There's a very adorable story in the NY Times about I.S. 318's chess team, which won the National High School Chess Championships. That's right, this Williamsburg middle school team beat high schoolers. And, still, the chess program is threatened by possible budget cuts!
All sixth grade students take a weekly chess class; in the seventh and eighth grades, they can take it as an elective. According to the Times:
Most of I.S. 318’s 1,650 students are from the Williamsburg area, said John Galvin, an assistant principal. But some come for the chess, including the three top players, Justus Williams, from the South Bronx; James Black, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn; and Isaac Barayev, from Forest Hills, Queens.
James was 8 when his father brought home a chess set from Kmart, he recalled: “It had little cards explaining what moves each piece could make.”
His father, James A. Black, said he hoped chess would bring his son a college scholarship, and that it had already shaped his life. “The group of people that he hangs with,” Mr. Black said, “it is everything. He thinks before he acts.”
A documentary about the program, Brooklyn Castle, was made last year. On the film's website, it encourages people to donate to the team: "Eighty-seven percent of the students on the I.S. 318 chess team are from homes with incomes well below the federal poverty line, which is currently just $22,000 for a family of four. The money you donate will help give these students educational experiences they would not otherwise be able to afford. Please help support I.S. 318′s chess team. Their funding has been reduced every year for several years now and, as a result, they have had to make very deep cuts."
And here's a trailer for the film:
