The Chessboxing Face-Off
Top of the bill is a thrilling heavyweight encounter between Sergio “The Phoenix” Leveque from Italy and Dutchman, Hubert Van Melick.
Leveque makes his chessboxing debut, marking the final step in his recov- ery from a horrendous motorbike accident in 2005 when doctors doubted he would ever walk again. Leveque has proved them wrong, regaining fitness and climbing back in the ring three times in Italy during 2009 be- fore rising to the chessboxing challenge. Leveque plays in the Italian A league chess team and is a candidate master level player.
Van Melick makes his third chessboxing appearance following two wins against Mexico’s Hector Gomez in October 2010 and Welshman Bob Innes in December 2010. Van Melick’s chessboxing career kicked off in earnest after losing his job at a top merchant bank during the financial crisis. Now instead of trading shares he trades punches and material on the chessboard, aiming for a shot at the European title currently held by Italy’s Gianluca Sirci.
On the undercard we have a superb middleweight clash featuring “The Man From Pamplona” Daniel Lizarraga matched against Berliner, Sebas- tian Baursefeld. Lizarraga narrowly defeated Baursefeld’s training mate Sascha Wandkowsky in December 2009 and is looking for a second straight victory at the Boston Dome.
The first bout of the night will be an amateur encounter between two chessboxing enthusiasts, TV producer Rob Gillies and journalist Johnny Higginson, political editor of London’s Metro newspaper. Both men have had just ten weeks to prepare for the bout which is being staged to raise money for the charity The Railway Children.
This is the first of five UK chessboxing events due to take place in Lon- don this year, produced by the Great Britain Chessboxing Organisation in conjunction with The World Chessboxing Organisation.
Future dates in 2010 will be May 8th, July 3rd, September 11th and December 4th.
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