Brooklyn Castle: Champions of Chess

Documentaries about American public schools tend to focus on the horrors of the education system. However, if you tuned in to POV on PBS this week, you were treated to Brooklyn Castle, a wonderful movie about I.S. 318, an inner-city junior high school with a chess team that has won more national chess championships than any other school in the country.

Directed by Katie Dellamaggiore, Brooklyn Castle follows a select group of I.S. 318 students who are dedicated members of the school's after-school chess program and determined to continue their winning streak at the national championships. Their chess coaches are an incredible woman named Elizabeth Vicary, who spends long hours teaching and devising lesson plans, and John Galvin, the tough but kind assistant principal who holds all the students to a high standard. We follow these students as they enter various local and then national tournaments and experience their bitter disappointment with each loss and triumphant joy with every win. It is particularly lovely to see these kids motivate each other and derive just as much pleasure from winning the team trophy as they do from an individual win. 

I.S. 318 is a Tier 1 school, which means that nearly 70% of the students live below the federal poverty line. Each member of the chess team comes from a low-income family and they have incredibly supportive parents who fervently believe in the importance of an education. The film documents the pressure that these students are under: the one girl, Rochelle, is determined to win the Girls' National Championship because first prize is a full-ride college scholarship and her mother can't afford to pay for a college education. She loves chess and wants to improve her rating so that she can become the first female African-American chess master, but now that she has entered high school, she is finding it increasingly challenging to balance schoolwork and chess. Similarly, there's Alexis, the son of South American immigrants who have put by every spare cent for his college fund. As the admissions test for specialized high schools approaches, he is racked by anxiety, determined to get into a good school but terrified that he might not make the cut.

Brooklyn Castle does an excellent job of weaving the students' personal stories and ambitions with their chess progress over the school year. By the end of the movie, it is amazing to see how far these children have come, not just in chess, but in life. One boy has been elected to student government and is doing impressive things to help with the school's budget and ensure that the chess program has funding. Another student, who struggles with ADHD, has made great academic strides and has improved his focus along with his chess rating. The threat of budget cuts is constantly looming on the periphery and the future of I.S. 318's chess program is never certain.  However, the teachers, administrators, and parents are fiercely dedicated to these students and they won't go down without a fight. 

You can watch the entire movie at the POV website or at Amazon. After you do, you'll really wish you had learned to play chess properly.