Wu-Tang Clan wants you (to play chess)

Chess rules everything around me/ Queens, get those rooks/ Dolla dolla bill y'all.

No, this is not a lost Chappelle's Show skit . This is Wu-Tang auteur RZA's latest endeavor: WuChess.

WuChess, as RZA matter-of-factly states on its homepage, is the worlds first chess and hip-hop online community. Yes, the boys from the 36 Chambers must have just beat Dipset to the punch on this one. Who hasn't heard about the epic duel where Jim Jones finally forced Cam'ron to concede his queen and ultimately the match to decide once and for all who was more ballin'?

Without context, this might seem like the oddest promotion in recent music history, but not if you really know the Wu. Chess has had countless lyrical shoutouts over the years in the group's catalog. The memorable cover art to GZA's 1995 masterpiece Liquid Swords showed warriors sword-fighting on a black-and-white chessboard. And this past October, RZA actually won the Hip-Hop Chess Federation's 1st Annual Kings Invitational.

The concept is simple. For $48 a year (which seems to be about par for the course of pay-for-play chess sites), you can receive membership to hone your skills on the 64 squares, talk all things Wu on the message boards and even challenge RZA and his fellow chamber dwellers to a match. It's like Facebook, you know, if Bobby Fischer would have designed it.

As RZA says, "The game of chess is like a swordfight. You must think first, before you move. Toad style is immensely strong, and immune to nearly any weapon. When it's properly used, it's almost invincible."

Um, exactly?

Related links:
WuTang-Corp.com
YouTube: RZA on the making of "The Heart Gently Weeps"
HipHopChessFederation.org

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