RZA wins HHCF’s Kings Invitational!
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RZA holds up the HHCF championship belt after sweeping the tournament 4-0. Hip-hop legend “Popmaster Fabel” presents the belt while Adisa Banjoko (co-founder of HHCF), IM Josh Waitzkin and Rakaa Iriescience applaud. Photo by Daaim Shabazz.
The 1st Kings Invitational was a magnificent event. Adisa has come a long way in a short time and the Hip-Hop Chess Federation movement has great potential if it finds the right balance between the hip-hop world and the chess world.
It was great meeting RZA, GZA, Casual, TKASH and the other artists. Good brothers! They do not play tournament chess, but their passion is there. RZA’s backrank mate of Monk was classic! We all have felt the pain of victory being snatched from our grasp. The event was first rate and I’ll make pics available soon. I’ll have about 20 pictures in a slide show. The rest I may put within a gallery.
See Drum Brief on Hip-Hop tournament!
Thanks for your coverage of such an interesting event. Can you post the games? How strong do you think RZA is?
Daaim – Nice coverage. Glad to see that you were able to be a part of the event. Do you think that the efforts of the HHCF will significantly impact the growth of organized chess playing by “post-scholastic” black chessplayers? Such growth would be a real breakthrough in the popularizing of the game.
WOW! A beautiful event which reminds me of the initials stages or rap back in 1978, how we were able to move rap from the pure street level, to international success on par with the highest forms of music. Its apparent that theses brothers are doing the same thing with chess and expanding on the intellectual process by blending various forms or art as well! Im certain we as a unique part of the diaspora will be at the top or world chess soon!
Lionel makes a good point. I remember a post-Katrina article about the chess scene in New Orleans. One brother interviewed was a professional musician. He liked chess, and said that he got the same artistic rush playing chess as he did playing jazz. He talked about structure and elements and improvisation, etc. I hadn’t ever thought about chess that way, but his explanation made so much sense. The HHCF seems to be doing the same thing … bringing their artistic perspective to the game, and creating an exciting new dimension.
What an EVENT! even though earlier in the day I had MONK on the ropes ( it was at the 1st level bar, while my boy played the GZA) and let him get at me.. boys and girls practice YOUR ENDGAME!!!!!
again the event was fresh (yeah, im old school). great networking, and hanging out with the WU!!!
c y’all in FEB 2008
peace,
Herm!
Daaim,
I am simply speechless! This event provided precisely the type of positive media exposure that our chess community desperately needs. Keep up the great work!
Regards,
Richard
Yo nice work RZA, go peep https://masterchessgames.com to fine tune your logic!
Video by Irina Slutsky/GeekEntertainmentTV