Before you read this, yes, people do play chess boxing and do world championships. Not really something you'd see on ESPN, and not something I've tried, although I'd like to. Who, you might ask, would play this hybrid of brains and brawn? The Kasal twins, of course!

Atlus owns Greg, Sidney, and Cybil; Parker Brothers own Sorry! and Risk; Hasbro owns Battleship, Scrabble, Jenga, and Yahtzee.

Chess Boxing

Sidney Kasal was a man of both ritual and competition, and one of the ways he satisfied both attributes was by going to his twin Greg's house for game night.

It started after the death of his wife, an event that drove him to severe depression. For months, he lay in his bed, made for two people, wishing that she was by his side again. And although Greg loved to tick Sidney off with a good prank, he couldn't bear to see his other self depressed like that.

"How do you think we could cheer him up?" Greg asked his fiancée, Cybil Myers.

"Hmm…maybe you could invite him to play his favorite game."

And so, that Saturday, they invited Sidney over to their house to play his favorite game, Sorry!, the Game of Sweet Revenge. And for the first time in 3 months, Sidney felt his depression and his anxiety melt away as he foiled his brother's attempts to proceed with his unusual luck in drawing Sorry cards. From that point on, he went to Greg's house every Saturday to play some games. After a year, they had played quite a number of games: chess, checkers, poker, Risk, Yahtzee, Scrabble, Battleship… The two, competitive as they were, kept a whiteboard where they tallied each other's victories. Interestingly enough, whenever Cybil joined along, she would always win. Greg and Sidney were always too busy tearing at each other's throats to notice that she was really close to winning until it was too late.

After they had exhausted their stock of games, they moved on to playing different variants of them. Now, instead of regular Jenga, they would play it blindfolded, or standing upside down on their heads, or blindfolded and standing upside down on their heads. They also branched out into random competitions, such as pie-eating and push-up competitions. These usually ended with them having terrible stomach cramps and joint pain, as well as a "You Kasal men" from Cybil.

As Sidney stepped up to the door of Greg and Cybil's home, he remembered their last competition: a sit-up contest. At the end, Greg, who had been more athletic than Sidney, managed to gain a victory, but at a cost. Both of them ended up being unable to get up after 500 situps, spines and abs on fire. Cybil had to give them Tylenols while they were still prone on the floor.

This time, it was Greg's turn to choose what they were doing tonight. He secretly hoped it was something that wouldn't end up with both of them in pain.

"So wait, remind me what we're doing again?" said Sidney as he put on a protective helmet.

"We're doing chess boxing, the perfect mix of brains and brawn. After all, you've always been better than me at chess, and I've always bested you in a fistfight," smiled Greg, ready to take his brother down in a good bout of fisticuffs.

"So not true. What do you call the last time I punched you in the nose and knocked you out?"

"First, I wasn't knocked out. Second, I'd call that a nosebleed. And third, I returned the favor with a beefsteak to the eye."

Cybil came in, with two pairs of boxing gloves, one pair red and another blue. "Alright," she said, "I'll be the referee, and I promise you, I'll be siding against Greg on this one," smirking as her husband gave her an evil eye.

"We'll be starting with chess, then boxing. Each round of chess will be 4 minutes long, and each round of boxing 2 minutes long. You each have 30 seconds to put on your boxing gloves and take them off at the end of each round."

Sidney and Greg sat in front of the chess board, with the former commanding the white army, and the latter leading the black forces.

"Ready, get set, go!"

Sidney quickly got into gear, moving his pieces in the way he usually did. Although he was better than Greg at chess, Greg was not stupid, and they knew each other like the back of their hand. Just as Sidney castled his king and rook, Cybil announced that it was time for a scuffle. Sidney put on his red gloves and faced Greg in what would be a pain-ridden match.

They circled each other in their makeshift ring, throwing a few jabs around. Then Greg started launching an assault, hitting Sidney on his helmet to disorient him, then punching him in the stomach, ending with a final jab to the nose. Blood began to pour from Sidney's left nostril, and he tasted the blood running down to his mouth.

"Son of a—"

Sidney was now enraged, and started his own attack. Although Greg fought back and defended himself well, he ended up with a pounding pain on his side, a sore jaw from an uppercut on the chin, and a black left eye. They were about to smother each other when Cybil called time. They stripped off their boxing gloves, both eying each other with rage. Sidney stuffed a cotton ball up his bleeding nostril, while Greg put an icepack on his swollen blue eye.

The next round of chess, Cybil noted, was played rather randomly. Both the Kasals were still shaken up from the hits they had received, and she could see a dozen openings that they had missed. Sidney, who had been hit in the head numerous times, was quite woozy and had some difficulty keeping his head up, while Greg, with one eye out of commission, had lost all depth perception. Before they knew it, the second round of boxing had come.

This time, they savagely slapped on their gloves and basically threw themselves at each other. Cybil had only seen a few fights more savage than these, and that was only because she had seen gang warfare as a police officer. She had to pry the two apart, and she gasped when she saw how badly bruised they were. Sidney's left nostril was bleeding, his T-shirt was slightly torn, revealing several cuts and bruises, and his face resembled a bruised plum; Greg's lip was cut, his jaw slightly off-center, and his face was no better than Sidney's. Despite the pain, Greg chuckled as he saw Sidney, both nostrils plugged with cotton balls, face covered with bruises.

As they sat down in front of the chess board, Cybil could see that both were having a very hard time concentrating, with the head hits that they had received. The game had finally come to a point where there was a checkmate so obvious that even Sidney and Greg, in their dizziness, could detect. Sidney picked up his bishop, ready to deliver the checkmate, when he couldn't take it anymore. He fell face first into the chess board, knocking over his king, unconscious. Greg was swaying as if drunk, but he managed to let out a "Yes! You forfeit! I win!" before he collapsed, head on the table, next to Sidney.

Cybil sighed as she plopped the two onto the bed. Those Kasal men…

Monday

Victor walked down the hallway of Caduceus USA, still reading the lab report he was carrying when he bumped into a man wearing a balaclava. He recognized the man by his physique and smirked.

"I know you can't stand the cold air conditioner, Sidney, but this is ridiculous."

"Not a word, Niguel, or else you get fired faster than you can say 'checkmate.'"

Those Kasal men…although I've gotten hit as hard by my sibling in a fight, I daresay. I've never tried chess boxing, but now that I think about it, it'll be some sweet revenge. :D