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28 March 2024

Chess-boxing: High-brow bruisers clash for bragging rights

Chessboxers Lukas "Frog" Kosowski (L), starting for Berlin and Daniel Rivas Lizarraga starting for London pose behind a chessboard after a press conference in Berlin. (AFP)

Published
By AFP

They may be from the opposite ends of the sporting spectrum, but the worlds of boxing and chess will collide on Friday to decide whether London or Berlin has the toughest and smartest sportsmen.

Dubbed the Battle of the Cities, Berlin takes on London in Germany's capital with three fighters from each metropolis to square off in chess-boxing - the sport which combines the strategy of chess with the power and fitness of boxing.

In the top bill, Berlin-based Lukasz 'The Frog' Kosowski, who boxed for Poland as a junior, will be looking to secure some revenge against London's Daniel Rivas Lizarraga.

Lizarraga has already twice claimed victories over other Berlin chess-boxers, but the host club's president Iepe Rubingh is predicting a 3-0 victory for Berlin over the three bouts this time.

In Wednesday's pre-fight press conference, the boxers politely discussed their bouts and seemed reluctant to indulge in any trash-talking, but the presidents of the respective clubs did not hold back.

"You can tell Iepe's background is in art: the Berlin club is very friendly and nice, which is fine, but we are here to fight and to win," said London's Tim Woolgar, before making a premature exit, claiming he had to get his fighters ready.

With a tongue-in-cheek dig at the Berlin club's lack of hospitality, Woolgar said he had yet to be offered a cup of tea and even questioned Rubingh's claims to be the sport's inventor and founding father.

"I don't know what Tim expected, but we are the most professional and best chess club in the world and we will beat the English 3-0 on Friday," insisted Rubingh.

Surely just a big of light-hearted banter to generate tickets sales ahead of the first meeting between the two capitals?

"No, there is a lot of rivalry between the two clubs and we both want to win," insisted Rubingh.

"Maybe then we'll give them a cup of tea."

The rules of chess-boxing are simple.

Four minutes of gentlemanly chess played on a board in the ring is alternated with three-minute bouts of intense boxing over 11 rounds - six of chess, five of boxing.

The winner earns either a boxing knockout or a checkmate on the chessboard, but either chess-boxer can be disqualified for taking too long to make his chess move or by breaking the boxing rules.

Chess-boxing started as a legitimate sport in 2003 when Rubingh took it from the pages of a comic book into the boxing ring.

The sport had its origins in a comic strip by the French author Enki Bilal, titled "Cold Equator" that hit the shelves in 1992.

The last work in Bilal's "The Nikipol Trilogy" features a blood-stained chess boxing battle set in an apocalyptic city in 2034.

"The fascination between chess and boxing has been there for a long time, there are pictures of (former world chess champion) Bobby Fischer preparing for a chess match wearing boxing gloves," Rubingh told AFP.
 
"I developed it as a real sport and drew up the rules with experts from the boxing and chess sports."
 
Which prompts the question: why?

"Because it is the most fascinating, brilliant sport, it is so demanding.

"We are looking for the smartest and toughest men on the planet and in a few years time, you will see who these guys are.
 
"You can't imagine how hard it is, you have to train the body and mind together intensely everyday."