A solar system without a sun

Source: The Chess Drum

Have you seen the documentary movie Brooklyn Castle? It's an enthralling portrait of a group of New York City middle schoolers who triumph in the field of competitive chess and grow personally thanks to supportive adults, a strong after-school program, and tremendous motivation and hard work. But their success also depends on a factor that is just touched on in the movie: the existence of a robust chess scene, centered on New York's 97-year-old Marshall Chess Club (pictured).

I'd like to ask you to imagine a young chess player who attends a Chicago public school. Maybe the school has a coach provide after-school lessons one day a week; maybe not. Regardless, this young player shows promise and drive and would like to be able to get the same kind of practice and participate in the same kinds of competitive opportunities as the champs in Brooklyn Castle. Unfortunately, 90 percent of all competitive chess activity in the Chicago area takes place in the suburbs -- places like Northbrook, Wheeling and Oak Lawn -- and the player's school and family are unable to provide the necessary transportation to these events. If there were a club in the city, comparable to the Marshall, that offered opportunities to practice and receive structured guidance from experienced players, this player would at least have that chance. But the last such club in Chicago shut its doors 22 years ago.

Are you aware that out of the top 10 urban areas in the United States, Chicago is today the only one without a primary metropolitan chess club? The Chicagoland chess scene is like a collection of planets orbiting a large void where a star used to be -- and city residents of all ages and backgrounds are missing out on the benefits and pleasures of chess as a result.

We want to restore Chicago's place among America's great chess cities and revive the tradition that was lost with the dissolution of the Chicago Chess and Checker Club and our namesake, the original Chicago Chess Center. But we're not creating just another club: the new Chicago Chess Center will be a school of chess, a destination and gathering place, and the focus of a vibrant and expanded chess scene.

Donate now so that we can open our doors on our target date of May 1, 2013.

You may already know about how young people benefit from chess: not only in the logical reasoning skills that chess imparts but also in the "soft skills" of patience, attentiveness, self-discipline, conflict management, sportsmanship, and connecting effort and practice with success. But experience shows that chess is also part of a well-rounded, healthy lifestyle for adults -- like a gym workout for the mind. Your donation will allow us to begin offering classes, tournaments and open play to residents young and old across the city of Chicago.

Click here to make your tax-deductible donation before Dec. 31, 2012 -- or, if you're waiting until 2013 to make donations to charities, send us an e-mail pledging the amount you'll give before Jan. 18.

Sincerely,

Keith Ammann
President, Chicago Chess Center NFP Inc.

P.S. We're off to a great start . . . and we have a long way still to go. You can help us raise the $30,000 we need to secure and furnish a site by clicking here now. Thank you for your support.

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Free tix for teachers in the trenches

We get email...

Dear Bill,

Great to catch up. As I mentioned, the new chess/education documentary "Brooklyn Castle”  is coming to the Landmark Century beginning this Friday November 2. We have just had a generous donor agree to underwrite the cost to give Free Tickets to Brooklyn Castle to any public school teacher in greater Chicago. Can we get your help in spreading this word to teachers and administrators (public, charter, archdiocese)?

Here are the details:

Brooklyn Castle will play at the Landmark Century

2828 North Clark Street, Chicago IL  60657

Visit this page

 for showtimes. 

From Friday, November 2 through Thursday, November 8, Chicago area teachers can get 1 free ticket by showing their valid Teacher Identification or Union ID Card at the box office. 

Brooklyn Castle follows the successes and challenges of IS 318 in Brooklyn, NY, the most successful middle school chess team in the nation. While working to excel at the chess board, the students and teachers face another major hurdle as cutbacks to after school programs threaten the very existence of their program. It's an inspiring story of what it takes to be a champion, on the chess board, and in life. The film opened in New York City to major press support from such diverse outlets as the the Today Show and the Hollywood Reporter, Sports Illustrated and Teen Vogue. You might like to see the review in the New York Times. Teachers might also like this one from Salon.com. 

We hope this generous gift will help us expand awareness of the importance of after school programs, and of chess in education.

I thank you for the consideration and appreciate the support,

Yours truly,

Robert McLellan

------------------------------------------------

Robert McLellan

Director of Marketing

United States Chess Federation

rmclellan@uschess.org

Direct line: (865) 332-0382 or (818) 469-2063

Brooklyn Castle opens in Chicago on November 2nd

Take your mind off the election, and see something more edifying...

Email from USCF:

Dear Chess Enthusiasts, 

The new award-winning documentary "Brooklyn Castle” is coming to the big screen in Chicago! Brooklyn Castle follows the successes and challenges of IS 318 in Brooklyn, NY, the most successful middle school chess team in the nation. While working to excel at the chess board, the students and teachers face another major hurdle as cutbacks to after school programs threaten the very existence of their program. It's an inspiring story of what it takes to be a champion, on the chess board, and in life. 

