Fighting and Chess

 

Around 1120, King Henry I (1068-1135) of England and King Louis VI (1081-1137) of France got into a fistfight over a game of chess in Paris. One story says that Louis threw the chessboard at Henry; another says that Henry hit Louis over the head with the chessboard. Courtiers stepped in to stop the fight. This episode supposedly was the start of events that kept England and France at war for almost 12 years.

In 1867, Wilhelm Steinitz (1836-1900) got in a dispute with Henry Blackburne at a City of London Chess Club game. Blackburne made an insulting remark and Steinitz spat towards Blackburne. Blackburne, who was over 6 feet and 250 pounds, then smashed the diminutive Steinitz in the face with his fist. Steinitz wrote,
“…he struck with his full fist into my eye, which he blackened and might have knocked out. And though he is a powerful man of very nearly twice my size, who might have killed me with a few such strokes, I am proud to say that I had the courage of attempting to spit into his face, and only wish I had succeeded.”
Later, at a tournament in Paris in 1878, Blackburne returned to the hotel drunk and got in a quarrel with Steinitz. Steinitz wrote,
“…and after a few words he pounced upon me and hammered at my face and eyes with fullest force about a dozen blows…But at last I had the good fortune to release myself from his drunken grip, and I broke the window pane with his head, which sobered him down a little.”

At the Amsterdam tournament in 1950, Samuel Reshevsky and Miguel Najdorf got into a scuffle after a chess game.  Rehsevsky punched Najdorf in the eye.  [source: "Reshevsky Slugs It Out With Najdorf," Tartajubow Blog, May 17, 2016]

In 1950, Walter Bjornson of Vancouver was cut with a knife by his opponent during a chess game, leaving a 4 inch gash in his forearm. His opponent attacked Walter after losing a game and got into a fight.

In 1954, the Argentine Chess Federation called off the national tournament after a chess player punched a referee.  [source: Chess Review, December 1954, p. 358]

After the 1957 US Junior Championship where Bobby Fischer finished first and Gilbert Ramirez second, they were riding home together with some other participants when car kept breaking down. All the players chipped in to have it repaired but eventually it broke down completely and had to be abandoned. While riding through the hot desert with no air conditioning arguments lead to a fist fight between Fischer and Ramirez. Ramirez blackened Fischer’s eye and Bobby bit Ramirez on the arm.

In July 1957, Alexander Piotrowski was playing chess with Kazimierz Osiecki on the lawn on their jointly owned house in Clapton, England. Osiecki captured Piotrowski's queen without saying "guard" when he threatened it on the previous move. Piotrowski told Osiecki to take the move back. Osiecki refused. That's when Piotrowski picked up a garden chair and hit Oslecki. Oslecki then picked up the wooden chess board and threw the board in Piotrosski's face. A more serious fight then broke out. Both players were then sent to the hospital with a fractured rib and assorted cuts and bruises. The case went to court in London. The magistrate observed that this was the first chess match in 2,000 years to send both participants to the hospital. He declared the match to be a draw and dismissed both charges. [source: The Ottawa Journal, July 18, 1957)]

In 1960, a merchant seaman, Michael George got in a fight with a spectator, Clinton Curtis, in a Greenwich Village bar (Chumley's) when Curtis criticized the George’s chess game against another opponent, Loren Disney.  Curtis took a swing at the sailor and missed.  George, forgetting he was holding a glass of beer, swing back.  George struck Curtis with the glass beer bottle, which broke and struck Curtis's jugular vein and killed him.  Curtis was dead when the ambulance arrived.  Curtis, age 34, was a free-lance book editor from Miami, visiting his brother in New York at the time.  [sources: Anderson Herald, June 2, 1960 and The Rimes Dispatch (Richmond, VA, Jun 2, 1960, p. 15)]  George was eventually acquitted of murder and was charged with accidental death instead.

In May 1962, during the Candidates Tournament in Curacao, Bobby Fischer and Pal Benko got into a fight after Fischer asked Arthur Bisguier to assist him during an adjournment.  But Benko also wanted Bisguier to help with his own adjournment with Tigran Petrosian.  Benko supposedly insulted Fischer and Benko responded by slapping Fischer. [source: “The Fischer-Benko Slapping incident,” ChessHeroesblogspot, October 1, 2009]

In 1966, Mikhail Tal got into a bar fight and was beaten up and hit on the head with a beer bottle during the 1966 Chess Olympiad in Havana.  He was drinking and had been flirting with a woman in a bar when her drunken jealous boyfriend got in a fight with Tal.  He missed the first five rounds of the Havana Chess Olympiad because of his injuries. [source: 17th Chess Olympiad: havan 1966, olimpbase.org]

In one of the US Opens of the early 1970s, a chess player had just lost his game and, by himself, set up the pieces to analyze his game. A player sitting next to him told him to leave the playing area, that this was not a skittles room. Ignoring the player, the other person quietly replayed his lost game. The player again told him to leave. The lone kibitzer replied, “Who died and made you king?” The player then swept all the pieces off the other guy’s board with his hand. The kibitzer responded with a right hook that knocked the player off his seat. A fight then started, which had to be broken up by the tournament director.

