and final round, our Canadian had perhaps as much of it as the great chess players who preceded him. On July 11th 1972, the Chess World Championship forever changed the sport. Russia, long dominant in chess, had just been publicly accused by an American, Bobby Fischer, who claimed the country was quietly fixing matches. The championship was to be Russia’s retaliation. The fight lasted a month, survived a pre-game walkout from Fischer, two separate sweeps for mind-control devices, and ended in a hysteria now referred to as “The Game of the Century.” The match was Fischer’s greatest victory. Before it had begun, he threatened not to get on the plane taking him to the match, threatened to throw out the network cameras that had paid the championship purse, threatened that the lights were insufficient and so he could not continue. When he finally agreed to play the match as promised his opponent was already tiring. When the match officially began, Fischer used new and varied strategies rather than the same series of moves that had earned him his reputation as a genius.
The reigning champion, Boris Spassky, attempted to keep pace, but his efforts only resulted in multitudinous uncharacteristic misplays. By the twenty-second match, Spassky was too exhausted to appear, conceding the match by telephone, then slipping out to the sea to watch the tides. The World Chess Boxing Organization was formed in Amsterdam in 2003 by Iepe Rubingh, its current director, a famed conceptual artist. Finding inspiration in the French comic book Le Froid Équateur by Enki Bilal, the event’s original goal was to be an “artistic performance in which the themes of a healthy spirit in a healthy body and aggression management played a role.” Growing from these ideals, the organization has continued to emphasize control over ferocity, regulating training instead of rehearsals through brawls. For this purpose, the organization has designated specific clubs as training grounds, in the process creating footholds for the sport in Berlin, London, Russia, and San Francisco. Each year, at least two championships are held where the best competitors from these clubs meet to determine the world and European champions.
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After the fight, when the majority of fans had left to go home to their children and wives, or one of the many spirited afterparties, both Canadian Sean Mooney and his Singaporean opponent had time to speak with the stragglers, press, and officials who remained at the arena. Among heated debate about heroes, tactics, and other speculative matches (Would Fischer win a match against Ali?) there was little agreement on any front. But, perhaps the philosophy behind these two bankers’ participation in the sport was unspoken: getting the hell beaten out of you in the ring is a great respite from getting the hell beaten out of you at work.