Not exactly on topic but still perhaps of interest to readers of this thread:
Williamsburgs Chess Champions, Playing Against All Odds
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Since it formed in 1997, the chess team at I.S. 318, a middle school in Williamsburg, has won more national chess championships than any other school in the country. Just this year in fact, they became the first junior high school team ever to win the United States Chess Federations national high school championship. Its success story is all the more remarkable considering that 65% of the student body at I.S. 318 lives at or below the poverty line, and cuts in the school budget continually threaten to dismantle the chess program entirely.
Defying odds and stereotypes, the students on the team also face the pressure to do better economically than their parents, and the uniquely maddening system of applying to high school in New York City. Together these factors form the tense, gripping, and ultimately inspiring story of Brooklyn Castle, an award-winning documentary from first-time director Katie Dellamaggiore that opens tomorrow, October 19.
The I.S. 318 chess team--the highest ranked junior high chess team in the nation--en route to a tournament
I.S. 318's Chess Team, celebrating their win at the New York State Scholastic Chess Championships
If you lose all hope, you can always find it again -- Richard Ford in The Sportswriter