From Greg Bishop, The NY Times: “The title highlights a contradiction, pairing an intellectual activity in which the combatants never touch and a combat sport in which opponents aim fists at each other’s chins. There is chess. There is boxing. And then there is chessboxing.
The sport will be showcased Saturday in Brooklyn as members of the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club make their New York debut at Gleason’s Gym on amateur night. Opponents will alternate rounds between chess and boxing, between a cerebral pursuit and a savage one. They will win by checkmate or knockout, or the judges’ scorecards.
They will also inevitably inspire questionable puns: brawn meets pawn, rook versus hook, and all the rest. Mostly, the athletes hope to accumulate more fans, participants and credibility for this hybrid of smarts and fighting.
“When I started this, I thought it was goofy, risky and ultimately wonderful,” said Andrew McGregor, founder of the Los Angeles club. “Thank God for George Foreman.”
McGregor competes under the nickname the Fightin’ Philanthropist, and he arrived for an interview in California clad in a suit, blue suede sneakers and a crown. He studied philosophy at Connecticut College and the University of Southern California, attended scriptwriting school, wrote a novel, and worked for magazines or took photographs in the Czech Republic, Argentina, Serbia, China, Japan and Croatia.”