Chessboxing : not since Gymkata have two disparate sporting endeavors made for such a hot combination. From the Guardian’s Georgina Turner.

The brainchild of Dutch artist Iepe Rubingh, chessboxers alternate between board and ring, engaging both brains and brawn through 11 rounds (four minutes’ chess, two minutes’ boxing), to see who comes out on top. Contests are won by checkmate, knock-out, retirement, exceeding the time limit at the board or a refereeing decision. If the chess game ends in stalemate, the highest scorer in the boxing rounds wins. Ties are won, for no apparent reason, by the player with the black pieces.

On first inspection, there are probably no two sports that are more ill-matched: one minute you’re having your skull battered, the next you’re sat down trying to work out why you appear to have 48 pawns, let alone what to do with them. Wrong again, apparently.

“The combination is just fascinating,” says German fighter Andreas Dilschneider. “There are parallels. Both are about giving and taking, reacting to the move your opponent just made, whether they’ve thrown a punch or moved a piece.

“You always have to think about the end goal, what you want to do.” The World Chess Boxing Organisation (WCBO) highlights this philosophy in its motto: ‘Fighting is done in the ring and wars are waged on the board’.