cool interview with a chess grandmaster rapping about chess, hip hop, internal martial arts, street style vs sport etc
http://onthemat.com/articles/Controlled_Chaos_Chess_Master_Maurice_Ashley_06_06_2006.html
gets good from page 2 on…
Chess grandmaster? 
…yeah, right…whatever…so, what lineage is he from?
Check out the Hip-Hop Chess Federation
I met Adisa Banjoko. He’s very sincere and authentic. He doesn’t claim to be a great martial arts master, but he enjoys the practice. I wrote an article on his Hip Hop Chess Federation Invitational in our 2008 January/February issue, which is on the newsstands now, and we just posted an unabridged version of the article on our e-zine.
Mind over Matter: Chess & Grappling Exhibition
I’ve just agreed to sit in on a discussion panel with RZA and Josh Waitzken on Martial Arts as a Path to Non-Violence. The panel is to be moderated by JoshRakaa of Dilated Peoples. Mind over Matter: Chess & Grappling Exhibition will be held at the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement at 3455 Edison Way, Menlo Park, CA on April 12th, from noon to 5pm. Seewww.hiphopchessfederation.org for more details.
very cool Gene!
Very Jealous that your getting to meet the Rza
Let us know how it goes.
that sounds like a great opportunity Gene…I never knew RZA was a practitioner
I’ve met RZA before
I wrote a cover story on him in our 1999 September issue (see Hip Hop Fist: Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA and his Sifu, Shaolin Monk Shi Yan Ming) and I went to Wudangshan with him (see Wu-Tang Enters Wudang). It’s always a pleasure to hang with RZA. He’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant (but you knew that).
this weekend
if any of you forum members show, say ‘hi’
Mind Over Matter
Celebrity Chess & Grappling Exhibition
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Menlo Park, CA
Free to the public
Students, Teachers, Music Lovers, Grappling and Chess Fans - You are Invited
Be our guest as the Hip-Hop Chess Federation host the Mind Over Matter Celebrity Chess & Grappling Exhibition on Saturday, April 12, 2008 from 11:30am to 5pm hosted at the Riekes Center located in Menlo Park, California
Events of the day include: XBox Live Hip-Hop Weekend Play & Win Sweepstakes, special giveaways and a very SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT FROM A CELEBRITY GUEST. The best part is the event is free to the public!
Spread the word and see you there!
Adisa Banjoko, CEO and Founder
Hip-Hop Chess Federation
a non-profit organization that uses chess, music, and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence
Schedule of Events
Mind Over Matter Celebrity Chess & Grappling Exhibition
HHCF brings together top entertainers and fighters to inspire today’s youth
11:30am: Doors Open
12:00pm: Chessmaster LIVE Hip-Hop Weekend Play & Win Sweepstakes (for details visit http://xbox.com - click on XBox Live - Events)
Open Gaming (Closes at 4:45pm)
Chess Tutorials with DLamont Robinson
1:15pm: Riekes Center Welcomes the Hip-Hop Chess Federation
1:30pm: HHCF Panel: Martial Arts as a Path to Non-Violence
Panelist:
Adisa Banjoko, HHCF CEO and award wining author & lecturer
RZA, Wu-Tang Clan, platinum recording artist, actor (recently seen opposite Russell Crow & Denzel Washington in American Gangster)
Josh Waitzkin, International Chess Master, Tai Chi Chuan Push Hands World Champion, author of The Art of Learning
Gene Ching, Associate Publisher Kung Fu Tai Chi Magazine, noted author
Rakaa, BJJ practioner, member of the world renowned rap group Dialated Peoples
3:00pm: Judo Exhibition featuring Mike Pechina, Judo Black Belt, Cahill
3:15pm: Jiu Jitsu Exhibition hosted by Denny Prokopos, 10th Planet
3:30pm: 36 Chambers of Shaolin Screening
5:00pm: PEACE OUT!
Location: Riekes Center, Menlo Park, CA
Riekes Center is located at 3455 Edison Way, Menlo Park, CA
Directions: *we recommend that you map from your departure location using one of the many online mapping systems to verify the directions that work best for you
From 580: Take 580 (toward San Francisco) follow the signs to merge onto 880 San Jose/San Mateo Bridge, Merge on to Dumbarton Bridge towards Menlo Park, Turn left on Marsh Road, right on Bay Rd., left of 14th, take first turn on Fair Oaks, left on Edison. (You will drive through a residential area for a short period of time, Riekes Center is at the end of the residential area)
From 880: 880 towards Palo Alto, Merge on to Dumbarton Bridge towards Menlo Park, Turn left on Marsh Road, right on Bay Rd., left of 14th, take first turn on Fair Oaks, left on Edison. (You will drive through a residential area for a short period of time, Riekes Center is at the end of the residential area).
