PODCAST EP119: Minotaur vs Demontime

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Both Matt ” Minotaur” Colderwell and Dashiell “Demontime” Shaw had their first fight in March this year and Matt will be headlining on the next show, Oktoberfist 23.

Matt ” Minotaur” Colderwell has already won a massive trophy beating 72 entrance in his local chess tournament. He is hoping to add the WCBA British Heavyweight title belt to his trophy cabinet. Dashiell “Demontime” Shaw joins the pod from sunny Cornwall with a glass on red, enjoying a well earned rest after his victory over Matt in the last event.

Matt is a technician producing high-end audio equipment for the rich and famous. Dash is a civil servant in the department of leveling up. Did Demotime live up to his name, how quickly was he moving his pieces? During their chess game Matt was attacking down the king side but the break eventually came on the queen side. Matt missed a chance to bring his knight into a better position after an initial retreat. He was unable to cause Dash many practical problems and the passive nature of his play allowed Dash to move rapidly and dominate the game. You can see the whole game on the chessboxing database HERE.

In preparing for the bout Matt and Dash played each other twice resulting in a win each. Dash praises Matt’s blitz game and as someone who knows his theory. Listen hard chess nerds, the chat moves into overdrive – discussions of the
Ulvestad Variation, reverse Venco, Ruso gambit and the Benoni.

Dash doesn’t believe that the boxing impacted his chess but he did suffer from pre-bout nerves. Playing chess in the ring was a daunting prospect, but once he made it pasts his intro and off the stage his nerves melted away and he was able to focus on the chess. He even enjoyed Matt’s ring walk.

Matt appeared to be a natural showman and admits that it was the most fun part of the evening. Matt was trying to be as terrifying as possible to undermine Dashiell’s confidence but it only made him stronger, rising to the occasion in a big way. Dash’s confidence was so high in fact, we saw him doing a head wobble in the second round of boxing.

Matt’s boxing was active with good variation in what he was throwing but Dash seemed to weather the storm well. Dash was worries about Matt’s reach advantage and planned to cover up, keep a high guard and allow Matt to throw the majority of punches, counting with an overhand. Round 2; Matt started throwing more to the body, under Dash’s high guard. Matt landed a sweet uppercut resulting in a grunt from Dash following which he didn’t walk back to the correct corner. Matt was waiting for Dash to drop the ball in the chess but it never happened.

Dash did manage to give Matt a leg wobble and one point but could follow up to press his advantage. There was goading on both sides, Matt smashing his gloves together after each overhand from Dash.

It was a complete chessboxing bout, the intros were great, the chess was high level and the boxing was entertaining. Dash manages to catch the Ruth vs Danlie fight which saw them trading a lot of punches. Dash was supporting Gerry but he met his match against Maarten. Shayan went down to Andre and it was a shame it finished so quickly with quite a cheap tactic in the end. Andre was able to get a lot of activity on the board and made it very difficult for Shayan who wasn’t able to make his good start in the boxing count.

Shout out to Dele Martins who cornered Dash and is fighting on our next show on the 7th of October. Dash was also greatfull for advise from cornerman Ralph. Ray Barrow and Caz from his local boxing gym trained Matt even though they had no idea what was happening in the chess. Dash mentioned how effective their advise was given how hard he found the second round.

Matt’s favourite chocolate is Montezuma dark chocolate and also a Boost – absolute filth. No chocolate for Dash, he’s maxing out on the sea food down on Cornwall…

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