Chess Boxing from Enki Bilal's Nikopol Trilogy

[kamino_neko]

At the request of octopedeingenue here a touch under 3 pages (out of 55) from Equator Cold, the third book of the Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal.

Now...trying to explain what's going on is...pretty much an exercise in futility - it's not really easy to follow even reading the whole book, to be honest.

So, just the basics - Alcide Nikopol is a former French soldier sent into space - then accidentally returning 30 years later, he falls in Paris and ends up sharing his body - against his will - with the Egyptian god Horus (sort of). He gets caught up in...a lot of things, most of them potentially fatal, thanks to Horus. This is one of them.






That's NOT how a match is supposed to end, of course. Horus just seems to enjoy shooting people in the head with his laser-eyes. He does it a lot. It actually gets to fairly ridiculous proportions in The Woman Trap, the second book, where Jill is introduced.

Oh, and for anyone interested who didn't work it out for themselves, Nicopol's side of the conversation with Horus:

P1: Not at all!

P2: Horus... he's killing me...

P3: No! The knight can ride out on the bishop! (I'm not actually sure what he means by that. He might just be getting a bit loopy, or it may be a chess term I'm unfamiliar with, or a metaphor for...something. I'm not grasping it so don't ask me for what.)

Bishop on the knight's diagsnal... (Obviously a typo for 'diagonal' - which should be piagqnaj.)

P4: Jill...

Comments

[crinos]

So... They started boxing, then halfway through the switched to a game of Chess?

[kamino_neko]

Well, they finished the boxing part, before moving on. But, yes, that's essentially it.

Like the cut text says, 'French comics be weird'.

[hybrid2]

That's actualy a real sport.

except for the lazer shooting part.

[lonewolf23k]

I think the sport was inspired by the comic. Although yes, it doesn't involve lasers.

[kamino_neko]

This is the story that inspired the guy who created it as a real sport.

He also changed the rules up, slightly, alternating the rounds, as that made for a better balanced game.

[psychopathicus_rex]

So, box then chess, then box then chess? That sounds... challenging.

[kamino_neko]

Better than several rounds of boxing, then trying to play chess, probably. Don't get as much time to get your brains rattled, before sitting at the board.

[psychopathicus_rex]

ANY boxing before chess would be enough to make the game a significant challenge. And afterwards, switching back to boxing mode - oy. That would be difficult.

[octopedingenue]

“The adrenaline after boxing inhibits your ability to think, making the chess harder. Few people can still think straight after a right hook to the head. You need to be able to pull off that champion chess move while blood is pouring from your nose.”

Craziest awesome sport, or crazy awesomest sport?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Crazy, either way. Although I can actually see the inverse being true about boxing - after a few minutes of intense mental concentration, being able to loosen up by punching someone is probably much easier.

[big_daddy_d]

Well..damn.

[mommy]

I'm distracted by the random giraffes. Go giraffes!

[kamino_neko]

Nikopol was supposed to fight them in the third round. >_>

(Note: I am kidding. Or am I?)

[nezchan]

There is never a bad time for giraffes. More comics should feature them.

[octopedingenue]

This is confusing and awesome. Thanks a lot!

I want to see an entire sports manga series about chess boxing (videos here!) now. And/or the combination of chess boxing and human chess, which would be the most epic blood sport imaginable. Until we reach Tri-Dimensional human chess boxing--!

[kamino_neko]

This is confusing and awesome.

That describes this scene, Equator Cold as a whole, the Nikopol Trilogy as a whole, Bilal's output as a whole, and the entire French SF Comics genre as a whole. >_>

[ex_joyeuse53]

Wow, and I just saw this movie about six months ago, called Immortal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immortal_%282004_film%29

Didn't know it was pulled from a comic series.

[kamino_neko]

That's actually what prompted me to track down the Trilogy. Although I haven't actually seen the movie, yet.

[halloweenjack]

I saw that too. Pretty ambitious, if not entirely successful (sometimes the mix of real actors and CGI clashed a bit, IMO).

[blackruzsa]

I can't believe (in a good way; this is damn awesome) that chess boxing was inspired by a comic C:

[aaron_bourque]

Re: No! The knight can ride out on the bishop!

I don't think that's some kind of obscure chess term, and there's no real reason that would make sense using the rules for movement in chess, so I think the guy's just gone bonkoes.

[wizardru]

It could be a reference to the famous/infamous "Bishop/Knight Checkmate", indicating he was setting himself up to execute it, though it's apparently extremely rare to actually do.