By Johanna Willett
Zocalo Magazine

Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk, on the right, at the 2009 9 Queens event at MAST Boutique. Photo: Jeff Smith

Say “checkmate” to chess royalty this Cinco de Mayo at the fifth annual Chess Fest. That is, if you’ve got the right moves.

Tucsonans of all ages and skill levels have a chance to face Alexandra Kosteniuk, the former Women’s World Chess Champion Grandmaster.

Hosted by the local non-profit organization 9 Queens, Chess Fest situates what many see as a quiet game into the heart of downtown Tucson, blending face painting with chess lessons.

“We welcome chess enthusiasts and the closet chess players who don’t always play,” said Jean Hoffman, the co-founder of 9 Queens. “It’s not a traditional chess event. It’s free, it’s outdoors, and it’s downtown. It’s much more of a party.”

Hoffman founded 9 Queens with Jennifer Shahade, a two-time American Women’s Chess Champion, in 2007. Beyond hosting chess events, 9 Queens seeks to empower at-risk youth and girls through chess.
Chess Fest will take over the Hotel Congress parking lot, checkering the asphalt to create a living chessboard that transforms people into a pawn, bishop, or queen.

“Chess is inherently an urban game,” Hoffman said. “In New York City, you see people playing speed chess in the parks. It’s exciting and fun. There’s trash talk, and it’s such a diverse group of people. This fits really well in downtown Tucson.”

Kosteniuk began playing chess at the age of five, and since then, the community aspect of the game has kept her involved over the years.

“Playing [chess] internationally, I wanted to continue to play and see my friends in future chess tournaments,” Kosteniuk said in an email from a chess championship in Turkey. “Chess has allowed me to meet many very nice people and to travel across the whole world.”

A visitor to Tucson in 2009, Kosteniuk was “impressed by the diversity and strength of the Tucson chess community.” Events like Chess Fest popularize chess, and 9 Queens also sponsors chess instruction in schools.

Right now, first and second-graders at Johnson Elementary School periodically get chess as part of their classroom curriculum. Learning to play chess improves problem-solving skills and boosts confidence by providing kids a positive outlet. A four-year study including about 4,200 second-grade students found that students who learn chess experience spurred IQ increases, according to statistics on the 9 Queens website.

“When you teach a kid chess, you’re teaching them how to look at a position and come up with their own plan,” Hoffman said. “It’s the same kind of problem solving that you want people to use off the board in real life—applying for a job, doing school work, whatever.”

Kosteniuk has seen the cognitive influences of chess in her own life.

“I have learned to think before acting and that my actions will lead to consequences,” Kosteniuk said. “Chess has also taught me that you cannot achieve anything without hard work.”

For both Hoffman and Kosteniuk, this is part of the beauty of chess—the equal playing field it creates.

“Only brains count [in chess],” Kosteniuk said. “I am very happy when a kid beats a grown-up and runs to his parents to tell them. I see the parents so proud of their child.”

Kosteniuk will play regular Tucsonans in a simultaneous exhibit, giving Tucson’s kids (and adults) a chance to challenge a champion. Anyone who wants to play can sign up at the festival, and Kosteniuk will play everybody at the same time.

“I cannot think of a hobby that has as many benefits as chess,” Kosteniuk said. “Chess does not care if you’re very young or very old. The only thing that matters is what moves you make.”

By Corey DuBrowa
Originally posted from Paste Magazine

It was an admittedly odd scene: nearly 2 a.m., the tour bus surrounded by autograph seekers, dope peddlers and various hangers-on, all hoping to catch a glimpse of someone from the band. For most late nights at Portland, Ore.’s hot and compact Hawthorne Theater, that “band” would’ve meant someone of a punk or indie persuasion. But tonight, the situation now included the Wu-Tang Clan’s famed founder and producer Robert “the RZA” Diggs and the nine-piece L.A. funk/soul act Stone Mecca, who’d provided musical backing for him all evening.

Having issued the controversial Wu-Tang album 8 Diagrams last year (“controversial” in that Wu members Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Raekwon all dissed it, and the RZA’s production effort, quite loudly in print following its release), the RZA has moved on to one of his various alter egos, the pleasure-seeking Bobby Digital. His third album in this guise, Digi-Snacks(KOCH), includes a much more organic, live-band approach to his music, supplementing the diabolical samples for which his work is typically known with Stone Mecca’s subtle grooves and jazzcat-inflected singing (“Drama,” in particular, is a revelation).

