Is Lawrence Trent a tough guy?

[Matt Bridgeman]

It was a Reddit thread, but it was mentioned Max Euwe was a good amateur boxer. It looks like this guy is a pretty good chess boxer currently; FM Carl ‘Ouch’ Strugnell,
https://www.chessboxing.info/fighter/181220173310

[Joey Stewart]

Chess Boxing rules which have been around since 1992! Hadn't realised that you had to be rated at least 1800 to compete. It's interesting to read the rules and compare it to another fight that was on the same card between one of the Botez sisters, Andrea and WGM Dina Belenkaya. Andrea was clearly the better boxer and Dina the better chess player so Dina's strategy was to, as Jack might put it, to not get killed in the boxing and checkmate her opponent and the fight turned out to be a bit of an epic with Andrea not very complimentary about Dina's boxing skills afterwards. Here's the footage.

That was probably the most exciting chess boxing match I have seen, the ref being a bit more generous with the counts helped make it far more exciting then the trent-hambleton fight which barely got off the ground.

[Matt Bridgeman]

More footage from the crowd/Chess Brah's perspective. Really quite a big audience in attendance. Might encourage some British promoters to give it a push. Someone email Eddie Hearn! Lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgUhypESyo

It's funny in a way watching them do everything for the first time after probably only watching fights on the telly before. Obviously nobody in proper boxing gets to do all this in their first ever fight - it's usually kind of an earned privilege down the road. But here they get to show - this is how to trash talk an opponent, this is how to do a ring walk, this is how to protest an early stoppage, this is how to hug the opponent afterwards, this is how to trash talk some more. All seems a bit off and a bit comical, but as a show it probably is entertaining.

[Angus French]

I'm not a fan of chessboxing but I see Andrea Botez has retrospectively been awarded a Technical Knockout in her bout against Dina Belenkaya - but the latter is still the winner!?

[Matt Bridgeman]

I'm not a fan of chessboxing but I see Andrea Botez has retrospectively been awarded a Technical Knockout in her bout against Dina Belenkaya - but the latter is still the winner!?

They probably should try to align themselves with more common boxing conventions. Silly retrospective stuff like that will just alienate the boxing fans who will just see the sport as daft.

[Joey Stewart]

There's supposed to be a rule against stalling on the chessboard as well - botez should have never even got to have that final round of boxing if the ref had forced her to move as it was a forced checkmating sequence.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"Silly retrospective stuff like that will just alienate the boxing fans who will just see the sport as daft."

Along with many others... But you are getting close to suggesting it "is bringing boxing into disrepute", which would be quite a achievement!

[Matt Bridgeman]

"Silly retrospective stuff like that will just alienate the boxing fans who will just see the sport as daft."

Along with many others... But you are getting close to suggesting it "is bringing boxing into disrepute", which would be quite a achievement!

Yes, no danger of making boxing look any worse than it is. It’s hardly the noble art really - a very corrupt, performance enhanced world which is very top heavy in terms of a few boxers getting very rich and a lot of grass roots boxers living in near poverty. But in terms of boxing fans you’d want a bit more crossover to Chess Boxing if it really was to become a proper ‘thing’. In a way that boxing fans often quite like the UFC. It’s all fairly unlikely I suppose. I’m sure it’s not going to be a couple of events of chess streamers looking silly and then it will blow over probably.

[LawrenceCooper]

There's supposed to be a rule against stalling on the chessboard as well - botez should have never even got to have that final round of boxing if the ref had forced her to move as it was a forced checkmating sequence.

I thought the issue of stalling is a lot less relevant with a chess clock being used. If they want players to move at a set pace then they would be better off with a ten second buzzer style rate of play. Had Dina found the Nxf2 mate in one then she would have saved herself from the third round of boxing.

[Nick Ivell]

I know more about chess that boxing but it seemed to me that Dina can hardly box at all. Trent, on the other hand, looked vaguely competent, if not quite in the Marvin Hagler league.

[Matt Bridgeman]

I know more about chess that boxing but it seemed to me that Dina can hardly box at all. Trent, on the other hand, looked vaguely competent, if not quite in the Marvin Hagler league.

I’d say Ricky Gervais and Grant Bovey made a better impression in their 2008 charity boxing match. There was less panic and a bit more skill on display than the Trent match up.

[Joey Stewart]

I had high hopes for Lawrence when he first took his shirt off, he's in good shape, but obviously wasn't used to being hit and fell for the same pitfall so many boxers do made famous by the Mike Tyson quote "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth"

The girls put on much more of a match at least - Dina did try and get involved in the first round but quickly released botez was far too fit and skilled that there was no chance at all she could go toe to toe and hope to win (and you would imagine her trainer was telling her something along the same lines since she started trying to evade everything after the first round)

[Nick Ivell]

This slightly irreverent thread has got me thinking: how would our champions have fared in the ring?

Euwe - the weakest world champion - could take care of himself by all accounts.

Fischer and Karpov? I am one of those people who gave Anatoly a serious chance, had their match taken place. In the ring? No chance. Win for Bobby in the first round.

[Joey Stewart]

Botvinnik was in the army so one would assume he had basic combat training and would likely be able to hold his own in a fight but it sounds like euwes training, even if only minimal, would stand him in very strong stead.

[John Clarke]

Botvinnik was in the army so one would assume he had basic combat training and would likely be able to hold his own in a fight but it sounds like euwes training, even if only minimal, would stand him in very strong stead.

Not with his poor eyesight, I'd have thought.

On which subject, I wonder what to make of the following extract from The World Chess Championship (S Gligoric & R G Wade, Batsford 1972; p15):

Geller was small of stature but physically extremely robust ... and Smyslov chose a strange method of preparation before meeting him at the chessboard; the tall and quiet Smyslov took boxing lessons.

Seems somewhat improbable, given that Smyslov was another who habitually wore glasses.