From 280: 280 towards Palo Alto, merge onto 85 towards Mountain View, exit 101 North toward San Francisco, take Marsh exit towards Atherton, left on Marsh Rd., right on Bay, left on 14th, take first turn on Fair Oaks, left on Edison. (You will drive through a residential area for a short period of time, Riekes Center is at the end of the residential area).
I just gotta say one thing…
…it’s tough to be on a panel with RZA. He’s the master of the mike. 
The Channel 11 report
This reporter was there for most all of the event. Note Josh’s cool lanyard.
[QUOTE=GeneChing;854381]…it’s tough to be on a panel with RZA. He’s the master of the mike.
Check us out.[/QUOTE]
Very Nice,
“Its All Possible,”
more mind over matter
Nice to see we made press in CS…
Hip hop chess
Tuesday, Apr 22, 2008 - 07:42 AM
Teens and young adults from California’s bay area are being shown a new way to put mind over matter.
It’s a program that mixes hip hop music, martial arts and the game of chess.
“It’s a perfect blend because you are unifying the convergence of the physical, the mental and the artistic. And we all have those things in us,” explained Adisa Banjoko of the Hip Hop Chess Federation.
The Hip Hop Chess Federation is mixing a soundtrack of physical and mental strategy to give kids a new kind of inspiration.
Recording artists including members of the Wu-Tang Clan and Dialated Peoples are passing the mic for this message.
“These kind of strategies are embedded in us as a young person. When you grow up and go out there into the world, you’re faced with a decision. The decision making is more powerful now. You’re not just reacting, you’re thinking, focusing and then moving,” said RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan.
“It’s not magic. It’s still going to be a situation where once you have their mind focused off the nonsense on to something positive, now you have to reinforce that positivity as well,” added Dilated People’s Rakaa.
How all this relates to education is the topic of a best-selling book by a world champion martial artist.
“This dialogue between these role models from different arts like this, it’s exciting for kids. They see it and they want to get involved and they want to start looking for connections of their own. And then when kids start to get creative and discover thematic connections on their own, that’s when things really get exciting,” said author Josh Waitzkin.
Waitzkin is the now grown up subject of the 1993 film “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, based on his life from six to nine years old.
“I think people have these stereotypes in their minds to think that rap is for one kind of person, chess is for another, martial arts for another. But it’s not true. These people who are at tremendously high levels of all these different disciplines, they speak the same language,” he said.
Adisa Banjoko agrees.
“We’re not trying to change the world overnight, but we know that one chessboard and one rap song and one martial arts move at a time, people’s lives will be improved and that’s why we’re here.”
more on Mind over Matter
This one’s from Rakaa. More cool lanyards. More pics of me taking pics.
in the NYT…
…but you heard it from me, in the post above, last week.
Martial Art of Chess, Promoted by a Rapper
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: June 7, 2008
Chess has long had an important role in the aesthetic of the Wu-Tang Clan, which has songs about the game. In “The Wu-Tang Manual,” a 2005 book about the group and its members, RZA (pronounced RIZ-a) wrote that chess is part of the Wu-Tang essence “because it’s a game of war — it’s about battle. And Wu-Tang was formed in battles, from challenging each other.”
RZA, 38, learned the game when he was 11, from a girl who, as he writes in the manual, also took his virginity. Though he and his cousin GZA, another founder of the group, both love chess, they did not play much when they were younger because, GZA said, they were too poor to own a board.
Now they play chess almost every day, and RZA, holder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation belt — a trophy he picked up last fall at a tournament in San Francisco that featured rappers and martial-arts experts — is turning his interest into a business. On Monday he started WuChess (wuchess.com), a Web site where fans can play chess online, chat, see scores of their games and other personal information, and get news about RZA and Wu-Tang. RZA said that the site might one day offer monthly tournaments, with the winner playing him online.
“The way you have to think in chess is good for everyday thinking, really,” he said, “especially for brothers in the urban community who never take that second look, never take that second thought.”
Membership costs $48 a year, which could deter potential subscribers. On techcrunch.com, a site that critiques Internet offerings, several readers applauded the idea of combining hip-hop and chess, but others complained about the fee.