The RZA also continues to keep his hand in the acting game (having made an impression in last year’s Denzel Washington vehicle American Gangster) and recently drove the launch of Wu-Chess, a paid membership website focused on the RZA’s favorite game.

Paste had the opportunity sit down with RZA in his tour bus, post-gig—track suit, sunglasses and massive ‘fro still intact from the evening’s activities—to talk with him about his current solo tour and to try to get a bead on what’s next, if anything, for the Wu-Tang Clan, given the drama surrounding how the group left things last fall. From the looks of things, 8 Diagrams may very well be the final group album we’ll get from the vaunted Staten Island collective.

Paste: How did you hook up with the Stone Mecca guys? Did you know them in some way before you recorded Digi-Snacks?

RZA: I met them maybe seven years ago, and I got interested in having them play samples “over” for me. I used them to do some stuff when I was working with Raekwon on [the as-yet unreleased] Cuban Linx Pt. II, using them to play my samples. I liked how they emulated the music I made; they played the way that I wanted it to sound, know what I mean?

Paste: I think a lot of people have operated under the assumption that you sample more than you do. My perception is that there’s more “live” music on the average Wu release or on your solo stuff…

RZA: …than they realize, yeah! I think for some of my fans it’ll be new to them because they only expect a certain thing. But those who take the risk and come out, they get the hook up, you know? (laughs) That’s what I feel comfortable about; on this tour, I’m really comfortable with what I’m doing on stage. Because I can change at any moment: “You know what? This band shit’s not cool any more, I’m gonna hit the reset button, go to instant replay.” (laughs) But I’m havin’ a great time, the audience is havin’ a great time. Nothin’ wrong with a good time, yo.

Paste: The cool thing about a live band is that you have the ability now to reinterpret parts of your back catalog too, like you did tonight going back to some of the old Wu stuff on the first album, which the live band gives a completely different flavor.

RZA: We also played “1-800-Suicide,” which was a Gravediggaz song, and it sounded good enough—maybe 80% to the record?—to do with the band. To be in the club listening to that thing go off, you may be onto something there, you know? (laughs)

Paste: Let’s talk about 8 Diagrams for a minute. There were things in the press afterward that gave the impression that people like Ghost, Meth and Raekwon were unhappy with how it came out. What are the chances of you guys working together again any time soon? Because you’re working on the sequel to Cuban Linx with Raekwon now, right?

RZA: No, I haven’t worked with the Clan since then. I’ve done shows with them, but that’s mostly what I’m planning to do with them in the future. Uphold that W, know what I mean? Our creative ideas are going in different directions right now. I’m an MC, too, you know? Some people [in the Wu] have stuck with what Rakim once said, “Hip-hop don’t need a band, just a DJ and his two hands/as hip-hop was and still stands.” I understand the point he was making, but even Rakim is on tour with a band right now, you know? (laughs) He’s the one who said it, too, yo! Sampling came from bands, scratching came from the music made by bands. When all we HAD was a sampler. But it made me become more of a musician; now I play a guitar to express my feelings. I got a band, and it can be a little sloppy ‘cause I’m new with it. But it’s how it’s supposed to be, how I’m learning.

Paste: But isn’t that rawness you’re talking about just the next extension of the whole “realness” thing that hip-hop people have been talking about for decades? I would think this is why people like Kanye West, the next generation of young creative guys in hip-hop, have singled you out. He’s said that you’re the reason he got into the game to begin with. So maybe this approach to live music will have a similar impact.

RZA: That’s respect, yo. And I got respect going right back to him, to see him take it to another level where he can feed people with his shit, where people are still getting something good out of it, where it’s still available. That’s a blessing. I’m proud of that, yo.

Paste: How is your Wu-chess venture going? You just launched the new site, I’m just wondering how it’s fared so far from a business perspective [given that membership is nearly $50 a pop to join]?

RZA: I haven’t had time to check on it since I’ve been on the road, but I’ve been going to different events while I’m out on tour. We stopped in Tucson, Ariz., with the 9Queens Association. It was great to see all these kids come out. Actually, mothers, husbands andtheir kids! Couples there with their children, which is a beautiful thing to see anyway! (laughs) They was all playin’ chess and feelin’ good and that’s what Wu-chess is about. I’m proud of what it’s doing. I got some flack from people who said, “Why does it cost money to join Wu-chess?” But hey, everything I do costs money, you know? (laughs) I gotta pay for this bus, yo, it’s killin’ us! It all costs money! Bringin’ a band out increases the costs of a tour like this, but if the fans have a good time, it’s worth the risk. I’m willing to take it.

