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Chess rocks!

3 December 2009, 14.44 CET | Last modified: 8:38 | By Peter Doggers  | Filed under: Reports | Tags: ,

Chess rocks!Chess rocks. Well, that’s what we usually agree upon over here, but what do the rock musicians think?

Perhaps you remember our article of early February 2008 in which we made a list of pop music videos in which chess play a role. Thanks to Len Ganley we’ve now come across the following music video, in which the band Half Man Half Biscuit plays their song Bad Losers On Yahoo Chess – an instant classic, in our opinion. :-) The video is very shaky (probably shot with a mobile phone) but the music and the lyrics deserve to be enjoyed by the ChessVibes audience.

But Half Man Half Biscuit is not the only rock band that’s somehow connected to chess. What to think of the band listening to the name Captains of the Chess Team? Here are two videos, from their early 2008 mash up at the University of Texas Video Archive fundraiser at Richard Garriott’s estate in Austin.

“Smells like Godzilla”

“I’d rather be playing in the MUD”




Update – two more videos from the comments:

“Apropos Sjakk” (thanks to Tarjei)

Prefab Sprout – “Cue fanfare” (thanks to Poek)

DJ Muggs vs. GZA – “General Principles” (thanks to CMoB)

Wu-tang Clan – “Da Mystery of Chessboxin’” (thanks to Daaim Shabazz)

Feel free to give more links to chess related rock bands and/or YouTube videos in the comments!


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9 Responses to “Chess rocks!”

  1. Tarjei on December 3rd, 2009 17:53

    This one is not rock related, but it’s surely chess related and hilariously well made:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcKlkJN9_SQ

  2. Poek on December 3rd, 2009 19:19

    Prefab Sprout – Cue Fanfare

    “When Bobby Fischer’s plane – plane plane – touches the ground -
    plane plane he’ll take those Russian boys and play them out of town,
    playing for blood as grandmasters should.”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-ezE9ybB3Q

    Wonderful song btw

  3. CMoB on December 4th, 2009 02:43

    Not rock but the following video rocks, no doubt! Featuring a sampled Garry Kasparov.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tesD7inx880

  4. T. Goto on December 4th, 2009 08:20

    Year, I love chess, even though I have no time to play myself! Even though I don’t deserve to call myself a chess player! I love it. Absolutely love it.

  5. Len Ganley on December 4th, 2009 13:16

    Lyrics for Half Man Half Biscuit here:

    http://www.chrisrand.com/hmhb/csi-ambleside/bad-losers-on-yahoo-chess/

    This is from their latest album ‘CSI Ambleside’ if anyone would like to rush out and buy it.

    They do a fine line in sardonic whimsy.

  6. dj kasparov on December 4th, 2009 17:52

    As a big chesslover and producer of dance-music i named my hardcore concept Kasparov
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ2m-X15Rlg

    Look at the disign of my releases. Really cool.

    http://partyflock.nl/albumelement/1311688:Kasparov_Deathrow_achterkant.html

  7. Daaim Shabazz on December 5th, 2009 03:52

    Of course chess rocks… what else is there?

    Well… here’s another one from Wu Tang.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl6jwab3HWk

  8. Willem on December 5th, 2009 11:57

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMbBqX3-KD4

    Scorpions – Walking on the edge

    For you, life is just like chess
    If you don’t make a move
    You’ll lose the game like this

  9. Phil on December 5th, 2009 18:30

    How about a serious hit, Aussie band Dragon released a song called ‘The Dreaded Maroczy Bind”! It made their Greatest Hits album.

    There is conjecture that their biggest hit, “April Sun in Cuba” was also based on chess with Capablanca as its inspiration.

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