All right, we are here at the Hip-Hop Chess Federation Invitational. Would you please tell us how you found out about the Hip Hop Chess Federation?
Ralek Gracie: Adisa [Banjoko] has been a friend of mine for some time. He’s been into Jiu-Jitsu, he’s been into chess and the whole culture and how the cultures connect. He reached out to me a few years ago to see if I would do the first Hip Hop Chess Invitational/tournament/event and it was awesome to see the connections, the event, to see RZA. I’m a huge hip-hop fan. I’m a practitioner an artist myself. I’m really into the whole culture of hip-hop and chess and the connect. Years ago I was at the first event and I competed at the same chess tournament and lost pretty quick but now I feel like I’ve gotten my game up very slowly but more than I was last time.
How long have you been playing chess?
Ralek Gracie: I’ve been playing chess my whole life. I feel like a long time but not seriously, just on and off, anytime I could get a game. It always seemed like there was never enough people to get a game. As much as I could, I would. Really, I don’t think I’m more than a blue belt with a couple of stripes, if that.
Shout out to our Metamoris fans?
Ralek Gracie: If you’ve got your tickets to Metamoris, we will see you there. It’s going to be an amazing show. If not catch it on line www.metamoris.com, it’s going to be awesome.
Thank you very much.
