Xtreme Chess Championships – semifinals
3/18/2012 – In the semifinals of the The Extreme Chess Championships, a made for TV competition, Justus Williams broke Kassa’s own record for the youngest African-American master in history faces Duke University student Kassa Korley in the semi-finals. The second semifinals match featured poker player Alex Barnett and Stanford student, Elliott Liu, in a spectacular attack. Report and episode video.
Xtreme Chess Championships – semifinals
By Jennifer Shahade
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Two of the youngest African-American masters in history, Duke University student Kassa Korley and media sensation Justus Williams face off in the semi-finals of the Extreme “XChess” Championships. Justus Williams broke Kassa’s own record for the youngest African-American master in history and has since been featured in the New York Times. Justus is also one of five players featured in the documentary Brooklyn Castle, which just premiered at the South by SouthWest film festival.
Alex Barnett, Kassa Korley, hostess Kacie Marie, Elliot Liu, and Justus Williams, the
youngest African-American master in history.
The second semifinals match featured poker player Alex Barnett and the popular Stanford student Elliott Liu. This game was the most exciting yet in XChess, featuring a flurry of sacrifices, in a spectacular attack.
The Extreme Chess Championships is a made for TV competition that showcases the drama of chess and the rush of checkmate. The pace in this single elimination knockout competition, also known as X Chess, is much closer to basketball than golf—each player has less than 20 minutes to complete all his or her moves. The show aims to heighten the awareness of chess and to prove that intellectual pursuits can create thrilling television.
The Extreme Chess Championships is created by filmmaker Daniel Meirom, US Chess League founder and International Master Greg Shahade and author and two-time US Women’s Champion Jennifer Shahade. X Chess is hosted by model and actress Kacie Marie. Jeopardy! Champion Jonathan Corbblah, who has appeared on ESPN, Cash Cab and Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, provides accessible commentary with Jennifer Shahade. The event was hosted at Chess-In-The-Schools, a New York non-profit.
To watch, you don’t need to badger your local cable TV company to broadcast them, as the episodes can be watched online in YouTube in full HD resolution. Stay updated on Facebook and Twitter as well.
Xtreme Chess Championships – Episode three
Each episode lasts about 23 minutes long. If you click on the small gear in the bottom rigth corner, you can change the quality up to very high resolution 720p or 1080p, maximize the image, and sit back and watch premier quality TV and chess.
Though both games were very entertaining, don't miss out on the fireworks from Elliot Liu-Alex Barnett
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