Chess Boxing Comes to Los Angeles

I’ve been excited about the prospect of chess boxing ever since the Wu-Tang Clan rapped about “da’ mystery” back in 1993. Who knew it would become a certified sport — not just a lyrical meditation on physical and mental strategies of creativity and war? It was imagined and put into practice by a performance artist with a heart for getting his chops down on both chess and boxing, Iepe “the Joker” Rubingh. Yes, the first game in fact took place in an art gallery. The hybrid game combines the disciplines by starting on the board, alternating in a total 6 rounds of chess and 5 of boxing. Either a knockout or a checkmate wins the game.

The Joker, founder of the World Chess Boxing Federation (WCBO), played the first official chess boxing game with Lewis “The Lawyer” in Berlin, 2003. The Joker won. Two years later saw the first European tournament, attracting over 500 fans to the hybrid event mixing intellectual prowess with physical strength. The Joker was inspired not by the Wu-Tang Clan but by a futuristic comic book written by Yugoslav-born and Paris-based Enki Bilal. In the sci-fi story, Joker says, there is a television program featuring something akin to chess boxing.

It may have taken a few years, but finally chess boxing has come to America. The first official game took place at the Fortune Gym in Los Angeles this past Saturday amidst all the hubbub of the Winter Olympic Sports.

Thisbrandx previews the game:

Andrew “The Fightin’ Philanthropist” McGregor is set to take on Germany’s David “King Kong” Pfeifer in what will be the United States’ first, WCBO-sanctioned chessboxing match this Saturday at West Hollywood’s Fortune Gym. Standing an impressive 6-foot-9 and weighing in at 280 pounds, McGregor, like most chessboxers, is not your average meathead fighter. McGregor studied philosophy as an undergrad, has an M.A. in writing from the University of Southern California, is the founder of the Tiziano Project, a charitable organization dedicated to encouraging collaborative journalism in underrepresented regions around the world, and plays a pretty mean game of chess. McGregor also launched the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club, which supports the sublimation of aggression through friendly competition and sports the same motto as the WCBO: “Fighting is done in the ring. Wars are waged on the board.”

While The Joker praises the concept of hybrid games and the possibility of chess boxing rejuvenating the Ancient Greeks conception of interweaving might and wisdom within a single competition, I am certainly not the only person skeptical of its maturation. Can such a hybrid sport really enable a player’s expertise, or will it allow loopholes for players to emphasize only one side of the sport to win? As chess boxing grows and evolves out of its incubation stage, we might just see how far it can go.

Mike Richardson made a great introductory documentary to the sport: