Rarely do brains and brawn come together in this way. A Russian was crowned world champion earlier this month in the sport of chess boxing.
Mathematics student Nikolai Sazhin, 19, competing under the name “The President,” knocked out a 37-year-old German policeman.
The loser said he was simply too punch-drunk to fend off checkmate.
PHOTO: EPA
“I took a lot of body-blows in the fourth round and that affected my concentration. That’s why I made a big mistake in the fifth round: I did not see him coming for my king,” he said.
Berlin is home to the world’s biggest chess boxing club with some 40 members, and it is in an old freight station here that the two men settled the matter.
The match began over a chessboard set up on a low table in the middle of a boxing ring.
Stripped to the waist, wearing towels around their shoulders and headphones playing the lulling sound of a moving train to drown out the baying crowd, the men played for four minutes.
Then off came their reading glasses and on went the gloves.
For three minutes they beat each other and then, when the bell went, the chessboard was back in the ring and they picked up the gentlemanly game where they had left off.
“This is the hard part. You are out of breath, but you have to keep your wits about you,” said David Steppeler, a 33-year-old instructor at the local chess boxing club.
A chess boxing match consists of six rounds of chess and five in the ring, but it can also end suddenly in knockout or checkmate.
A French student who came to watch, Jelena, said the idea seemed “a bit mad” at first.
“But in fact it’s really gripping to watch.” (AFP)
兼具冷靜頭腦與發達肌肉者少之又少。一位俄國人本月稍早榮登棋拳賽世界冠軍。
以「總統」名號出賽的十九歲數學系學生尼克萊．薩辛，擊敗了一位三十七歲的德國警察。
敗陣的選手說，他當時太過暈頭轉向，以致於慘遭將軍。
他說：「我第四回合挨了很多拳，影響到專注力，所以才會在第五輪時犯下大錯：沒看見對方步步逼近國王。」
世界最大的棋拳賽俱樂部位在柏林，有四十名左右的會員；位在一個舊貨運站的棋拳賽俱樂部也是兩個男人一決勝負之地。
比賽從擺放在拳擊場中央的一張小矮桌上的棋盤開始。
腰部以上赤裸、肩膀上披著毛巾的兩名選手頭戴耳機，一邊聽著蓋過觀眾咆哮聲、且能使人平靜的行進火車聲，一邊進行四分鐘的棋賽。
然後他們摘下眼鏡、換上拳擊手套。
進行三分鐘拳賽後，鈴聲響起，棋盤又被重新搬上拳擊場，選手又紳士地繼續進行剛剛未完的棋賽。
當地棋拳賽俱樂部三十三歲的教練大衛．史戴普樂說：「最困難的部份是，你已經喘不過氣了，但還要保持理性的判斷力。」
一場棋拳賽包括六回合棋賽和五回合拳擊賽，但若有人被擊倒或被將軍，比賽也會立刻結束。
一位來看比賽的法國學生潔玲娜說，一開始她覺得這個想法「有點瘋狂」。
「但事實上，比賽過程真的很吸引人。」（法新社�翻譯：袁星塵）
A: Have you seen the reality TV show “Culinary Class Wars?” B: Sure! It’s a competition between two classes: 20 celebrity chefs dubbed the “white spoons” versus 80 non-celebrity chefs dubbed the “black spoons.” A: The two judges are master chef, Paik Jong-won, and South Korea’s only three-Michelin-star chef, Anh Sung-jae. B: And the grand prize is $300 million Korean won. A: After watching the show, I really wanna have some Korean food. A: 你有看電視實境秀《黑白大廚：料理階級大戰》嗎？ B: 當然啦！就是20位「白湯匙」名廚，和80位「黑湯匙」廚師的競賽。 A: 評審則是廚神白種元，及南韓唯一的米其林三星主廚安成宰。 B: 冠軍還可獲得3億韓元獎金呢！ A: 看完節目後我現在好想吃韓式料理喔。 （By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times／台北時報張聖恩）
A: As reality TV show “Culinary Class Wars” causes a sensation, it may be more difficult to make a reservation at the show’s judge Paik Jong-won’s Taipei restaurant, Bornga Korean BBQ. B: The other judge, Anh Sung-jae, also served as a guest chef at Regent Taipei last June. A: Korean food has become a new trend in Taiwan lately, and restaurants such as Samwon Garden are quite popular. B: But that restaurant is so pricey. A: Then try the more affordable places, like my favorite, OKAY Korean BBQ, or others such as Annyeong Korean BBQ and OvenMaru Chicken. A:
Colorado has taken a pioneering move towards protecting consumer privacy in the age of brain-computer interfaces. With the rise of neurotechnology, which involves technology that monitors and interacts with the brain, data privacy concerns are coming to a head. In response to growing anxieties, Colorado has become the first state in the US to pass an amendment that safeguards the privacy of human brainwaves. On April 17, Colorado announced an update to its Privacy Act, which went into effect on August 6. The new Colorado Privacy Act classifies brainwaves as “sensitive personal information,” offering them the same protections that
Continued from yesterday（延續自昨日） https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang Neurotechnology used to be limited to scientific labs and hospital settings. However, many new devices that can record consumers’ brainwaves or analyze the brain in other ways have been launched in recent years. Often marketed outside the realm of medical equipment, these devices evade the existing safety and privacy standards for healthcare devices. Experts are raising concerns about this lack of oversight, fearing the potential for these tools to become mind-reading devices without users’ consent or knowledge. Other US states are considering similar regulations to protect their citizens in regard to neuro data gathered by technology companies. Colorado’s
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