Paste: It’s possible that a whole generation of kids out there might be introduced to a fairly complicated game—one they can develop, follow, play for life as a pursuit—because someone they respected took the time to introduce it to them, to teach them. Make chess cool, fun, something they could relate to. Something accessible.

RZA: Respect. That’s what the lady from 9Queens said, too. I’m gonna name some of my friends who play chess, I hope they don’t get mad at me, but Forrest Whittaker and Jude Law both play chess. Two of the elite. A lot of people play it and love the game. That’s the whole point.

Paste: Speaking of actors, I caught your turn in American Gangster, as did a lot of people, and wondered if there’s more acting or film work in your future. It seems to come pretty naturally to you. I understand you’ve got a few projects in the works now (Gospel Hill, Repossession Mambo); how do you have time to fit that in?

RZA: Acting is definitely one of the most fun things you can do. To me, it’s a new girl, you know? (laughs) But I gotta finish some work over there [points at the stage] in this music thing. Acting, we got something big in November…

Paste: Formula for the Cure has become known as kind of the RZA’s “Black Album.” There’s even a brief, confusing YouTube trailer about it, or related to it. Will fans ever hear it? Is it done and sitting on a shelf somewhere, or have you buried it? Are there plans for it to be released at some point?

RZA: That is sitting on the shelf. I never made the music for those words. I know the words are powerful, they’re timeless, in the sense that I hope it’s not too late before someone else hears me say it. (laughs) I’ve thought about that a lot!

Paste: People have heard more about it than they’ve heard of it, clearly. That’s where all the curiosity comes from.

RZA: I know what you mean. I’m looking forward to the day when I can record that and deliver that, yo. I think I’m close.

Paste: I’ve been living with Digi-Snacks for the past three weeks in the car. It strikes me that what you’re doing with it live is to stretch well beyond what’s represented on the record, which is the essence of great live music, right? Not just replicating the record live, which, aside from freestyling and battle-rapping is most of what hip-hop has been throughout the years, but “interpreting” it. Seems like there’s a long way left to go with this idea, not just recording and playing with the band, but composing with them, collaborating with different people. The same concept as the Wu in some ways: each person brings ideas, and what emerges is in the middle somewhere. The band’s almost like Santana in certain moments!

RZA: Every night we’ve been coming with something. Look, James Brown is themotherfucker, right? (laughs) We all saw what he did up to the age of 70. So I got a long way to go, but I’m at least starting somewhere different now! To get to that level. We havin’ fun, man.

<Paste: Well, last time I checked, that gig’s open now, right? (laughs)

RZA: Ol’ Dirty would have been the man for that one, right? (laughs) Nothin’ but a party, yo.

by Chris Carter on Jun. 12, 2008

Wu-Tang co-founder RZA believes chess is key in helping youth learn how to think before acting.

Most people don’t associate rap music with chess. But Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA is a master of both. Next week, the rap star will pair with local nonprofit organization 9 Queens to host WuChess Fest at Hotel Congress.

“The event is to help promote chess awareness and change the stereotype that people have about chess and chess players,” says Jean Hoffman, co-founder of 9 Queens. The event will offer free prizes, matches, a speed chess tournament and face painting.

Later that night, RZA will take the stage at the Rialto Theatre as his alter ego, Bobby Digital.

RZA, who learned to play chess at age 11 but only recently just started taking it seriously, says the game is extremely helpful.

“It was about two years ago when I really learned about the analytical power chess has,” he says in a phone interview. “The game of chess is like a swordfight. You must think first, before you move.”

It was after discovering chess as a learning tool that RZA created WuChess, an online community for players to meet and compete.

“I thought it would be a helpful tool for young people and realizing what chess can add to a community; to think before they act spontaneously. I decided it could be a good outlet for all walks, for all minds to get the chance to gather and sharpen their minds.”

Hoffman, too, sees the benefit of having chess introduced to a community.

“Chess is a great educational tool proven to raise test scores and help self-confidence,” she says. “It can also help people learn social life skills and teach kids how to think. It’s cheap, fun and when introduced can really make a difference.”

RZA agrees with Hoffman and says the game is especially important for people in urban communities.

“They find themselves in situations needing to think quick. And they don’t properly think,” he says. “I think chess helps develop people’s thought process. People need to stay out of jail, not commit crime and young ladies not get pregnant. You need to think.”

But don’t expect Hoffman and RZA to do a lot of thinking against each other in a battle of sponsors.

“I don’t want him to beat me, but I’ll play him if he challenges me,” Hoffman says with a laugh.

RZA wants to make sure that people understand that chess is not about winning and losing.

