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Thread: Hip-Hop Chess Federation

  1. #1
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    Hip-Hop Chess Federation

    cool interview with a chess grandmaster rapping about chess, hip hop, internal martial arts, street style vs sport etc

    http://onthemat.com/articles/Control...6_06_2006.html

    gets good from page 2 on...

  2. #2
    Quote Originally Posted by stricker
    cool interview with a chess grandmaster rapping about chess, hip hop, internal martial arts, street style vs sport etc

    http://onthemat.com/articles/Control...6_06_2006.html

    gets good from page 2 on...
    Chess grandmaster? ...yeah, right....whatever....so, what lineage is he from?


    Sapere aude, Justin.

    The map is not the Terrain.

    "Wheather you believe you can, or you believe you can't...You're right." - Henry Ford

  3. #3
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    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.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  4. #4
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    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.
    Gene Ching
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  5. #5
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    very cool Gene!
    Very Jealous that your getting to meet the Rza
    Let us know how it goes.
    Robert James
    5th Gen. Bak Hsing Kwoon
    bakhsingkwoon@gmail.com
    http://www.youtube.com/user/SatoriScience
    "Whip the pole like the dragon whips its tail. Punches are like a tiger sticking out its head!"

  6. #6
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    that sounds like a great opportunity Gene...I never knew RZA was a practitioner

  7. #7
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    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).
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  8. #8
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    Wink 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).
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  9. #9
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    I just gotta say one thing...

    ...it's tough to be on a panel with RZA. He's the master of the mike.

    Check us out.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  10. #10
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    The Channel 11 report

    This reporter was there for most all of the event. Note Josh's cool lanyard.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by GeneChing View Post
    ...it's tough to be on a panel with RZA. He's the master of the mike.

    Check us out.
    Very Nice,
    "Its All Possible,"
    Robert James
    5th Gen. Bak Hsing Kwoon
    bakhsingkwoon@gmail.com
    http://www.youtube.com/user/SatoriScience
    "Whip the pole like the dragon whips its tail. Punches are like a tiger sticking out its head!"

  12. #12
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    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."
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

  13. #13
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    more on Mind over Matter

    This one's from Rakaa. More cool lanyards. More pics of me taking pics.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
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  14. #14
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    Wu Chess

    The next step, or should I say square?

    WuChess
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
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  15. #15
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    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.
    Gene Ching
    Publisher www.KungFuMagazine.com
    Author of Shaolin Trips
    Support our forum by getting your gear at MartialArtSmart

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