MONDAY, NOVEMBER 05, 2012
"Brooklyn Castle": the teachers really give of
themselves in building the nation's best public school chess team
Can you make an exciting movie about chess?
Brooklyn Castle, by Katie Dellamaggiore,
managed to keep me on the edge of my Landmark seat as it traces the performance
of several middle school kids through national public school chess
championships in Dallas, Saratoga Springs, Columbus, and Minneapolis. The camera does focus on just a few
positions, including one from the same Two Knights Defense that I lost horribly
with recently on my own return to tournaments (I'll pick that up later). The title of the film refers to the fact
that a Rook (the chess piece that moves along rows or columns only) is
sometimes called a "castle", and that castling is a way to protect
the King in the opening.
The surface story, of course, is how the teachers, parents
and kids at I.S. 318 (Intermediate School 318) in Brooklyn (the Williamsburg
section) faces drastic budget cuts and manage to keep their 'Yankees of Public School Chess' team funded and able to travel the
country, and how they even keep the extracurricular program going. Several
teachers and guidance counselors are presented, including one buzz-cut, balding
young male teacher who also coaches the kids for their placement exams, and a
young woman with a slight Eastern European accent, who actually teaches chess
after school almost as if it were an academic course. (In undergraduate school, we used to wonder
what a major in chess would look like:
freshman courses in all the groups of openings, a year course in the
middle game, courses in specific kinds of endgames).
The young woman, when teaching chess strategy and tactics,
makes interesting observations on how decisions about chess moves parallel
issues in real life. Is that isolated
pawn (as resulting from, say, the Tarrasch Defense to
the Queen's Gambit) a weakness or a strength?
That question parallels the modern debate on whether hyperindividualism
has been carried to far; in an 'endgame', socially isolated 'persons' can get
plucked off easily and a whole community can fail. The film at least hints at that idea.
The role of the teachers as personal role models is
particularly persuasive. They attend and
chaperon the kids in the hotels on the cross-country trips (leaving for Dallas
at 3.15AM in one scene). I worked as a
substitute teacher for a while last decade (after 'retirement'), and that
'stumbled', as I have detailed elsewhere.
Had I put myself into it, given up self-publishing and become a
full-time teacher, would I have been game for this
kind of interaction with kids, when I have not been married or had kids myself?
A local church here (the First Baptist Church of the City of
Washington DC) did sponsor a DC school tournament in February 2004 (before the
days of Michelle Rhee), as I recall, holding the entire event in the basement
Fellowship Hall. I did volunteer at that
event as an assistant director. To do
that consistently, I need to become a better and steadier player again myself
(and I just recently rejoined the Arlington Chess Club, as I mentioned above).
The documentary does explain the USCF (United States Chess
Federation) rating system. Generally, 1500-1800 is 'club strength'. Above 2000, players have real skill. But chess is a little bit like pro
football. In any one game, anything can
happen. Upsets are common. I have beaten a master rated 600 points higher than
me (he just got careless with a sacrifice
-- that was when I was in the Army in 1969) and lost to people 600
points lower. The character Patrick
finds that out in the film.
The film also mentions the Continental Chess Association,
which sponsors many big tournaments around the country (particularly in the
Northeast). When I was active, Bill Goichberg directed these tournaments.
The movie shows a tournament in Dallas, but doesn't
specifically show the Dallas Chess Club, in which I was active in the 1980s,
and could spin some tall tales about.
The Dallas Chess Club used to meet in a big space in East Dallas before
moving north to a more compact space on Forest Lane. I don't know if it is still there.
The production company for the film is Rescued Media, and the
distributor is PDA. The official site is
here.
There have been a few other important films about
chess. One was Paramount's 'Searching
for Bobby Fischer' (Paramount, 1993, directed by Steven Zaillian,
with Ben Kingsley and Joe Mantegna, which I believe, as I recall, starts with
games in Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village the book is by Fred Waitzkin, and there's a great line from the boy, 'They're
just pieces.' Another is
AE's 'Knights of the South Bronx' (2005, directed Allen Hughes), with
Ted Danson. See also HBO's bio "Bobby Fischer Against the
World", June 6, 2011.
So, can chess be like 'Moneyball'? Well, maybe if some major league players also
became chess masters. (I wonder if any
of the Washington Nationals actually does play chess. It's a good game for baseball managers and
football coaches to know. ) I think it's more about character than
action.
For today's short film, see 'Soulfire: The Mission in
Belize' on my drama blog.
Posted by Bill Boushka at 8:55 AM
Labels: chess, films about schools, indie documentary,
sports, SXSW
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