“It’s about the skills you get from it. That’s more important than winning and losing.”

After the tournament, RZA will step away from the chessboard and become Bobby Digital, his bold, genre-blending alter ego, who will perform at the Rialto.

“I think Bobby Digital has more freedom and is more uncontained, and I think you will see that,” he says. “The RZA has a few lyrics, mixed in with the rest of the members of the Wu-Tang Clan here and there but Bobby Digital is the whole thing.”

By Jennifer Shahade
May 16, 2008

I went to Arizona last weekend for ChessFest 2008, an event put on by the non-profit I co-founded, 9queens.   ChessFest went down at the Hotel Congress, also a famous nightclub. On the night of the chess fest, Hotel Congress was hosting the indie rock band, Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin, which made me laugh, although I am definitely not an advocate for the self-piteous ad campaign, “Someone Still Loves You, Chess.” In fact, in Tucson, it seemed an opposite slogan was in the air, “Everyone Loves Chess.”

Finding a balance between fun and competition is a major challenge for chess celebrations, because too much of either will bore half the crowd. 9queens co-founder and native Tucsonian Jean Hoffman , who organized the event, found a great mix.  She arranged a serious blitz tournament run by the smiling and super-competent TD and FM Robby Adamson. There were also spectator friendly events, such as a two-board blindfold simul by Leo Martinez and the day’s highlight, the coolest human chess game I’ve ever played in. The costumes, donated by a local toy store, Mrs. Tiggy Winkles, were more conceptual than literal: tutus for the queens, Rodees for the Knights, Groucho-Marx glasses for the pawns.

One of the prizes for winning the blitz tournament was playing against me in the human chess game, so I battled 14-year-old ChessFest champ Kevin Zhang (2076). Both of us stood on large orange ladders, exposed to the blazing sun, ten feet above our pawns and knights. This exhibition was fun, but also really difficult. I didn’t want to lose, but it was chaotic and I got a terrible position out of the opening:

I forgot that in this line, I should play e5, either on move nine or ten. As it turned out, I salvaged my position anyway because Kevin played too impatiently. Check out my ridiculously long-winded knight maneouver: Ng8-f6-d7-b6-a8-c7-e6. I really shouldn’t have played that in front of kids, as one coach joked: “Now all my students are going to be playing Na8!”

In the final position, instead of taking a draw by perpetual check, I should have captured on a2 and  shoved the h-pawn. I took a draw for three reasons:
1.    I didn’t realize how easy it was to win;I thought it would take a while.
2.    The kids were about to get REALLY bored. This is the problem with most human chess games; they get really boring for the pieces and spectators. Because Jean and I knew this, we set a time control of 8 minutes+10 second delay. Despite the quick time limit, the younger amongst the pieces were already antsy.
3.    I had less time than Kevin, about two and change  to his three and change.

USCF Expert and ChessFest Blitz Champ Kevin Zhang

So Chessfest wrapped the day up with a draw, a closing ceremony and co-founders with sunburns in desperate need of Aloe Vera.

The Tuscon community was very supportive of ChessFest. Mayor Bob Walkup spoke at the opening ceremony and council woman Karin Uhlich even played in the event. Tuscon’s chess elite also came: The new 2008 U.S. Chess League team, the Arizona Scorpions were represented by the aforementioned Leo and Robby as well as Ken Larsen. Blindfold legend and psychology professor Eliot Hearst attended.  Two-time National High School Championship Team Catalina Foothills High volunteered, teaching novice kids the pawn game and basic tactics. A crew from chesspark /wu-chess flew in from as far as Florida, and we had some amazing Mexican food.  Can you believe I traveled the world but never had mole before?

One Queen vs. Two Rooks

I was preparing a lesson for a 9Queens Academy when watching Daniel Yeager’s clutch win against Michael Thaler in the National High School Championship:

This victory earned Yeager a perfect 7-0 and clear first.

Coincidentally, when I was watching this game, I was preparing a lesson on the relative strength of two rooks vs. a queen. I used chessbase to search for games with the imbalance, and was surprised that the overwhelming majority of the games I found favored the queen over the two rooks. It’s not because the queen is stronger… it’s that creating a queen/two rook imbalance usually features open positions, which obviously favor the queen. The above game is a perfect example. Once the queen vs. two-rook trade went down, White’s position was already totally disheveled.

The most impressive two rooks vs. queen game I found was a brilliant and subtle victory by Anand. I was looking for something a bit more direct for teaching purposes, but I was still thrilled to find this game. Is it famous? If not, it should be.

