building strong chess communities <\/a>and giving kids those same opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\nAt PS 130 alone, roughly 150 students participate in the school\u2019s chess program, with about 40 kids traveling to nationals this year.<\/p>\n
The victory comes just over a year after NYC parents and the Citywide Council on High Schools urged the Public School Athletic League to officially recognize chess as a sport, as previously reported by The Post. Yevhenii \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
For Paredes\u2019 company ICN, it\u2019s not just about creating champions \u2014 it\u2019s making sure kids of every skill level can experience the \u201csocial, academic and confidence-boosting benefits of chess,\u201d Paredes said.<\/p>\n
At this particular school, students train year-round for local, city, state and national tournaments, with Paredes and his coaches grouping kids by age, experience and skill level to sharpen their strategies \u2014 whether they\u2019re learning how the knight moves or chasing national titles.<\/p>\n
Paredes said the team\u2019s recent triumph proves elite-level success isn\u2019t reserved for wealthy private schools with massive resources.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrivate and elite schools usually have more funding and resources,\u201d he acknowledged.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut these kids proved you don\u2019t need to come from that to compete at the highest level \u2014 success in chess comes down to consistency, a great work ethic, good sportsmanship, creative thinking, strategizing and believing in yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The coach said the kids train relentlessly \u2014 attending after-school sessions three days a week and competing in weekend tournaments across the city.<\/p>\n
But the lessons extend far beyond pawns and queens.<\/p>\n
\u201cChess teaches these kids so much about resilience and learning from your failures and mistakes,\u201d Paredes said. \u201cOur lessons also help them develop social skills and see the importance of teamwork.\u201d <\/p>\n
As a child learning chess for the first time, Paredes noted that it can be \u201chard to be open\u201d to learning from your losses. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why the other coaches and I help the children feel comfortable and have a safe space to not only celebrate their wins, but also to take action and find a lesson learned within each loss.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooklyn\u2019s PS 130 sixth-grade chess squad turned Baltimore into their board this month, outsmarting around 2,500 students from 35 states to topple some of the nation\u2019s elite schools and claim a national trophy. Impact Coaching Network<\/p>\n
He believes that mentality is what helped this small but mighty squad emerge victorious.<\/p>\n
Paredes added: \u201cSome people think chess is just a board game, but these kids and coaches know it is so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The director has coached these six national champions since they were first graders \u2014 a four-year journey he says shaped them into not only elite players, but a tight-knit group of best friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the heroes of our Brooklyn community and I\u2019m so proud of them,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve watched them grow up together, push each other to improve and build incredible friendships through chess.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Seeing them now celebrate a national championship together after years of hard work, he added, is \u201cincredibly special.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The kings of the elementary school chess world now wear backpacks from Brooklyn. A team of six public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233108,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[27855,98,100,99,8090,8288,68,232,57,9,24,63,209,2585],"class_list":["post-233107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-board-games","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-chess","tag-elementary-schools","tag-exclusive","tag-lifestyle","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-public-schools","tag-students"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233107","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=233107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}