Chessboxing?

Just when you thought the wife toss was the oddest sport in the world, along comes chessboxing. It's said to combine the #1 thinking sport int he world with the #1 fighting sport: the complete test of physical and mental strength.

Here are the rules as per the World Chessboxing Organization's website:

In a chessboxing fight two opponents play alternating rounds of chess and boxing. The contest starts with a round of chess, followed by a boxing round, followed by another round of chess and so on. In every round of chess the FIDE rules for a ´Blitz game´ apply, in every boxing round the AIBA rules apply with the following extensions and modifications:

In a contest there shall be 11 rounds, 6 rounds of chess, 5 rounds of boxing. A round of chess takes 4 minutes. Each competitor has 12 minutes on the chess timer. As soon as the time runs out the game is over. A round of boxing takes 2 minutes. Between rounds there is a 1 minute pause, during which competitors change their gear.

The contest is decided by: checkmate (chess round), exceeding the time limit (chess round), retirement of an opponent (chess or boxing round), KO (boxing round), or referee decision (boxing round). If the chess game ends in a stalement, the opponent with the higher score in boxing wins. If there is an equal score, the opponent with the black pieces wins.

From what i understand, Mike Tyson would not have an unfair advantage because he'd be checkmated in the first round, while Gary Kasparov wouldn't have an advantage because he'd be KO'd in the second round.

Since the total time is short, it might make for a decent televised event. It wouldn't surprise me if ESPN2 carried it at some point, sandwiched between the World Outdoor Games and the Doggy Olympics.