The Hip Hop Chess Federation and Other Variants on the Immortal Game

In honor of the recently established Hip Hop Chess Federation, which combines the mental discipline of chess with the physical discipline of the martial arts and the intellectual strength of Hip Hop music (I’m not up on the new stuff, but am a longtime Public Enemy fan), I thought I’d post some inspirations for the game.

First there’s this three way chess board that has me leering (Yes, I “leer” at chessboards.):

Three-Way Chess

More on the dynamics of how three-way chess is played here (HT BMF). There’s also a four-way chess variant here, and you can play it against a pretty dumb computer program here.

Then there are chess puzzles, like the classic chess problems found here or daily chess problems presented here.

And let’s not forget Benjamin Franklin’s admiration of the game in his 1750 article, On the Morals of Chess (complete essay linked):

The Game of Chess is not merely an idle amusement; several very valuable qualities of the mind, useful in the course of human life, are to be acquired and strengthened by it, so as to become habits ready on all occasions; for life is a kind of Chess, in which we have often points to gain, and competitors or adversaries to contend with, and in which there is a vast variety of good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it. By playing at Chess then, we may learn: 1st, Foresight, which looks a little into futurity, and considers the consequences that may attend an action … 2nd, Circumspection, which surveys the whole Chess-board, or scene of action: – the relation of the several Pieces, and their situations; … 3rd, Caution, not to make our moves too hastily…

Which brings me to Gary Kasparov discussing how playing chess prepared him for political office, because the same mental strategies required to win at chess are required in rational debate: