Entertaining Chess Matches

McCallum/Toney

 

Walcott Charles I II and III

 

Frankie Randall/Freddie Pendleton II

I highly recommend it.

 

De La Hoya - Whitaker was pretty entertaining.

 

Chess matches don't have to be boring at all, provided both boxers stay busy and try to make things happen rather than wait for opportunities. For instance, truly skilled boxers aren't counter-punchers, they are tricksters who both start their opponent's punch by luring them into it, avoid the punch, and then counter it. They don't just finish the punch: they start it and control it to the very end.

Both of Lewis's wins over Holyfield were very tactical affairs, but were also very entertaining. The first one was the more strategic of the two, since Lewis was fighting his natural fight on the naive assumption that beating an American ATG was necessarily enough to get a decision over him.

Buchanan-Laguna II, as has already been mentioned.

Carptentier-Tunney, even though it was a chess match full of action.

I actually thought that Hearns-Leonard II was very good, as Hearns's power made it into an intriguing fight. Only the decision was a disappointment for me.

Another case of power making an otherwise dull fight entertaining was Lewis-Tucker, where Lewis's power and supposed lack of durability turned it into a knife-edge fight where the next punch could finish it.

Yet another Lewis fight: Lewis-Bruno was actually a very tactical affair, although both boxers gave a high workrate. At any one moment both men had two or three gameplans they were trying to work out, with the aspect of power adding in that sense of urgency.

 

B-Hop-Winky i realy liked, great how Hopkins was able to lure Winky to him and counter the counter-puncher

 

Not to long ago I rewatched the Liston-Machen fight on youtube and I think it was very intriguing, even knowing what happened, because of the chess match and strategy elements.

Maxim-Patterson was another very interesting chess match type bout.

 

Holmes vs Spoon.

 

Old Fogey, do you know if liston folley was ever filmed? two of the best jabbers of that era, that probably would have been a good chess match for as long as it lasted

 

It's hard to compare because Kasparov had access to tons of openings, standard plays, etc while some earlier chess Kings had to develop those for themselves.

A guy like Capablanca played in a whole different era. Spassky and Karpov are also mentioned as among the greatest players, although of course Kasparov already beat Karpov for the title.



And from what i gather, Deep Blue probably cheated (i.e. played together with other grandmasters) against Kasparov in the rematch. It looked unnecessarily fishy, anyway.

 

I have never seen film of the Folley fight, but I would think there must be a film somewhere.

 

I always seem to mention this particular fight, but since you mentioned entertaining chessmatches, ....Willie Pastrano-Harold Johnson, and while I'm at it, Tunney-Loughran must have been a purists delight, and I consider myself, if not a purist, then at least a big fan of skilled, tactical boxing. Other examples are: Whitaker-McGirt (both fights), the aforementioned Buchanan-Laguna, Leonard-Benitez, Ali-Young, Ali-Norton (all three), and although it was a decisive win for Harold Johnson, Johnson-Jones.

 

kasparov was wieght drained:nod