Patrick Mahoney, president of chesspark.com, the company that developed the WuChess site, said that about 5,000 people had preregistered for membership and that several hundred had already paid. He added that hundreds of free memberships would be given to school-age children through organizations that contact him, and that 10 to 20 percent of the site’s revenue would finance academic scholarships to be awarded by the Hip-Hop Chess Federation.
Marley Kaplan, chief executive of Chess-in-the-Schools, a nonprofit group that teaches chess in poorer New York City school districts, said that RZA’s involvement might encourage some children to play, but that she doubted it would make a big impact. “Most kids get interested in chess through schools and through family and friends,” she said. “We taught 20,000 kids this year and I bet if you surveyed them, none of them knows that he plays chess,” referring to RZA.
Mr. Mahoney said the site was primarily meant to be a “competitive platform,” and there it comes up a bit short so far. Because there aren’t many members yet, it can be hard to find good opponents. And the pieces are designed using martial-arts and Wu-Tang symbols, which can make playing confusing. (Instead of a horse’s head, for example, the knight is a silhouette of a martial-arts fighter flying through the air.) Mr. Mahoney said users would eventually be able to select from more traditional piece designs.
WuChess is just one of many projects occupying RZA’s attention. On June 24, under the alter ego Bobby Digital, he is releasing a solo album, “Digi Snax” (Koch Entertainment); he starts an American tour to promote it on Tuesday. He’s also writing music for “Afro Samurai,” an animated show on Spike TV, and appearing in two coming movies: “Gospel Hill” with Danny Glover and “Repossession Mambo” with Jude Law.
In July he’s touring in Europe with the Wu-Tang Clan, although his relationship with several members is fractured. One member, U-God, has sued Wu-Tang and RZA, claiming that he is owed $170,000. Several other members, including Method Man, Masta Killa, Raekwon and Ghostface Killah, publicly disagreed with RZA over the artistic direction of “8 Diagrams” (SRC/Universal Motown), the album released by Wu-Tang last year, which he produced. RZA said of the feud, “It’s that same kind of relationship you may have with your siblings where you are brothers forever, you are sisters forever, but sometimes you can’t stand each other.”
As the 10-minute game in his hotel room drew to a close, RZA put up stiff resistance, but soon his king was encircled. His opponent, the chess columnist of The New York Times, pushed his remaining rook down the board, forcing checkmate. RZA laughed and bumped fists with his challenger; it had been a good battle.
The latest
Adisa mentioned he had something east coast in the works.
PRESS RELEASE: June 2008
For Immediate Release
Contact: M. Gaborski
877.502.5758 ext. 8
Shinken Communications
The Hip Hop Chess Federation is proud to celebrate the 9 QUEENS’ KNOCKOUT INVITATIONAL
New York, NY- June 29, 2008 - Join an all-star roster of hip-hop legends and inspirational chess players for an afternoon of chess, music, and art.
Featuring:
RZA - Legendary Wu-Tang Clan, Actor as seen in American Gangster. Other works include Kill Bill, Afro Samurai, etc.
Jennifer Shahade - 9 Queens’ co-founder, Women’s Grandmaster and two-time American Women’s Chess Champion
Adisa Banjoko - Founder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, Award Winning Author and Speaker
Maurice Ashley - World’s 1st African American International Chess Grandmaster
Jay Smooth - Creator of illdoctrine.com and host of the longest running hip-hop radio show in New York City
Rugged Monk - From the Black Knights Youth female chess players from Intermediate School 318 Brooklyn, long running national chess champions
Join the Hip-Hop Chess Federation, 9Queens and Wuchess on July 5, 2208 from 3pm to 6pm at the Chelsea Art Museum, 556 W. 22nd Street, New York, NY
The Hip Hop Chess Federation is a nonprofit organization that uses chess, music and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and nonviolence. The HHCF focuses on helping today’s youth find the right life strategy to make a better future for themselves, their families and their community. For a list of upcoming or past events, visit www.hiphopchessfederation.org.
WuChess is the world’s first online urban chess and social network communuity. Founded by RZA of WuTang Clan and Chesspark.com, a portion of the proceeds will fund the Hip-Hop Chess Federation Scholarship Program.
