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Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Xtreme Chess Champion Crowned in Dramatic Television Show Final

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hi everyone,


You've been following the Extreme 'X Chess' super videos right? The final and fourth episode in the series has been released. In the energy-charged finals, we had Justus Williams of National High School Championship team IS 318 take on Stanford student Elliott Liu. The 'X Chess' Championships are an eight-player single-elimination knockout made for television.


Just is 13, while Liu is 22. Both players defy the traditional image of chess players. Justus is the top board on the powerhouse Brooklyn middle school IS 318, and was just featured on the Rachel Maddow show, and the New York Times. Elliott is a fun-loving college senior who attends music festivals like Coachella on the weekends while maintaining both a strong international chess ranking and a demanding schedule at Stanford University.





The fourth and final episode crowns the first-ever Extreme “X Chess” Champion, who takes home a cash prize, the title and an automatic bid into the second season of X Chess. Co-creator and director Daniel Meirom talked about potential second season of the Extreme Chess Championships, “It will be even more exciting as fans learn more about the personalities behind the game as well as key strategies from beautiful checkmates to running your opponent out of time.”


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.


Stay posted on X Chess at twitter, facebook and subscribe to our youtube channel. Don't forget to comment what you feel about chess on television!


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com

5 comments:

  1. This is such fun

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  2. charu vaish, mumbaiMay 2, 2012 at 12:18 AM

    I love this concept. Good job. Thanks for sharing chess queen. :)

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  3. what fun. But i think just the knockout format makes it so short. it could be a daily thing that would be real fun and more stars or even a simul or something but more episodes please maybe chesspoker like chessboxing :)

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  4. innovative cool - should be more

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