carlie October 16th, 2007

First let’s talk about the good news. Congratulations are in order to Adisa Banjoko of the newly formed Hip Hop Chess Federation and the 1st Annual Chess Kings Kings Invitational Tournament, which was off the hook this past weekend. Special props are in order to the Rza of the famed Wu-Tang Clan as he repped to the fullest. Now, if you ever attended a Wu-Tang concert you will hear the crowd chanting loudly ‘Wu-Tang Clan ain’t nothing to fuck with!‘. In those scenarios the chant is around the incredible music the group puts out. Hands down, there simply isn’t a lot of groups who can get with them. However, that chant can now be applied to the world of chess.

Rza, Gza and Rugged Monk of the Wu-Tang Affiliate the Black Knights were among the Hip Hop stars along with chess masters and UFC fighters who stomped through San Francisco this weekend to go head to head on the 64 squares we call chess. It was a who’s who of people who showed up thus dispelling whatever myth people may have held about the hood or Hip Hop not wanting to sit patiently and play the thinking man’s game of chess.

In the building was Rakaa of Dilated Peoples, Paris, DJ Disk, T-Kash, Balance, Zion I, Amir Sulaiman, Big Rich, Chairman Fred Hampton jr, Minister of Information JR of the POCC, Casual of Hieroglyphics, Sunspot Jonz of Living Legends, Prince Ali, Shamako Noble and D’labarie of Hip Hop Congress, DJ Malcolm Marshall of Street Soldiers, The Brown Berets of Watsonville, Hip Hop pioneer Popmaster Fable of the Rocksteady Crew, long time Bay Area B-Boy Bas-1 are just a few of the people I ran into. I won’t even begin to run down the list of fighters and chess masters who came from as far away as Miami and the UK. Also on hand were scores of youth from various youth programs from around the Bay. The Galleria, where this event was held has 5 floors and 4 of those 5 floors were in full use as intense chess battles took place……….

From www.Daveyd.com

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