Ok so i was watching the first episode of the "extreme chess challenge". Just to see if it was worth watching.  I have to say i only made it through about 5 min of it. I was about to blow my brains out it was so bad. Anyone else see it please comment and let me know what you think!

Is there a link where we can watch it too? Curious to see what it is.

http://main.uschess.org/content/view/11539/343/

Ha, for sure. Ok, I just wasted a good 5 minutes watching that clip.
Firstly, its not actually that extreme, because it is only 20 0 (or 15 0) which is a long blitz in my view.
Second, the commentators explanation of why this speed is considered "extreme" is because it is "way faster than these players are used to." Unlikely, in fact as we all know, blitz is more often played at 10 0 or 5 0, and if these guys are "the top young chess players of America today" then this is probably slower than most blitz games they play.
Third, and perhaps most damning, is its attempt to sensationalise chess into super awesome craziness through intense commentary, bright decor and quick camera panning. Lets just leave that kind of BS for the UFC shall we...

Well you warned and I didnt listen. I dared to watch the travesty and lost. In spite of being a beginner I couldn't take it more than 5min.It was like watching a bad reality show. Would rather prefer watching Kim Kardashian's antics in that time.

Thanks guys i mean for me it was just terrible and then their like well he was out partying the night before ........uh so what even when i stay up all night get back up play blitz i dont just hang a rook for no reason lol and their like he might not even see his queen is in danger........rly.....rly lol

I watched the whole thing while eating soup.

Extreme? No. It's not XTREME until I see "the legendary" Cornbread playing. 

But by glancing at some of the comments on YouTube, I think some "newer to chess" people are getting into it. 

At least you guys get chess programmes broadcast on TV! All we get on TV are anti-dandruff shampoo commercials between lame cricket episodes. 

Looks like I accidentally scratched somebody's scalp.

Lol

:))))

I liked it.

By the way, I don't think Shawn really hung his rook -- I think he intended, with Qf2, to trap the h1 knight, and take the b6 knight (I think that's how it was -- going from memory), but probably forgot that ...Nxh1 didn't just grab a rook, but won time on the queen as well. If the knight wasn't attacking the queen, white may have won two knights for the rook. That was probably his idea.