Brooklyn Castle to Air on PBS!!!!!

Hola Darlings!

I received the news tonight from the Wisconsin Scholastic Chess Federation:

Brooklyn Castle will have its national broadcast premiere on October 7, at 10pm on PBS’s award winning POV series. As first time filmmakers,  it is truly an honor to have our film be part of this outstanding documentary series, television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. You can check your local PBS listings here to find out what time the film is airing in your city. And if you’re interested in hosting a premiere party or organizing a free public screening in your community you can download a screening toolkit, a movie poster, flyers and email reminders here – everything you need to keep the conversation about Brooklyn Castle going strong. Please tell your friends, family, and colleagues who have not yet seen the film to mark their calendars and to set their DVR’s for October 7, at 10pm!  More. 

Awesome!  I will be glued to my t.v. to watch this film. 

Want to read about some of the wonderful things this chess program has done for its kids over the years?  Please read "The Kings of New York" - by Michael Weinreb, an absolutely excellent book!  And to read about someone's firsthand (and ongoing) experience as a chess coach for some of the young chessplayers at IS 318, please visit Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel's blog. 

Brooklyn Castle

I don't know how anyone by now could not have heard of this fantastic documentary about Brooklyn IS's chess program and national championships teams!  But, just in case, here's a current review which, most unfortunately, calls the school IS 314 -- not IS 318!  I emailed the writer to alert her to this.  Probably just a typo.

From the Seattle Times
Originally published Thursday, November 8, 2012 at 3:02 PM

Inspiring and delightful 'Brooklyn Castle' documents chess champs

"Brooklyn Castle," directed by Katie Dellamaggiore, is an inspiring and delightful documentary about an unlikely school in Brooklyn that breeds chess champions. The film is playing at the Harvard Exit.

By Moira Macdonald

Seattle Times movie critic

 

The highest-ranked junior-high chess team in the country — winner of an unprecedented 30 national titles — isn't ensconced at an elite private school. Instead, it's found at Brooklyn's prosaically named I.S. 314, an inner-city edifice where, the principal estimates, 70 to 75 percent of the students live below the poverty line. In Katie Dellamaggiore's inspiring and delightful documentary "Brooklyn Castle," we meet five of the team's members and several of their teachers; by its end, you'll be rooting for them all.

Like "Mad Hot Ballroom," "Spellbound" and others, "Brooklyn Castle" follows a familiar formula: Underdog kids face obstacles as they prepare for a big competition. In this case, it's the national chess championships, and the obstacles include the students' personal stories as well as school budget cuts so severe that the chess program is in danger of extinction. Alexis' immigrant parents put immense pressure on him to succeed beyond their own achievements; Rochelle struggles with being one of the few girls in a male-dominated sport; Patrick, who has attention deficit disorder, wonders if he'll ever be good enough for nationals. Energetic, redheaded chess teacher Elizabeth Spiegel (Ms. Vicary in the movie; she married after filming) is their coach, mentor, cheerleader and giver of wisdom.

"Truth isn't quite so simple as right and wrong," she tells the kids; chess, it turns out, is a gateway to thought, and a terrific way for students to learn to focus and solve problems.

Along the way, we're treated to the irresistible sight of hundreds of kids facing off two by two over chessboards in hotel ballrooms (the students look small but tough, like T-shirt-wearing gladiators) and, ultimately, a skinny middle-schooler clutching an enormous trophy. As each student's drama gets played out, "Brooklyn Castle" pulls us in, and when it's over you find yourself still wondering about the kids, and hoping they're succeeding. It's a charmer of a movie, and a welcome reminder of the importance of inspirational teachers in kids' lives.

Screening of Brooklyn Castle

Saw this at Chess Talk (English version) tonight:

Toronto, Ontario

Kali Holloway, an Outreach Director of Brooklyn Castle, distributed the email:

Brooklyn Castle will screen at the Hot Docs Canadian International Film Festival in Toronto on Tuesday, May 1, at 9:00 p.m. at the ROM Theatre. Before the screening, from 5-7 p.m. at the Hart House on the University of Toronto campus, there will be a documentary tie-in chess event featuring members of the college chess club doing simuls; young elementary-aged chess players from the Chess Institute of Canada playing casual games and learning from their chess elders; blitz rounds and plenty of opportunities for all kinds of great chess play. We invite you and all the young chess enthusiasts from the Greater Toronto Chess League to come out and play and, afterwards, we hope you'll go to the screening of the film. We've hosted similar events at other film festivals and it really makes for a great day of chess and cinema.

