An unlikely union: hip-hop, chess and martial arts

Opening, Destruction Of A Guard, Exploitation Of Mistakes, General Principles, Advance Pawns, Queen's Gambit, Unstoppable Threats, Unprotected Pieces, Illusory Protection, Smothered Mate.

You may think that all these are titles from a chess primer but no... would you believe that these are the tracks on a CD by some of the most recognisable hip-hop names in the world? It's from the 2005 album, Grandmasters, pitting DJ Muggs against GZA. Actually, the album is a collaborative work between the two.

I'll be very surprised to find the CD selling here in Malaysia because every one of the tracks is labelled as Explicit. Yes, parental guidance required because of the explicit lyrics in the whole album.

But in Queen's Gambit, a powerful song written by the Wu-Tang Clan's power-house lyricist GZA, this is about all that is fit to print if I want to keep this post clean:

I be liking chess
Cuz chess is crazy, right there, that’s the ultimate
It’s like a great hobby right there, playing chess
The board, the pieces, the squares, the movement
You know, war, capturing, thinking, strategy
Planning, music, it’s hip-hop, and sports
It’s life, it’s reality

Here's something else. A photo of the Clan's RZA playing chess.


This is not a publicity picture. It actually happened. RZA together with GZA took part in a competition (Kings invitational tournament) organised by the .... get this .... the Hip-Hop Chess Federation in San Francisco on 13 Oct 2007. This organisation, founded by Adisa Banjoko and Leo Libiran, seeks to use “music, chess and martial arts to promote unity, strategy and non-violence.”

"We recognize that chess, martial arts and hip-hop unify people from multiple cultural, religious and social backgrounds. These black and white squares do not care what colour you are or if you are rich or poor. The only thing they ask is that you come with your strategy, your patience and your skills," Banjoko said on the website.

RZA won the tournament with a perfect record of 4-0. GZA was on 3-1, his only loss was against RZA. In the last round, RZA beat Monk (that's him in the photo above, sitting beside RZA) of another hip-hop group, Black Knights, who was winning but overlooked a back rank mate. RZA and GZA said they played in the tournament and became involved in the Hip-Hop Chess Federation because they believed chess could have a positive influence on young people. In typical hip-hop style, GZA rapped: “You are like a sponge when you are young. Kids are not being stimulated. Chess is a game of stimulation.” And winner RZA added, “Hip-hop is a battle game. Chess is a battle. Martial arts is a battle.”

One last quick photo: RZA with Josh Waitzkin. Don't know who is Waitzkin? Aiyah... surely you would know that Waitzkin is an international master who took up martial arts about 10 years ago? By 2004, he had won two world titles in tai chi chuan. He was the subject of a book, Searching For Bobby Fischer, written by his father Fred Waitzkin and which was later made into a movie starring Ben Kingsley and Laurence Fishburne.

UPDATE (29 Jun 2008): Oh, wow! I can't believe it! There's even a video on the tournament on YouTube: