A Russian man, Nikolai Sazhin (Mathematics student, 19 ) has been crowned world champion in the novelty sport of chess boxing afterknocking out a 37-year-old German policeman Frank Stoldt, who served as a peacekeeper in Kosovo until recently.

The chess part is speed chess, which can be quite difficult and heavily favors those who are well practicedin strategy and able to make decisions faster.Players are given 1 -5 minutes each to win a game, which generally does not result in a checkmate outcome.

Wouldn’t this heavily favour brawn over brains? I mean any half decent bruiser could just avoid getting checkmated right away and then knock the nerd out in the first round. All you need then, is someone who can stand a single round in the ring and isn’t a complete moron. Your pure bruiser fails the knockout, then gets suckered into a scholars mate. But a bruiser can punch you and keep punching, while in chess you’d have to wait for him to move before enacting your Master Plan.

The best strategy is to set up complex positions on the board that require ample thought
on the part of your opponent and watch his or her time expire.