Chess/Zwift Hybrid Sport?
Is it possible to mashup chess and indoor cycling in to a hybrid sport? How would that work?I setup a cycling studio in our new home. The technology has really evolved where there are smart bike trainers that integrate (via Wi-Fi/Bluetooth) into virtual gaming platforms. Ride uphill - it gets harder. Downhill - easier. Of these, Zwift has the broadest platform adoption with thousands of simultaneous riders. Simply amazing.
I joined a FB Zwift Riders group to educate myself. One of the group members is an accomplished cyclist and also a member of the chess.com community.Rob Bane suggested the concept of a Chess/Zwift match. His idea originated from the hybrid sport of Chess/Boxing (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_boxing)). Cycling and chess is a sweet spot for me and I love the concept.
The challenge is in determining the match rules. What counts as a win?
A few ideas:
A key difference
- Chess-Boxing - a contest that alternates between two domains (a round of chess followed by a round of boxing followed by a round of chess etc.).
- Chess-Zwifting - simultaneous contests in two domains
A couple of scoring/contest considerations:
- the estimated length of the chess game should be roughly equal to the time for the faster rider to complete the course.
- There can’t be an incentive for either biker or chess player to totally ignore the contest where they are weaker.
- chess ability should be measured based on chess rating
- cycling ability - I'm not an expert here - should be based on some sort of performance metric such as watt output over time duration. Or perhaps time trials over a common race course. The relative times of two contestants over the identical course provides an interesting mathematical comparison. What is the scoring incentive for the slower rider to perform above expectations?
- Is there a scoring mechanism that takes into account the relative (expected) outcome for each of the two contestants in both chess and biking?
Thoughts/suggestions?