Life imitating art imitating art: the case of chess boxing.

Researching French comics on the web can lead you to surprising insights.

Having seen 'Immortel (ad vitam)' on Sunday, I've become curious about the Nikopol Trilogy by Enki Bilal, and in fact ordered the first volume. But since it will be about a month before I get the book, and I'm a spoiler slut, I've also visited a fair number of French comics related websites. On these, I found out (among other things) that the hero of the trilogy practises the sport of 'chess boxing' in the third volume - chess boxing being comprised of alternate rounds of chess and, well, boxing. (http://www.echecs.com/chroniques/20010702114432107) I didn't really believe such a sport could exist, but I checked google, anyway. And, voilà:

http://www.wcbo.org

The origins of the 'sport' are dated to the year 2003 there. Aha, I thought, someone must have read Bilal. But he wasn't credited anywhere on the site. Continuing my search, I found

http://www.chessboxing.com

However, that also did not include any information on the origins of the noble pursuit. So, maybe, I thought, the idea had been floating around for a while, and Bilal did not originate it after all? So, I researched some more and found

http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100177
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100172
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100157
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100170
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100160
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1100166
http://www.epinions.com/mvie_mu-1084700

So, apparently, this thing has been around for a while. So, is chess boxing something everyone but me has heard of, and I just happened to miss? Also, can anyone tell me if the 'chess boxing' of the kung fu movies follows the same concept as the 'chess boxing' of Nikopol, and the 'chess boxing' of the 'World Chess Boxing Organisation'?

This is completely irrelevant to anything, really, but it has me mystified, so... any information you have, please share it with me. *g*