RZA’s connection to sports always has been tenuous at best as the mastermind behind some preposterously ill soundtracks for martial arts movies. Now he’s furthering his cred on the “is it or is it not sport?” front by starting his own chess website, wuchess.com, which is exactly what it sounds like: a site where fans of the Wu can play chess online.↵
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↵Membership at the site costs $48 a year, which makes one wonder if the Rizz is aware that there are about a thousand sites out there on the web where you can play chess for zero dollars a year. So far it seems like the main perks you’ll get for your forty-eight smackers is a Wu t-shirt and maybe - they’re not making any promises about this – but
Wu-Tang Clan Explores Your Mind
maybe
a chance to play an online game against RZA someday and win the “Hip Hop Belt,” a mysterious title which RZA claims to own:↵
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↵↵Gathering from the accompanying video at this New York Times article, however, a game against RZA perhaps would not be the stiffest competition you’ve ever faced in your life if, say, you’ve ever hung around Red Hot Pawn or especially if you’re one of those killers who can hang at the ICC. In the video RZA gets straight-up spanked by the Times chess editor, Dylan Loeb McClain (you can review their game here.)↵
↵↵But though I’m ragging on Rizz a little bit, I do know from first-hand experience that chess is a huge part of the Wu-Tang subculture and all the main players on that scene take the game very seriously. A friend of mine used to, ah, furnish members of the Wu with some of his highly sought-after horticultural creations. ↵
↵↵He told me a story about getting picked up down at Fulton Street Mall by a founding Wu member in his Escalade, and said Wu member had just come from playing chess at another Wu member’s house for 24 hours straight. In the Escalade, after taking care of biz, my man’s Wu connection went on an extended stony tirade about how stupid he had been to take one of his new chess clocks out of its box after buying it. Evidently he removed the clock from its box and threw it in the trunk, and one of the play levers got depressed and the batteries went dead. My friend said he was completely obsessed with this situation, so much so that my friend almost yelled at him, “damn man you’re in the Wu Tang Clan! Buy some new batteries! It ain’t that big a deal yo!” But he thought better of it.↵
↵↵The point is, them dudes are dead serious about chess, and this article in the Times gives a good clue as to why. RZA says he learned the game when he was eleven from the same girl who took his virginity. One has to imagine that if that girl had been really into jacks, all you Wu-heads out there would be working on twosies right now over at wujacks.com. ↵
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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
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