October 12, 2006
A Notable Chess Journey for Talented New York Girls
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
New York Times
Medina Parrilla, a sophomore at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx, is nervous about a trip next week to Batumi, in Georgia, a republic of the former Soviet Union. She is going to compete in the World Youth Chess Championships.
But Medina said: “I’m not nervous about playing. I passed that stage a long time ago. I’m nervous about the country. I don’t know what to expect from a place like that.”
Darrian Robinson, a seventh grader at Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn, who is going with Medina as part of the United States team, said she was excited about venturing to a new place.
The girls are accomplished chess players — Medina, 15, is ranked No. 7 in the country among girls under 16 and Darrian, 12, is No. 6 among girls under 13 — but they stand out among their roughly 25 teammates because as African-Americans they will be making history at the tournament.
It will be the first time that two African-American players have represented the United States in an international chess competition. That both are girls makes it that much more remarkable.
Although chess is a meritocratic game — all a player needs is a set, a board and an opponent— African-American players competing in organized tournaments are rare, according to Bill Hall, executive director of the United States Chess Federation.
Part of the reason, he suspects, has to do with economic barriers.
The rest can be read here.
Great article and a welcome antidote to the off-the-board posturing and sniping of the “grown-up” men involved in the World Championship. Good luck to Darrian and Medina at the World Youth!
Neat story, and I agree with NYC chess mom: these two make much better representatives of chess than Topalov and Kramnik. I hope they have fun in Georgia!
Susan,
Forgive me for not reading the article – time constraints.
Did these fine young women win some sort of qualifier tournament/process to represent the US in this event? If they did, kudos to them and good luck. I hope they are not pawns in some obscene PC gambit, otherwise.
I’m sure, either way, they will represent well!
My sincerest congratulations to these two wonderful girls, and may they have success in their competition. They are already winners. God bless. Hopefully many others will follow their example.
I’m sad that the first thing people focus on is that the girls are black. Also, the previous poster assumed that they will go over there ot “have a good time”.
SUsan,
SOme of the previous posters are just plane rude insinuating that they got some special break. THe top 3 players in each age/gender category qualify to go. No special “minority” spot Mr. Anaonymous. Medina Perilla is a 1960 player and Darrian Robinson is a 1660 player. Pretty good for their ages!!!!
Dear GM Polgar,
Just out of curiosity…can you speak the Slovak/czech language?
I do and so does my wife who is from Piestany, Slovakia. She has family in Budapest.
I know you’re multi-lingual and know that you’re fluent in Russian. Just wondering if you were also fluent in Slova/Czech?
Sincerely,
Tim Harris
I am disgusted by the ignorant posters who insinuated that Darrian and Medina are somehow a result of affirmative action. Go to the USCF website, you racist clowns, and you will see that Darrian and Medina’s ratings are high enough that they were the second highest rated girls in the U.S. in their respective age groups.
There are a lot of African-American children who need more support then a daughter of a lawyer.
Medina will not play in Batumi http://www.gcf.org.ge/Home.html , so the article is a clear PR.
Well I for one wish the girls the best of luck from Hervey Bay Australia and I am sure they will do their country proud..and have lot’s of fun doing it all
Good Luck to Darrian, Medina and the whole U.S. contingent. It is sad that racist seek to spew venom at children. These two girls earned their spots on the team and race was of course not taken into consideration. They are representative of the best young chess players in the country, not the best African American players.
i knew somone would call me racist, but the fact is, they are not the top girls in their age group, the article even points this out. My problem is that why should less than the best go?
I dont care that they are black, but the article is praising them because of it. Its a bad article that misses the point. Instead of praising two girls who are NOT the highest rated in their groups, it should talk about the ones that are. Aparently this write decided that their race is more important for chess than how good they actually are.
If i knew the girls who were highest rated in the two age groups, this article would upse me. Other girls EARNED higher ratings, and deserve their credit first
If you would bother to read the press release on the USCF website (www.uschess.org/scholastics/), you would understand that the two girls profiled in the article qualified to be part of the U.S. delegation because of their high ratings, not because of their race or ethnic background. As to why the New York Times chose to profile Darrian and Medina in the Metro section, which is for news of interest to the tri-state area, well, maybe, the fact that they live in Brooklyn and the Bronx has something to do with it.
OK, folks, please stop the nonsense attack toward these 2 young ladies. They are wonderful players and I am very happy to read this article. Let’s be happy for them please.
Thanks!
Susan Polgar
http://www.SusanPolgar.com
darrian,i am very happy for you and dont listen to those idiots!!!!
I’ve just finished watching a movie about the beginnings of the chess program now taught in schools. There was a quote by Medina as a 9th grader, saying how playing chess made her realise that we have many choices in life. I’m an Australian teaching people and organisations how to manage change. Her quote will now go on to inspire people in that course. Thank you Medina. If you read this, could you please let me know the full quote, so I can put it on our website and in our course materials, where it can be an inspiration to others.