On January 5, 1979, Patrick McKenna, a prisoner in Nevada, got in a fight with his cellmate and strangled his Las Vegas cellmate, Jack J. Nobles, age 20, after an argument over a chess game in which he lost. He has been on death row for over 30 years. He was denied the latest in a long line of appeals. He has been called the most dangerous inmate in Nevada.  He tried to escape prison at least 6 times.  [source: Pinnock, "10 Facts About the Most Dangerous Criminal In Nevada - Patrick McKenna," ranker.com, Jan 17, 2020]

In 1981, future grandmaster John Fedorowicz and grandmaster Andras Adorjan got into a fistfight at the Edward Lasker Memorial on New York. Fedorowicz was upset that Adorjan beat him when Adorjan was drawing all his earlier games. Most of the blows landed not on each other, but on the tournament director, Eric Schiller (1955-2018), who was trying to break up the fight.  

In 1989, during the French championship, IM Gilles Andruet(1958-1995) and IM Jean-Luc Seret got into a violent fight over an argument whether Andruet resigned before Seret checkmated him. After the fight, Andruet needed 8 stitches and had to withdraw from the tournament, despite the fact that he was in the lead after 10 of 14 rounds. [source: “The Brutal Murder of International Master Gilles Andruet,” Tartajubow On Chess II, January 18, 2018]

In 1994, Martin Wirth of Fort Collins, Colorado, shot to death Vernie Cox, age 24, after the two got in a fight over a chess game. Cox died of two gunshot wounds to the chest. Witnesses said that Wirth had lost a chess game with Cox, knocked over the chess board and some furniture, then began to argue with his opponent. Wirth went across the street to his home and returned with a gun and shot Cox to death.

In March 1997, two teenagers got into a fight over a school chess game in Omaha, Nebraska. 13-year-old John Slack was in critical condition after lapsing into a coma.  He had to have brain surgery. His 15-year-old opponent, Joshua Simms,  was arrested on an assault charge. [source: “Fight over chess game leaves 13-year-old in coma,” AP News, March 19, 1997]

In 2000, David Beaumont got in a fist fight with Alexander Gaft at the annual Doeberl Cup in Canberra. Beaumont, still playing his chess game, became upset by the noisy comments made by Gaft, who had just finished his game. Beaumont politely asked Gaft to keep quiet, but Gaft replied with abuse. A violent brawl ensued, with Gaft being repeatedly punched and Beaumont thrown onto a glass door.

In 2000, Laurence Douglas got in a fight with his chess opponent Craig Williams.  Douglas then stabbed Craig Williams to death over a chess game in Poughkeepsie, New York. Williams beat Douglas in a chess game that had a $5 wager. Williams took a $5 bill from Douglas after the game and Douglas then stabbed Williams 16 times.

In 2001, Christopher Newton got in a fight with his cellmate, Jason Brewer, over a game of chess in a Ohio prison. Brewer would resign his chess game against Newton every time a pawn was lost or the position looked bad. Newton tried to tell him not to give up and play the game out, but Brewer refused. After a month of playing chess and Brewer always resigning early without playing out the game, Newton finally had enough and strangled Brewer to death. Newton was executed by lethal injection in 2007.

In 2002, two players got into a fight at the World Open in Philadelphia when one of the players threw a basketball at another player between rounds.  World Open organizer Bill Goichberg expelled Akeem Gregory-Thompson when Akeem punched Hikaru Nakamura in the jaw.  [source: The Chess Drum, July 10, 2002]

In 2003, the first chess boxing competition took place in Berlin.

In 2003, two chess players got into a fight over a chess game.  Simon Andrews of Falls Township, Pennsylvania, stabbed to death Jerry Kowalski during the chess game. Authorities said that Andrews was disturbed by Kowalski’s constant talking during their chess games. Andrews then pulled a knife from under a sofa-bed mattress and stabbed Kowalski in the neck. Andrews was sentenced from 15 to 30 years in state prison.

In 2003, the first chess boxing championship fight was held in Amsterdam.  Dutch middleweight fighters Iepe Rubingh and Jean Louis Veenstra faced each other in the boxing ring. After his opponent exceeded the chess time limit, Rubingh won the fight in the 11th round going down in the history books as the first-ever World Chess Boxing Champion

In October 2004, the FIDE vice president, Zurab Azmaiparashvili, was punched, wrestled to the floor and dragged to jail by a group of security agents.  During the closing ceremonies, he tried to get closer to the stage, but security people stepped in front of him, bushed him back, and assaulted him. [source: Zurab Azmaiparashvili’s two days in prison,” ChessBase News, November 4, 2004]

In 2005, junior champion David Howell of England (now a grandmaster) punched the organizer of the European Union Chess Championship when it turned out that Howell would not win a prize. It turned out that titled players were not eligible for junior prizes.

