Rarely do brains and brawn come together in this way. A Russian was crowned world champion earlier this month in the sport of chess boxing.
Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name “The President,” knocked out a 37-year-old German policeman.
The loser said he was simply too punch-drunk to fend off checkmate.
PHOTO: EPA
“I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That’s why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king,” he said.
Berlin is home to the world’s biggest chess boxing club with some 40 members, and it is in an old freight station here that the two men settled the matter.
The match began over a chessboard set up on a low table in the middle of a boxing ring.
Stripped to the waist, wearing towels around their shoulders and headphones playing the lulling sound of a moving train to drown out the baying crowd, the men played for four minutes.
Then off came their reading glasses and on went the gloves.
For three minutes they beat each other and then, when the bell went, the chessboard was back in the ring and they picked up the gentlemanly game where they had left off.
“This is the hard part. You are out of breath, but you have to keep your wits about you,” said David Steppeler, a 33-year-old instructor at the local chess boxing club.
A chess boxing match consists of six rounds of chess and five in the ring, but it can also end suddenly in knockout or checkmate.
A French student who came to watch, Jelena, said the idea seemed “a bit mad” at first.
“But in fact it’s really gripping to watch.” (AFP)
兼具冷靜頭腦與發達肌肉者少之又少。一位俄國人本月稍早榮登棋拳賽世界冠軍。
以「總統」名號出賽的十九歲數學系學生尼克萊．薩辛，擊敗了一位三十七歲的德國警察。
敗陣的選手說，他當時太過暈頭轉向，以致於慘遭將軍。
他說：「我第四回合挨了很多拳，影響到專注力，所以才會在第五輪時犯下大錯：沒看見對方步步逼近國王。」
世界最大的棋拳賽俱樂部位在柏林，有四十名左右的會員；位在一個舊貨運站的棋拳賽俱樂部也是兩個男人一決勝負之地。
比賽從擺放在拳擊場中央的一張小矮桌上的棋盤開始。
腰部以上赤裸、肩膀上披著毛巾的兩名選手頭戴耳機，一邊聽著蓋過觀眾咆哮聲、且能使人平靜的行進火車聲，一邊進行四分鐘的棋賽。
然後他們摘下眼鏡、換上拳擊手套。
進行三分鐘拳賽後，鈴聲響起，棋盤又被重新搬上拳擊場，選手又紳士地繼續進行剛剛未完的棋賽。
當地棋拳賽俱樂部三十三歲的教練大衛．史戴普樂說：「最困難的部份是，你已經喘不過氣了，但還要保持理性的判斷力。」
一場棋拳賽包括六回合棋賽和五回合拳擊賽，但若有人被擊倒或被將軍，比賽也會立刻結束。
一位來看比賽的法國學生潔玲娜說，一開始她覺得這個想法「有點瘋狂」。
「但事實上，比賽過程真的很吸引人。」（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
A: Apart from the musical Sunset Boulevard, Japanese pop diva Ayumi Hamasaki is also touring Taiwan after a 17-year wait. She’s holding two concerts starting tonight. B: Ayu has the most No. 1 hits of any Japanese solo artist, with 33 total. A: “Time” magazine even crowned her as “The Empress of Pop.” B: She staged shows in Taipei back in 2007 and 2008, causing an “Ayu fever” across Taiwan. A: Unfortunately, the singer has been deaf in her left ear since 2008, and is gradually losing hearing in her right ear. I’m so excited to see her singing in Taipei again. A: 除了音樂劇《日落大道》，日本歌后濱崎步睽違17年，今晚起在台北熱唱兩場。
Denmark’s state-run postal service, PostNord, announced that it would cease letter deliveries at the end of 2025 due to the impact of digitalization. As 95% of its residents now use the Digital Post service, Denmark has seen a 90% decline in letter volumes since 2000, from 1.4 billion to 110 million last year. On top of that, the Postal Act of 2024 removes the government’s obligation to provide universal mail service and puts an end to postal exemptions from value-added tax, raising the cost of a single letter to 29 Danish krone (US$4.20). As a result, PostNord is switching
Bilingual Story is a fictionalized account. 雙語故事部分內容純屬虛構。 “One DA-BEI... WU LONG... NAI?” Yujing smiled as the foreigner struggled to order. He looked like an embarrassed puppy. She repeated the order in Chinese, then English: “Oolong milk tea, large size. Half sweet, no ice?” she said gently. He beamed — the kind of full-face, sunshine smile that Latinos are famous for. “Yes! That! You are... lo maximo… the best!” After he left, Lily nudged her. “Nice save. You’re getting the hang of it.” Yujing had taken this summer job at the bubble tea shop to build confidence and get work
Although sending you an SMS (Short Message Service) verification code provides some security, many apps now use code-generating apps and two-factor authentication instead. But more recently, passkeys now use a biometric approach to logging in. Biometrics can offer an even more secure alternative. Following this trend, Google is reportedly planning to replace SMS verification codes with “QR code” scanning. SMS codes are currently used to verify user identity and prevent fraudsters from creating fake Gmail accounts to distribute spam. However, these codes present several challenges. They can be phished through suspicious links, and users may not always have access
RSS