As the Nationals season closes, CLO is gearing up for the summer open season, not to mention the ongoing U.S. Championship. But we’re quite through with the Elementary Nationals yet- Look out for games and photos from Elizabeth Vicary’s students from I.S. 318, who won the K-6 Championship section. CLO will also publish an interview between Dynako and Josh Waitzkin, who was in Pittsburgh promoting his new foundation and his book, The Art of Learning.

Sammour-Hasbun Prevails

The U.S. Chess League Game of the Year competition prevailed with Jorge Sammour-Hasbun’s win over Kuljasevic taking the 1000$ grand prize. Boskovic-Becerra, which I ranked as first, came in second place for 500$. Greg’s strong comments about why he thinks Martinez-Zilberstein should have easily won the competition gave me pause to reconsider my own rankings. Despite my theory that judging things inherently leads to “over-thinking” (are you reading this, Ms.Bacheorlorette?), I maintain that my own rankings were perfect, or in the words of a new book title, Mistakes Were Made, but Not by Me.

by Billie Stanton on Apr. 09, 2008

Tucsonan’s goal: Make children better thinkers through chess

Korena Garcia, a Tucson High senior, ponders the board. Garcia is an intern with 9 Queens, which uses chess to build children’s cognitive skills, among other things.

Known as “the King’s Game” since 1616, chess now will be the domain of Tucson princesses, princes and paupers, too.

Free chess lessons will infuse Title 1 schools in the Tucson area with the game’s proven ability to rev up cognitive development and IQ levels along with good manners and social skills.

Just as local public education appears to be foundering, Tucson native Jean Hoffman has brought home a plan to help reverse that trend, especially in schools receiving Title 1 funds for serving many kids of low-income families.

With partner Jennifer Shahade, a grandmaster, two-time women’s American chess champion and author of “Chess Bitch,” and a grant from the local Voices for Education, Hoffman is launching the nonprofit 9 Queens.

While the king is deemed the most important piece on the chessboard, the queen is the fastest and most powerful, she says.

In a perfect game, the best player would acquire nine queens. Thus the name.

Hoffman hopes to snuff out the stereotype that chess is a rich man’s game by introducing the strategic activity to girls and boys from low-income families throughout the Tucson area.

9 Queens will pay chess teachers to provide the lessons, as Hoffman is doing already at Roskruge Bilingual School.

Chess “teaches long-term planning and realizing the consequences of your actions, and those are skills every young person can use,” says Robin Hiller, executive director of Voices for Education.

The universal game also transcends language barriers and is a staple in many Hispanic cultures, so 9 Queens is a great fit for Tucson’s multicultural metro area.

Hoffman, a graduate of St. Gregory College Preparatory School, has a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and a master’s in teacher education from Harvard. She spent three years teaching chess and directing tournaments for the Chess-in-the-Schools program based in New York City.

She came home for a visit that, luckily for us, has morphed into a permanent return.

“Tucson has a rich tradition of chess,” Hoffman says. “Unfortunately, it’s very concentrated with schools that have resources or parents with resources . . .”

Not for long. 9 Queens will be spreading chess into low-income neighborhoods, operating out of an inner-city home with rent subsidized by retired University of Arizona professor Carl Tomizuka and women’s advocate and author Sheila Tobias.

“If we can get girls to take chess seriously,” Tobias says, “it might help them take themselves seriously.”

In a 1750 essay, The Morals of Chess, Benjamin Franklin noted that the game “is not merely an idle amusement,” but rather a mirror of life, with points to gain, competitors and adversaries to contend with and “good and ill events, that are, in some degree, the effect of prudence, or the want of it.”

He credited chess with, among other things, teaching foresight, consideration of consequences, circumspection and caution.

For today’s children, who lose far too many precious hours to video games, television and other shallow entertainment, chess seems a veritable palliative.

The work of 9 Queens can offset the effects of modern ills among Tucson’s children while imbuing them with excellent behavioral and personality characteristics, as well as improved thinking and academic success.

Local schools need only open their schedules and classrooms to this enterprise; 9 Queens will do the rest.

Hoffman believes the program will find success in the Old Pueblo. “I do think this is a very good community for innovation and trying things out,” she says.

And Tucson can applaud the return of Hoffman – one of those young, talented professionals whom our city longs to attract – as a real coup.

Welcome home, Jean Hoffman, and thanks for devising a new way to provide all Tucson children with the tools they need for success in life.

Billie Stanton may be reached at bstanton@tucsoncitizen.com and 573-4664.

Roskruge Bilingual School fourth-grader Casey McDaniel, 10, makes her move.