 

For those of you who may not have heard about this film, Brooklyn Castle is a documentary about the kids and chess program at I.S. 318 in Brooklyn, New York.  When I was that age we used to call it Junior High school and it was for grades 7-9.

 

The kids at I.S. 318 just keep on winning local, state and national titles and bringing home those trophies!  Latest is that the junior high team won the U.S. National High School Team Championship (a first, ever, in the history of the event) and in Chicago last weekend teacher/coach Elizabeth Vicary Spiegel led an I.S. 318 girls' team (U-16) to first place!  I've blogged about both victories.

 

 

Thanks to another link at Chess Talk (English), I found this review of the film:

 

Hot Docs

Brooklyn Castle

By Susan G. Cole

After-school programs in America’s public schools are having their budgets mercilessly slashed during the economic downturn. That puts the chess program at Brooklyn middle school I.S. 318, where chess nerds have the profile football stars have elsewhere, at risk.

The kids’ passion for the game is palpable, but they also see chess success as a stepping stone to greater achievements. In heartbreaking ways, they shoulder the pressure of getting into the right schools so they can help their families out of financial difficulties.

You’ll be rooting for them in the gruelling competitions. And you’ll wish you’d had a teacher like coach Ms. Vicary.

Apr 29, 6:30 pm, Cumberland 3; May 1, 9 pm, ROM Theatre; May 5, 1:15 pm, Regent.

NOW | April 26-May 3, 2012 | VOL 31 NO 35

 

If you're in the area or are independently wealthy and can fly in on a moment's notice, or you're in Toronto on vacation or business staying a few days and want to catch a great film, you can buy advance tickets!!!!!

 

Want to take a chance on changing your life forever?  Watch this film...

Chess Femme News From Around the Net

At Chessbase, the City of Montreal Open Chess Championships' newest sweetheart reports on the Reykjavik Open, in which reigning Women's World Chess Champion, GM Hou Yifan of China, played:

GM Hou Yifan, final round, 2012 Reykjavic Open

Alina L'Ami hears the Call of the North
20.03.2012– The Reykjavik Open 2012 took place from March 6–13, and our playing correspondent WGM Alina L'Ami sent us a number of beautiful reports from the Icelandic capital. She was obvious so enthralled by the Nordic country, its people and landscape, that she has written one more massively illustrated report. It is filled with a yearning to go back to Reykjavik next year.


Also at Chessbase, a report on the 2012 European Individual Women's Blitz Chess Championship, won by :

Gaziantep: Gunina overtakes Pähtz, wins European Women's Blitz
19.03.2012– She already won the title in the classical time controls, now Russian IM Valentina Gunina added the Blitz title to it. In the final round she was able to defeat former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanov 2-0 and overtake the leading Elisabeth Pähtz. The German IM will remain in Turkey, since she has signed a contract to train young talents. Big pictorial report.

At Chessdom:

Aleksandra Goryachkina becomes WGM at 13
Mar 16, 2012

Aleksandra Goryachkina, born in 1998, has just conquered her last norm for WGM title at the European Women Chess Championship. The young Russian girl finished at the amazing 40th place with 6,0/11, competing with a large number of GMs and IMs in what is considered to be the strongest EIWCC in history.

Elizabeth Vicary's blog is chock-full of chess news of "Her Kids" in NYC, and very promising news and reviews on "Brooklyn Castle," which could be a major game-changer for I.S. 318:

Monday, March 19, 2012 NPR review of Brooklyn Castle! also
SXSW Film: 'Brooklyn Castle' And The Looming Threat Of Commercial Success
If I could pick only one film from the South By Southwest film festival and bodily force everyone I know to see it, it would be Brooklyn Castle, a documentary directed by Katie Dellamaggiore that follows the chess team at I.S. 318, a New York junior high school that has become a superpower at national tournaments.

... I have a gnawing fear of seeing somebody like Charlize Theron (an actress I really like) as the woman who coaches the kids in chess. (!!!!)

read it all

GMSusan Polgar announced the 9th Annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girl's Invitational at her blog:

March 21, 2012
9th annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girl's Invitational

From GM Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chessqueen blog:

March 20th, 2012
May 5 Tucson Chess Fest invites Chess Queen Kosteniuk

Press Release: 9 Queens brings Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk to celebrate Tucson’s chess community. Alexandra will be honored at the 5th Annual Chess Fest and will receive the 9 Queens Award. The event is sponsored by the Soroptomist International of Desert Tucson and Chess King software. Read the full press release below and mark your calendars if you can make it to Tucson on May 5!