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PODCAST EP103: Shout out to Big Mumma

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Crowd favourites Rasel “Dazzle” Alam is in the studio this week along with he opponent Andrew “Komodo Dragon” Haworth and James “Spice Boy” Corrigan.

Andrew both enjoyed beating Rasel as well as Rasel’s exceptional fighter intro, special thanks to Kate Gilbert. No one was aware that his James Bond entrance was also going to include Ruth from chessboxing Zumba fame. James Corrigan managed to catch himself before tripping on the ring steps, despite this he loved his intro and his victory against the Pawn Slayer equally. James’ opponent Andrew “Pawn Slayer” Smith let loose in the boxing and James was surprised to see such aggression.

Rasel shouts out to Big Mumma and promises to buy her some chocolates and flowers. Her support provides Rasel with the impetus to take chessboxing to another level. Rasel has improved considerably at chess thanks to chess training from Matt Read. Read has made Alam hard to beat on the chess but ultimately he succumbed to Haworth’s chess game. That said Haworth claims that he was never worried about the chess despite this improvement. Haworth was shell-shocked by the first round of boxing when he was exposed to the full wrath of Rasel “Dazzle”. Haworth did manage to land one or two great shots producing a very compelling bout.

Smith vs Corrigan bout was exceptionally well match but Andrew failed to manage his chess clock effectively. As a good chess player should Smith have realised that he was about to run out of time.

Shayan “Shah” Dolab boxed exceptionally well and put in a much better performance than last time out against Toto the Robot. Daniele Rota not only lost his WCBA European belt on the night but he also lost his Italian belt 6 days later. There was some confusion about whether or not Rota’s victories were transferred to Dolab after this bout (they were not).

The battle of the Mr Tickles was a nip and tuck affair with Read coming back from a losing position only to fall at the last hurdle. A very well matched affair with the match going down to the wire, it’s clear that Dan “The Wall” Hall will have a long and successful career in the chessboxing ring.

Finally the pod talks about the highlight of the evening – dancing in the ring! Did Gavin actually promise Rasel pizza? It seems he was distracted by his intro, Ruth and pizza throughout the event.

Will Rasel fight for pizza – probably. Call out from Tommi in Helsinki for Andrew Haworth. Shout out to Juliana Barron, we would love to have you on our show in December. Call out for Andrew Smith, James wants to see you in the ring again in December.

Chessboxing Classes: https://chessboxingnation.com/classes

Get your tickets for our next show here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/chessboxing-nation-9876871498

PODCAST EP102: Volfango Rizzi (part 2)

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This podcast deals with the controversy of why Richard Frazer’s chessboxing bout was stopped so early.

Volfango talks about the International Chessboxing event held in Vigevano, Italy. How did Danielle “Dada” Rota get on in the second bout and why did Richard “Razor” Frazer’s fight end so quickly? Danielle managed to lose two belts in the course of a week, one in London and one in Italy. Danielle move extremely quickly in both bouts only to blunder and loose the chess in the second round.

After capturing his opponent’s queen with his last move of the first chess round Frazer received 3 standing 8 counts within the first few minutes of the first boxing round. Inexplicably the bout was awarded to Frazer’s Italian oppontnent Marcello “The Sir” Gasperini without him really landing a clean punch. What happened with the boxing ref, Volfango is put on the spot. The preferred referee wasn’t available on the night so the referee was a last minute stand in who had just completed his qualifications. Volfango went as far as to say that the stoppages were premature.

Headlining was Filippo Gubbini vs Vito Borrelli in a high quality boxing bout with over 100 bouts of boxing experience between them. Gubbini is an exciting boxer who fights with his gloves down and the bout was worth of headlining.

The podcast moves on to the state of world chessboxing and how London and Berlin split to create two world governing bodies. There is only one person in charge of the WCBO and there has been some criticism of how the organisation has been run during difficult times since Iepe Rubingh passed away in the middle of the pandemic in May 2020. A united world chessboxing is still a distance away despite the change in circumstances brought about by the passing of Rubingh. Relationships are always at the heart of any organisation and perhaps this is the best way to bring the sport together. There are still some divergence of how such an organisation should be run.

