridge game.

If it takes off, remember that I came up with it on BBO Prime first.

Did the sport of chessboxing just gain a few more fans?