Chessboxing uses fighters' brains, brawn

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LONDON, April 24 (UPI) -- Participants in Chessboxing in London said the latest European sports craze allows them to use both their brains and their brawn in the ring.

The game involves two competitors playing three minutes of chess followed by three minutes of boxing for 11 alternate rounds, with the game ending with either a knockout or a checkmate, CBS News reported Tuesday.

Andy "The Rock" Costello, a former police officer who played chess for his English county at age 10, said Chessboxing is a perfect marriage of his interests.

"I think the contrast of seeing two people playing chess and then hitting each other, either of them in isolation wouldn't be comedic," said Costello, who faced off recently in London against Nikolai "The Siberian Express" Sazhin. "But when they're alternated it is [pretty funny]."

However, Costello said he was "disappointed" to lose to Sazhin, who served on the Russian boxing team as a teenager and has been playing chess for 10 years, in a checkmate.