The film opened in New York City to major press support from such diverse outlets as the New York Times, NBS's Today Show, Sports Illustrated and Teen Vogue. It's great news for competitive chess and we hope you will support it when it opens in your area. And tell your friends, family, teachers, co-workers, they'll love it. Bring a group. 

As one reviewer put it:
"... it honestly makes no difference if you don’t even know the rules of chess and have never visited New York; this is a story about human potential and the lingering possibilities of the American dream." 

 Brooklyn Castle begins playing on Friday, November 2 at the Landmark Century Cinema 2828 North Clark Street, Chicago IL 60657 Visit this page to buy your tickets in advance. 
 

Mail from USCF Executive Director Bill Hall

Just found the following in my inbox.  For those of you who aren't USCF members, it's a great time to join! 

USCF Online Newsletter October 2012 - A Message from the Executive Director

Dear Fellow USCF Member,

CHANGING THE FACE OF US CHESS

Over the years I have had many conversations with chess players talking about what it takes to grow chess in the United States. While chess is played casually by millions, one of the biggest obstacles has been making the competitive sport more broadly known as well as promoting the many societal benefits of the game. Well there are some significant tools to help change this perception and USCF is trying to support each of these endeavors plus a few more we'll be telling you about soon.

First up is a new book from Scribner released this past week, The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster. This is a moving story by sports writer Tim Crothers of a young girl in the slums of Uganda who learns chess and finds it a tool that helps her dream of, and achieve, grand successes beyond the subsistence life she has known. This is a book for chess players to give to their friends and family members and to encourage everyone to read, especially young women. Look for coverage in November's Chess Life.

Getting more players introduced to and active in chess starts in our nation's schools. The new Harcourt book, How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity and the Hidden Power of Character by noted education writer Paul Tough puts school chess into the broader discussion of character education being just as important for success as high test scores. Many educators are already reading this book; if you want to keep current in what the discussion is, we recommend picking this up, reading it and making sure it is in the hands of every influencer in education you know.

Finally, the most important tool is the film Brooklyn Castle as many folks are more engaged by seeing than reading about something. As you probably already know, Brooklyn Castle follows the successes and challenges of IS 318 in Brooklyn, NY, the most successful middle school chess team in the nation. While working to excel at the chess board, the students and teachers face another major hurdle as cutbacks to after school programs threaten the very existence of their program. It's an inspiring story of what it takes to be a champion, on the chess board, and in life.

Brooklyn Castle is a major resource for the chess community and we urge you to support it; go see the film when it comes to your city (Opens in New York followed by Los Angeles and then many other cities during November). Bring a group. Brooklyn Castle shows the many faces of chess in our schools, shows the importance of tournament play and demonstrates why chess deserves funding. If you are an educator, a parent or a player, there is something for everyone in this film.

Its first screenings begin this weekend in New York City where the USCF has made arrangements for a chess community Sneak Peek screening the night before the film opens to the general public. This screening will take place THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18 AT 7 PM at The Walter Reade Theater in Lincoln Center, 70 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York 10023. Click Here to get your tickets or paste this link into your browser: http://filmlinc.com/pages/tickets?e=8701

Organized chess in America is a fairly small community. We need to demonstrate that we are small but powerful if we truly want to grow. It's great to buy the latest chess book or magazine, but supporting those projects that make chess real to the broad community will be the way we get greater media, corporate and education system support for our sport.

Thank you once again for your time to read this and for your participation in USCF.



Bill Hall, Executive Director

P.S. To view the October issue of Chess Life online, click here.
Or you can download the October issue of Chess Life here.
To view the October issue of Chess Life for Kids online, click here.
Or you can download the October issue of Chess Life for Kids here.

Brooklyn Castle at Siskel Center August 26th and August 30th

The chess documentary Brooklyn Castle (about the junior high students who, after this film was made, won the National High School Championship) is a featured film in the Black Harvest Film Festival 2012.  Read more about it in Time Out Chicago.

The Gene Siskel Film Center is at 164 N. State Street: call (312) 846-2800 for info.

Another review of Brooklyn Castle

Let's do this (the chess program, not necessarily the documentary) in Chicago, and let's do this on a large scale.

Soon to be a major motion picture: Charlize Theron is Elizabeth Vicary.

Brooklyn Castle

Brooklyn Castle Trailer from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Review here. These young players are amazing. but jeepers, give me a break: "Just to give you an idea of how incredible these young kids are at chess, if Albert Einstein, who was rated 1800, were to join the team he’d only rank fifth." Have any of these kids mistakenly believed that the cosmological constant was their biggest mistake? Another review here. Thanks to Mike Cardinale and to US Chess Online.