9 Queens is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering women and at-risk youth through chess. For more information on events and programs visit www.9queens.org.
mystery of chessboxing
No hip hop tho… 
Where chess and boxing meet in center of the ring
Recently minted sport combines up to 24 minutes of the top thinking game with up to 5 rounds of the top fighting game
Patrick McGroarty, Associated Press
Thursday, July 17, 2008
(07-17) 04:00 PDT Berlin - –
Nikolay Sazhin almost knocked out his opponent with a blow to the chin in the second round. But he had to take the queen to win the match.
In front of 1,000 cheering fans one recent Saturday night, Sazhin moved his bishop to go in for the kill and won the world championship of chess boxing, a weird hybrid sport that combines as many as five rounds of pugilism with a game of chess.
The combatants switch back and forth between boxing and chess - repeatedly putting their gloves on and taking them off, so that they can move the pieces around the board without clumsily knocking them over - in a sort of brains-and-brawn biathlon.
“It’s the No. 1 thinking game and the No. 1 fighting game,” said Iepe Rubingh, the sport’s 32-year-old founder.
Idea from comic book
Rubingh’s inspiration was “Cold Equator,” a 1992 French comic book in which two heavyweight boxers beat each other’s brains out for 12 rounds and then play a 45-hour game of chess.
“That’s not functional. So I thought about how it could work,” Rubingh said.
In his version, a chessboard is brought into the ring on a table and the combatants play four minutes, after which the board is wheeled off very carefully so the pieces don’t fall over. Then the fighters put on the gloves and trade punches for a round, after which the board is brought back. The pattern is repeated over and over. The chess game can last up to 24 minutes.
If you knock your opponent out, the chess is over, too, and you win the match. If you beat your opponent at chess, then the boxing is over, and you are the victor. In the case of a draw at the chessboard, the boxer with more points in the ring is declared the winner.
Rubingh uses an electronic chessboard that lets spectators watch the action projected onto a pair of large ringside screens.
In 2003, some 800 people turned out in Amsterdam to watch an exhibition match between Rubingh and a friend.
“It was a catastrophe. I lost my queen in the second round of chess,” he said.
But the loss didn’t stop him from pursuing his dream.
The Dutchman returned to Berlin - where he has lived for a decade - and set out to find tough fighters who could also play a good game of chess.
Many boxers in Germany
Germany has emerged as a major boxing center, attracting top talent from Eastern Europe. Most of the world’s top heavyweight fighters are natives of Russia and Ukraine, and many train in Hamburg.
Rubingh knows he won’t be recruiting either boxers or chess players at the top of their game, but he believes there is a deep reservoir of talent among amateur and lower-ranked pro fighters with sharp, tactical minds.
One of his first prospects was Frank Stoldt, a 37-year-old Berlin riot police officer and amateur kickboxer. Stoldt was also an obsessive chess player who often lost himself in late-night online matches.
2 champs already
“Both disciplines are aggressive,” Stoldt said. He started training at Rubingh’s chess boxing gym in Berlin. In November, he won the sport’s first world championship in Berlin.
He lost his belt this month to Sazhin, a 19-year-old Russian.
Sazhin learned about the sport while surfing the Internet, and tried out by mailing boxing tapes to Rubingh and playing him in online chess games. Rubingh thinks he could be the first of many chess boxers from a country that has embraced fighters and idolizes chess players like Garry Kasparov and Boris Spassky.
It was long after midnight in a Berlin warehouse when Sazhin and Stoldt entered the ring and sat down at the chessboard.
Stoldt moved quickly to establish a defensive perimeter of pawns, while Sazhin staggered his diagonally. Switching to boxing, Sazhin attacked Stoldt with a relentless series of body blows that left the German exhausted.
Back at the chessboard, Stoldt looked distracted, and he left his queen vulnerable as he scurried to protect an exposed bishop. Sazhin pounced, forcing Stoldt to concede the match.
In addition to the title and the belt, the champion won a cash prize. Rubingh would not disclose how much but said it was mostly symbolic at this point, and “it’s nothing compared to professional boxing.”
“To see these 120-kilogram (264-pound) guys sitting there playing chess, it’s like a photo montage,” said 27-year-old chess-boxing fan Yarim Fahre. “The different strengths, the tactics - it doesn’t go together.”
The rules
– A chess boxing match starts at the chessboard. In this version of speed chess, each player has a total of 12 minutes in which to beat his opponent. During a player’s turn, the clock is running. When he completes a move, he stops his clock and his opponent’s clock starts ticking.
