Adisa Banjoko is the cofounder of the Hip-Hop Chess Federation. In May, the organization hosted an event at the Omega Boys Club in San Francisco, which Gary Moskowitz and James Woodward captured for P+P in sound and pictures. Click on the image above to view their piece.

Why hip-hop and chess? It’s simple, Banjoko says: hip-hop and chess are nonviolent mental martial arts. Or as DJ Qbert puts it: “Life is a game. I’d like to see the whole game. Like these grand masters— they can see the whole thing, from beginning to end. That’s what I wanna do in my life, see what I’m going to achieve in the end and how I’m going to get there, as far as, like, scratching goes, you know?”

Words: Gary Moskowitz. Images: James Woodward.