Chess boxing championship puts Team USA in a brain-and-brawl fight
At the World Chessboxing Championships in Serbia, Team USA won nine medals as James Canty III took super heavyweight gold.
By Deshawn Carter · Sports Writer
3 min read
The chess boxing championship in Serbia turned into a breakout moment for Team USA, with CBS News’ 60 Minutes reporting that the American squad won nine medals and finished second behind Russia at the World Chessboxing Championships.
The sport is exactly the odd collision its name promises: competitors switch between rounds at the chessboard and rounds in the boxing ring. According to 60 Minutes, a bout can end by checkmate, knockout or judges’ decision.
What is chess boxing?
Chess boxing is a hybrid contest in which fighters alternate between chess and boxing, forcing them to think clearly while exhausted and under pressure. 60 Minutes reported that competitors at the Serbia championship played three-minute chess rounds, then returned to three-minute boxing rounds if the game had not been decided.
The event took place in Loznica, Serbia, where fighters from 18 countries competed. The crowd, according to 60 Minutes, cheered both hard punches and big chess captures, while competitors wore headsets at the board to block out advice from spectators.
Team USA was coached by Matt Thomas, who told 60 Minutes he initially thought chess boxing sounded like a comedy sketch before becoming one of its loudest American boosters. Thomas became the first American to compete for a world chess boxing title in 2018, and he won that title by checkmate.
Thomas has since built a 15-person U.S. team that included a lawyer, a Cornell math major and a military veteran, according to 60 Minutes. The Americans paid their own way to the tournament, where the prize was medals rather than money.
Russia remained the dominant force. Thomas told 60 Minutes that Russia has chess boxing in more than 500 schools and universities, while Peter Zhukov, founder of the Russian Chess Boxing Federation, said old Soviet-era boxing gyms often had fighters play chess or checkers after training.
How did Team USA do?
Russia finished first in the medal count, but Team USA’s second-place showing came with a signature win. James Canty III, a professional chess player from Michigan who had been boxing for two years, faced a Russian opponent in the super heavyweight final, according to 60 Minutes.
Canty absorbed punishment in the boxing rounds and survived long enough to get back to the board. In the third chess round, 60 Minutes reported, he delivered checkmate and became the super heavyweight chess boxing world champion.
Other Americans had rougher nights. Wayne “GodKing” Clark, a former Harlem Globetrotter who told 60 Minutes he grew up around both boxing and chess, lost by checkmate to a Russian opponent after struggling to carry out his fight plan.
William “Gambit Man” Graif, a New York State chess champion who said he added 30 pounds of muscle for the sport, won his first match by checkmate over a French opponent. He later lost on points to a German champion after pushing hard both on the board and in the ring, according to 60 Minutes.
Thomas told 60 Minutes that the hardest part of chess boxing is the minute between rounds, when fighters must calm their breathing and heart rate enough to switch from punching to calculation. That transition, he said, is an area where Team USA has put serious preparation.
The sport’s backstory is as unusual as its format. 60 Minutes reported that chess boxing began as an idea in a French graphic novel before becoming a real event in Berlin in 2003. It has since grown internationally, reached the Paris Olympics as an exhibition match, and now has an American team trying to punch and puzzle its way into the top tier.
This story draws on original reporting from CBS News.