Bronx chess team preps for national championships

MYFOXNY.COM – At a busy intersection in the Morrisania section of the Bronx sits a classroom of one girl and 11 boys — so quiet you almost forget they’re middle schoolers.

They are so focused on the chess pieces in front of them and so humble in their victories — large and small.

Three times a week — including a tournament almost every Saturday — this team practices. Every single one of them will tell you chess has taught them focus, even in their complicated worlds outside of this room.

The program is a partnership with chess in the schools and Women’s Housing and Economic Development. It is how these middle schoolers are getting to the national high school championships in Minneapolis next week. They’re skipping the junior high contest because it falls during their exams.

For half of them, it’ll be their first time ever out of New York.

This is a world where the chess club is popular.