What is Volfango’s favourite chocolate bar?

Watch the full event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBu9YSBsQJc

FISP round up of the show: https://www.scacchipugilato.it/ics-una-notte-stellare-in-piazza-ducale-tre-nuovi-campioni 

Chessboxing Classes: https://chessboxingnation.com/classes

Get your tickets for our next show here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/chessboxing-nation-9876871498

PODCAST EP101: Volfango Rizzi (part 1)

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This week we meet the Godfather of Italian chess boxing, Volfango Rizzi.

Volfango’s lives near Milan in Italy but he has also lived in England and Wales teaching as well as attending university. Volfango hosted an event in Vigevano including our own Richard “The Razor” Fraser. He has been involved in the sport in 2012 from a chess background and he organises chess events for young people. He met Tim Woolgar and Iepe Rubingh and began organising events in Italy.

Volfango and Gavin talk about By Rook or Left Hook and why Tim and Iepe never made it work. Volfango tried to bring the two promotors together in Milan three times but he was never able to solve the differences between them.

One of the facts that Volfango enjoys about the sport is that it makes chess accessible. Also, the way the two elements effect each other and how errors are brought into the chess due to the boxing and the conditions in the ring.

The pod talk about the show in Italy including the venue and living chess. They speak about the first bout with the rest of the show covered in part 2.

Watch the full event here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBu9YSBsQJc

FISP round up of the show: https://www.scacchipugilato.it/ics-una-notte-stellare-in-piazza-ducale-tre-nuovi-campioni 

Chessboxing Classes: https://chessboxingnation.com/classes

Get your tickets for our next show here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/chessboxing-nation-9876871498

PODCAST EP100: Chessboxing Quiz

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To celebrate our 100th podcast episode we’re looking back at chessboxing history with a little quiz between the two Egghead victors Tim Woolgar and Matt Read. If you’d like to play along at home here are the questions:

1. Chessboxing first appeared in Enki Bilal’s comic book Froid Equateur. Froid Equateur was part of which trilogy of comic books?
2. What year was the kung fu film ‘Mystery of Chessboxing’ released.
3. The first professional boxer to compete in chessboxing was Terry Marsh, The Fighting Fireman. What is his world boxing title including the awarding body?
4. Iepe Rubingh organised and took part in the first ever chessboxing match. In which month was this?
5. The Robinson brothers first combined chess and boxing together in the 1970s. In which boxing club did this happen?
6. The Wu Tang Clan made the track ‘Da Mystery of Chessboxin’ ‘. Can you name two band members?
7. For one point how many ways can you lose a chessboxing bout? For a bonus point name each?
8. Heaven is a Saturday night at chess boxing according to Chris Levy and Max Gershfield. What is the name of the Black Mirror episode which features the same track “Heaven is a Place on Earth”, as the exit music?
9. According to the chessboxing database what is the record between Tim and Matt.
10. How many Chessboxing events have been held in London according to the chessboxing database?
11. Name the first female chess boxers? For a bonus point name the year they fought?
12. Jonathan Arnott hit the headline in 2017 when he fought Lib Dem ‘Toby Sloby’ White in London Chessboxing’s Brexit belt, losing by technical knockout in the first round of  boxing. He then went on to work for Scunthorpe Hospital Radio providing commentary on Scunthorpe United games. When he ran in the 2005 general election for the Sheffield Attercliffe constituency what percentage of the vote did he achieve? Clue: he lost his deposit.

PENALTY SHOOT OUT

Name as many chessboxers as you can with the letter ‘w’ in their title? W can be in their first name, second name or ring name.

Mentions; Eggheads, Richard Morrow.

Chessboxing Classes: https://chessboxingnation.com/classes

Get your tickets for our next show here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/chessboxing-nation-9876871498

Image by Pawel Gawronski