On the box

We've noted chess boxing on the blog before, and we've noted the BBC Online's barely-existent chess coverage, too. But today we get to do both, thanks to their article this week about a new chess/boxing club in north London:

The first UK chessboxing club has begun at Islington Boxing Club in Archway ... [the] club opened last Saturday with seven members, aged between 24 and 37, and [founder] Mr Woolgar hopes to hold the first UK championship this summer.

"At the moment we are attracting boxers who want to play chess, but chess players who want to learn to box are also showing an interest," he said.

Now, of course it's not the case that a fledgling chessboxing club doesn't deserve to be reported. It's that since it definitely does, then surely it follows that the serious, significant and pure chess news out there ought to be reported too - whether, say, England number one Michael Adams's recent tournament win, or the Chess for Schools project. And it doesn't require a great leap of the imagination to see the connection between all this and the well-known fact that in medialand, All Serial Killers Play Chess. That, in other words, nearly all chess stories must be filed under "Oddball" in order to feature.

Still, best of luck to the new chessboxing club, a new and interesting addition to the London chess scene. For the Great Britain ChessBoxing Organisation's website click here.