– When the contestants have played four minutes of chess between them, the board game is suspended and they put on their gloves. The boxing is in three-minute rounds. After each boxing round, contestants have a one-minute rest before returning to the chessboard. The contest can last as long as five boxing rounds and six chess rounds.
– If you knock your opponent out, the chess is over, too, and you win the match. If you beat your opponent at chess, then the boxing is over, and you win. In the case of a draw at the chessboard, the boxer with more points in the ring is declared the winner.
HHCF reformated their blog
Check it. There’s a feature on the Mind over Matter in our 2008 Sep/Oct, on stands now.
I met with Adisa yesterday. He sounded like Darth Vader because someone choked him out in practice last week and that messed with his windpipe. He kicked me down a copy of his book Lyrical Swords Vol: II. Their next event is Oct 11, but I’m scheduled for the Qigong Symposium and Training Workshop at Ohlone College that day. Looks like I’m gonna have to hustle then…
Prohiphop
Clyde Smith of Prohiphop.com was kind enough to give us and HHCF some props. I heard from Adisa yesterday - he’s in L.A. with RZA.
September 01, 2008
Hip Hop Chess Federation in Kung Fu Magazine
The Sep/Oct issue of Kung Fu Magazine has a report by Gene Ching titled Mind Over Matter: Chess & Grappling Exhibition by the Hip Hop Chess Federation which includes mention of RZA’s involvement in the HHCF though the grappling aspect has been developed by Adisa Banjoko.
2nd Annual Chess Kings Invitational
Here’s the press release on that Oct 11 event. That’s going to be a busy day for me.
UFC Fighters to Play Rappers at HHCF Annual Chess Kings Invitational
Actors, Rappers, Chess Masters, and UFC Fighters Come Together for Charity Chess & Grappling Event
The Hip-Hop Chess Federation is proud to announce the Annual Chess Kings Invitational. The Hip-Hop Chess Federation fuses music, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence. The Chess Kings Invitational is a charity chess tournament where celebrities and youth interact through a variety of avenues. Due to the popularity of the event, the HHCF will host the Invitational at the San Francisco Cow Palace. Everyone is invited to enjoy a variety of events from a traditional scholastic chess tournament, blind chess match, human chess, celebrity chess exhibition, scholarship tournament, grappling demo and more on Saturday October 11, 2008.
UFC Fighters Rich Franklin and Jeff Monson, RZA & GZA from the Wu-Tang Clan, Rakaa from Dilated Peoples and pioneer female MC Roxanne Shante are just some of the stars participating in the celebrity tournament. Best selling author of The Art of Learning and chess master Josh Waitzkin, Rich Franklin, RZA and Ralek Gracie will participate on a panel called "Fitness of Body & Mind ". A second panel “Art and Education” will feature Roxanne Shante, Josh Waitzkin, author of children’s book Chess Rumble Greg Neri and Def Poetry Jam’s Amir Sulaiman.
There will be a standard scholastic chess competition for youth and adults. Additionally, four schools selected by the HHCF will play in the Scholarship Invitational where they will compete for education scholarships. A Brazilian jiu jitsu exhibition by MMA fighter Ralek Gracie and Rakaa will also take place. There will be open free chess gaming all day and those who do not know how to play can learn the basics from HHCF chess mentors.
“We are enthusiastic and grateful to all the celebrities, kids and educators coming together for the Chess Kings Invitational” said CEO Adisa Banjoko. “This Invitational is going to be an incredible event. These are tough times for many of America’s youth. Nevertheless the HHCF remains unflinching in our goal to share the countless educational and artistic life options for them in this world. People are flying in from all over the country to participate. We’re are grateful for all the rappers, chess masters and martial artists who have donated their time to teaching kids healthy alternatives to violence on the streets.”
UFC’s Rich Franlkin stated " I’m excited to a part of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation event. Anything that can help young people better their lives is worth it for me."
Fellow UFC vet Jeff Monson is eager to attend after missing last years event due to a car accident. “I look forward to coming out to the Chess Kings Invitational and teach the kids about staying focused and having fun” said Monson. “I want them to know that it is equally important to train your brain and body to get the most out of life.”
To sign up for the tournament visit: http://www.hiphopchessfederation.org/kings2008
Partners for the Annual Chess Kings Invitational include Scion and Bay Area Chess. Other sponsors include JW Foundation, www.thechesspiece.com, www.onthemat.com, www.friendster.com and Cal Chess.org. To be a sponsor for this event or for more information on how to participate visit www.hiphopchessfederation.org/kings2008 today!