On October 1, 2005, the first European Chess Boxing Championship took place in Berlin.  Andreas Dilschneider was defeated by FIDE master Tihomir Atanassov Dovramadjiev when he resigned in the 9th round (chess), crowning the latter by being the first European Chess Boxing Champion.

In 2006, during the Turin chess Olympiad, British grandmaster Daniel Gormally punched Armenian grandmaster LevonAronian to the ground at a nightclub. The two got in a jealous dispute over 19-year-old chess playing beauty Arianne Caoili. Caoili’s energetic dancing with Aronian provoked Gormally to fight.  [source: "Chess Master Punches Out Rival for Dancing With His Queen,: Albloggerque, June 7, 2006]  A few years later, Aronian married Caoili.  She later died in a car accident.

In 2007, two players got into an argument at the Village Chess Shop in New York during a chess game. One player was using his piece to knock off the other player’s piece rather than using the hands to remove a captured piece. One player than picked up the wooden board and hit the other player in the mouth, which drew blood. The police were called. The player that was hit was pressing criminal charges and vowed to sue.

In November 2007, Frank Stoldt went up against the David Depto (USA) in Berlin to fight for the first world championship title in the light heavyweight division. More than 800 tickets were sold for the event at the Tape Club in Berlin, making it the biggest chess boxing title fight to that date. Frank Stoldt defeated Depto in the 7th round and thereby cemented Berlin's status as the leading city in the chess boxing world becoming the first German world champion.

In January 2008, Zachary Lucov, age 23, was playing chess with Dennis Klien in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, when a scuffle broke out. Luco pulled out a gun and Klein was shot in the elbow. The bullet also narrowly missed Zachary’s 9-month-old son who was nearby.  Lucov was arrested for aggravated assault and reckless endangerment. [source: Tribune Review, Jan 25, 2008]

In October 2008, David Christian of Iowa City got in a fight with Michael Steward while playing a game of chess at the rooming house where they both lived. He was sentenced to up to 10 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and must pay $150,000 restitution. Christian choked Steward to death after losing a game of chess.

In December 2008, a man was so upset in losing a chess match, that he got in a fight with his opponent and threw him out the window. It happened in Glazov, Russian Republic of Udmurtia. 43-year-old Aleksey Valentikhin lost several games to a 60-year-old pensioner neighbor. He got so mad that Aleksey threw his opponent from his second floor window. The pensioner broke several bones and later died. Valentikham was sentenced to 6 years in prison.

In January 2009, a heated argument erupted at a Dubai chess tournament between an Iranian chess master and his Asian opponent. The two then got into a fight after the Asian opponent said he was good in karate.

In February 2009, a man killed a friend with a sword after he lost a chess game in Alameda, California. An argument broke out after their game, and the two started fighting. Joseph Groom retreated to his bedroom and returned with a sword, which he used to stab Kelly Kjersem once. Kjersem later died.

In 2009, the Los Angeles Chessboxing Club was created, the first of its kind in the United States.

In 2010, a chess game between inmates at the Indian River County Jail in Florida led to a fight. Christopher Brown was playing chess with another inmate in the cell block when Christopher O’Neal, who was watching the game, commented about the game on the other inmate’s behalf. Brown told O’Neal to shut up, but O’Neal ignored him and continued to discuss the ongoing chess game. The two then got into a fight. It took several detention deputies to break up the flight.

In 2010, the New York Chessboxing Club was formed.

In 2011, the first international chess boxing club matchup took place with Berlin and London in the ring—London came out the winner with 2:1 won bouts.

On August 11, 2011, two people were stabbed at a Chuy’s Restaurant in Phoenix after police say a person got mad over a game of chess. Officers at the scene said two people were playing a game, but when one person won the game the other person, a sore loser, got mad and stabbed the winner twice. The victim’s friend jumped in and tried to help, but he was also stabbed.  [source: ABC 15.com, Aug 12, 2011]

In May 2013, the Chess Boxing Global was founded, responsible for organizing all professional chess boxing fights worldwide, as well as the Chess Boxing World Championships.  

In April 2014, inmate John Otha Dickens, Jr, age 24, lost a chess game against Antwuan Somerville in the day room of the St. Mary’s County Detention Center. Dickens, and got into a fight.  Dickens struck Somerville with his fists and beat him up. Dickens was charged with 2nd Degree Assault.

In 2015, Terry Marsh became the first professional boxer to compete in Chessboxing.