Chess, Youth and Afterschool

By Sam Piha

"The Queen's Gambit"

Chess has been in the news lately due to the well-deserved popularity of Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit”. These headlines remind us of an excellent documentary on chess and afterschool entitled, “Brooklyn Castle.” Several years ago, we hosted a screening of Brooklyn Castle and featured an interview with the Director and Producer, Katie Dellamaggiore on our LIAS Blog. 

The kids are happy to be at school and to stay at school past 3 p.m. because they know they are going to get to participate in the activity that they've chosen, and that they're starting to build a passion for.” - Katie Dellamaggiore, Director and Producer of Brooklyn Castle. 

Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about Intermediate School 318 – a Title I school where more than 65 percent of students are living below the federal poverty level, that happens to have the best junior high chess team, bar none, in the country. The movie is being re-released March 5, 2021 for viewing in theaters or can be streamed on Showcase Now. We highly recommend that you take a look. 

I guess the most important (LIAS Principle) I witnessed was that learning should expand the horizons of participants.”-Katie Dellamaggiore, Director and Producer of Brooklyn Castle.  

The same afterschool program featured in Brooklyn Castle are well known for increasing the participation of girls. Check out this video: These NYC Girls are Dominating Youth Chess

We also recommend another movie about a child and his love of chess entitled, “Searching for Bobby Fischer”, which can be streamed on Netflix.