An intellectual fight club for people who need other people

Had it not been a Trivial Pursuit question last night, I would have never assumed that pummelling your brain then trying to use it would be a valid excuse for a sport.

Chess Boxing, to be exact.

No, really. It's a sport with a whole organization behind it, apparently. All because some artist decided it would make for a cool combination to throw pawns and boxing gloves together in a comic book he was putting together.

The rules are equally as abritary as the combination itself:

Chessboxers go through alternating four-minute long rounds of chess and three-minute boxing rounds with a one-minute break in between. A maximum total of 11 rounds are fought out—six rounds of chess and five rounds of boxing. The fight begins with a round of chess. Each player has a respite of 12 minutes during the game of chess, which means the maximum duration of the whole chess game is 24 minutes. A K.O. or checkmate can lead to an early win, and the fight can also be cut short if a player exceeds the chess time limit or the referee decides the fight has to be aborted. If the game of chess ends with a tie, it is settled with the points earned in the boxing rounds. If the boxing fight ends with a tie, the player who had black on the chessboard wins.

Clearly some people take this very seriously: