{"id":183962,"date":"2026-04-02T23:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183962\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T23:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T23:28:07","slug":"little-known-nyc-charter-school-with-22-homeless-rate-wins-state-chess-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/183962\/","title":{"rendered":"Little-known NYC charter school with 22% homeless rate wins state chess championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

They\u2019re all kings and queens!<\/p>\n

Students at the Rosalyn Yalow Charter School in the South Bronx \u2014 where 22% of pupils are homeless and nearly all are economically disadvantaged \u2014 just won a New York state chess championship and will compete in a national chess competition next month in Baltimore, Md.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis success demonstrates what happens when you balance preparation and opportunity for children in The Bronx,\u2019\u2019 crowed Alec Diacou, executive director and founder of Yalow Charter School, to The Post on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The K-8 chess team Rosalyn Yalow Charter School in the South Bronx celebrating their win at the 58th Annual New York State Scholastic Chess Championships, Obtained by NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever the bar is set high for children, they meet it,\u2019\u2019 said the former economist and banker.<\/p>\n

The little-known but mighty K-8 school is named after Nobel Prize-winning nuclear physicist Rosalyn Yalow, who once worked at the Bronx Veterans Administration and was hailed for her pioneering work involving diabetes.<\/p>\n

At Yalow, students far outperform their local and state peers on standardized tests while being tutored in extracurriculars such as chess and fencing \u2014 proving poverty is not destiny.<\/a><\/p>\n

The kids\u2019 school day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., weaves the coveted extra classes into regular instruction at its spot in a building also occupied by Cardinal Hayes High School on the Grand Concourse.<\/p>\n

The school\u2019s K-8 team won the \u201cunder 900,\u201d or beginner, category at the 58th Annual New York State Scholastic Chess Championships held in Saratoga Springs in March.<\/p>\n

Roger Basurto (right in blue shirt) was one of the youngest competitors in the state championship at just 6 years old. Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

The group included 6-year-old Roger Basurto, among the youngest players in the competition, and 11-year-old Ishaan Nikhil, who only started playing chess in the fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you see a good move, play it before you forget it,\u201d Roger told The Post of his chess strategy.<\/p>\n

Ishaan said playing chess teaches life\u2019s lessons.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing is not a mistake, but not learning from losing is a mistake,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Ishaan Nikhil, 11, started playing chess this past fall. Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

Students at Yalow also placed second as a team in the K-to-5 \u201cunder 1,400,\u2019\u2019 or elite, category, fourth place in the K-to-5 \u201cunder 1,000\u201d category and seventh in the K-to-5 \u201cunder 600,\u2019\u2019 or novice, category.<\/p>\n

Twenty-six students from Yalow competed against more than 1,700 students from throughout the state.<\/p>\n

Yalow\u2019s chess team is coached by several top internationally recognized chess players<\/a>, including Irina Krush, the first and only woman to earn the Grandmaster title for the United States.<\/p>\n

The Rosalyn Yalow team will now move on to a national competition in Baltimore next month. Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

Samuel Lin, who scored a 2025 New York State Scholastic Chess Championship and was on the second-place team in the \u201cunder 1,400\u201d category this year, said, \u201cMost of my best memories are related to chess.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly enjoy the special training sessions with Grandmaster Irina Krush and National Master Ilia Kakushadze and competing with my friends.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always try to have fun and learn from my own mistakes \u2014 and my opponents\u2019 mistakes \u2014 rather than just focusing on the results,\u2019\u2019 Samuel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, try not to be nervous, because your nerves can influence how your brain performs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samuel Lin said he has made great memories playing chess with his friends at school. Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

Diacou called the performance of the chess teams \u201camazing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis success isn\u2019t just about chess. It\u2019s about preparing students for life,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt Rosalyn Yalow, our goal is to equip every student for the future. It\u2019s why we created the best and most sophisticated chess program in America, rivaling any top private school locally,\u201d<\/p>\n

Diacou, who launched the publicly funded Yalow in 2015, said he decided to make chess and fencing mandatory at the school after his three sons competed in both activities while growing up in Manhattan\u2019s Hell\u2019s Kitchen. He could afford the after-school activities for his kids, he said.<\/p>\n

Nearly all students at Rosalyn Yalow Charter School are economically disadvantaged and 22% are homeless. Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

He wanted the same opportunity for his charter-school students, 96% of whom are considered poor or economically disadvantaged, 22% are homeless, 17% have special needs, and 40% are English Language learners.<\/p>\n

About half the students are black, mostly West African immigrants, and the other half are Latino.<\/p>\n

Chess teaches students how to reason, strategize and deal with adversity, Diacou said.<\/p>\n

Yalow Charter School executive director and founder Alec Diacou told The Post the chess team\u2019s sucess is a result of the school balancing \u201cpreparation and opportunity for children in The Bronx.\u201d Rosalyn Yalow Charter School<\/p>\n

He said fencing teaches the same traits, calling it \u201cphysical chess.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese kids are thriving here. We are a crown jewel in The Bronx,\u201d Diacou said.<\/p>\n

At Yalow, 73% of students passed the state\u2019s standardized math exam, 34 percentage points higher than the 39% pass rate surrounding traditional public schools in Bronx District 7 and 16 percentage points higher than the 57% statewide average.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, its students\u2019 64% pass rate on the state\u2019s English Language Arts exam was 25 percentage points higher than surrounding district schools and 11 points higher than the state average.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur job is to close achievement gap,\u201d Diacou said.<\/p>\n

Yalow, which enrolls 410 students from grade K-to-6, will add a seventh grade in the fall and an eighth grade in 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They\u2019re all kings and queens! Students at the Rosalyn Yalow Charter School in the South Bronx \u2014 where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":183963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6602,8090,68,57,9,56,63,65,64,129,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-183962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-city","8":"tag-charter-schools","9":"tag-chess","10":"tag-exclusive","11":"tag-metro","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-ny","14":"tag-nyc","15":"tag-nyc-headlines","16":"tag-nyc-news","17":"tag-the-bronx","18":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/183963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}