Leah Cai, a 10-year-old from Ridgewood, Queens, picked up chess during the Covid pandemic as an alternative to her normal activity: \u201cAll I did was yell at my brother,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She doesn\u2019t like homework. But chess? \u201cIt\u2019s pretty peaceful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Leah, along with 53 other students, attended an intensive chess camp over spring break this month. It wasn\u2019t open to just anyone. Players needed a rating of at least 1200 from the U.S. Chess Federation to participate, about average for a top first-grade player in the United States<\/a>, which was not an issue for Leah. With a 1625 rating, she is one of the top 20 players in the country for girls in her age group.<\/p>\n She arrived at camp, which was hosted by Impact Coaching Network, a group that teaches chess in many New York City schools, wearing lilac glasses and a T-shirt featuring the name of her school\u2019s chess team, \u201cthe Dragons of P.S. 130.\u201d She was preparing for a girls\u2019 national competition in Chicago, which was just a few days away.<\/p>\n Leah\u2019s day began with a formal tournament-style game using score books and timers, which counted toward her official chess rating. She won after about 30 minutes of play.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty easy,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Impact Coaching Network, or I.C.N., is seeing a surge in children\u2019s interest in chess, which parallels a growth in adults playing the game in New York clubs and bars<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing it for 20 years, and it\u2019s never been more popular in New York,\u201d said Russell Makofsky, the network\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n When Ayden Spellman, an 11-year-old from Park Slope, Brooklyn, arrived at Saint Luke\u2019s Lutheran Church in Manhattan where the camp was held, he was feeling good. He had recently attained a U.S. Chess Federation rating of 1900, a longtime goal. A 2000 rating is considered expert level, and 2500 is grandmaster status. But his public school team was going to nationals at the beginning of May, so he wanted more training.<\/p>\n \u201cSpring break is a good time to do chess,\u201d said Ayden, who arrived wearing a backward Chess Federation cap. \u201cI can get the most of the coaches\u2019 time.\u201d<\/p>\n Ayden has been playing chess for three years. His mother, Qiana Spellman, a school counselor, said he had tried tennis, soccer and swimming, but chess became his obsession after he played in his first tournament in 2023. He plays tournaments every weekend unless he\u2019s sick, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cChess teaches you how to think, on and off the board,\u201d Ayden said. \u201cYou can come up with new ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n Leah\u2019s mother, Stella Lin, estimates that she spends more than $20,000 a year on coaching, travel and tournaments. Personal coaches charge between $75 and $100 an hour, Ms. Spellman said, and a week of chess camp<\/a> costs $699. Parents think the investment is worth it, even if their children don\u2019t become professional chess players, because the game teaches critical thinking and focus.<\/p>\n Many schools in New York host chess programs through I.C.N. or through another program, Chess in the Schools<\/a>, and city schools consistently win national championships. Public libraries offer chess lessons and children can play \u201cstreet chess\u201d in Washington Square Park in Lower Manhattan or at chess clubs like the Chess Forum or the Marshall Chess Club.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are so many more good young players than there were 20 or 25 years ago,\u201d said Kassa Korley, a 32-year-old international master in chess, who grew up in Harlem. He recently played a tournament at Marshall and noticed that he was one of the oldest people in the room.<\/p>\n Sebastian Goodrich started doing chess puzzles at age 2. His siblings are all top players, and now, at age 8, he\u2019s ranked No. 3 nationally in his age group. He also went to the Impact Coaching Network camp over spring break and started the second day by winning his tournament-style game, pushing his rating even higher.<\/p>\n Ayden, Leah and Sebastian all play on public school teams: Leah at P.S. 130<\/a> in Chinatown, Ayden at I.S. 318 in Williamsburg (a school with a chess program that has won nationals<\/a> so many times it was featured in the documentary \u201cBrooklyn Castle\u201d) and Sebastian at P.S. 77 Lower Lab<\/a> on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. They\u2019re all training for the national elementary school championships in Baltimore at the beginning of May. Their schools offer regular chess classes as well as after-school programs, and they all have private coaches.<\/p>\n Ayden goes to his after-school program three times a week and his personal coach oversees his daily study schedule, his mother said.<\/p>\n \u201cHe wants to be competing. He wants to be with his peers,\u201d Ms. Spellman said, referring to his desire to play chess over spring break. \u201cTo keep him from it would be torture.\u201d<\/p>\n I.C.N. runs training camps like these for the city\u2019s top chess-playing youth when schools are not in session. The group\u2019s goal is to turn New York students into national champions.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need a culture of excellence that builds and builds and builds,\u201d Mr. Makofsky said.<\/p>\n Several top players \u2014 including 38-year-old Hikaru Nakamura, the No. 2-ranked player in the world, and Tani Adewumi, a 15-year-old up-and-comer who was a student in I.C.N. before his chess career took off \u2014 developed their skills as young children in New York. Tani has since been offered book and movie deals about his rise from a New York homeless shelter to chess greatness.<\/p>\n Ayden, Sebastian and Leah care a lot about their ratings, but they don\u2019t yet aspire to be professionals. They just like chess.<\/p>\n At the camp, during free minutes between formal activities, attendees played quick, casual games, yelling moves and talking trash. \u201cYou\u2019re tilted!\u201d they said, slang for when a player gets stuck in an inexplicable losing cycle.<\/p>\n Ayden came over to watch Sebastian play, and as a group formed, they started debating the next moves.<\/p>\n \u201cGo b2!\u201d one onlooker shouted, referring to a position on the board.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m going after a precious pawn,\u201d Sebastian said.<\/p>\n Mr. Korley compared chess in New York to the city\u2019s basketball culture.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s trash talking and an edge and a competitiveness that\u2019s more akin to other sports,\u201d he said. \u201cSome New York City kids carry that street chess edge as they play in the tournament chess.\u201d<\/p>\n The Chess Federation has its headquarters in St. Louis, where the billionaire Rex Sinquefield<\/a> founded the Saint Louis Chess Club, a hub for championship chess. But New York can hold its own.<\/p>\n \u201cSt. Louis is a better place for the top professional player, because there\u2019s a lot of money and a lot of great top-level tournaments,\u201d said Alex Lenderman, a grandmaster who grew up in New York. But he said that at the youth level, New York was much better.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t remember the last time you had a top young player coming out of St. Louis,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cBut from New York, all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n