The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team

by Michael Weinreb

Documents a season with the highly competitive Edward R. Murrow High School chess team, from cash games in Washington Square Park to the SuperNationals in Nashville, citing the contributions of their calculus teacher coach and a prospective grand-master player.

Genres: Chess, Nonfiction, Sports, Games, History, Biography, New York

304 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Michael Weinreb is the author of Bigger Than the Game: Bo, Boz, the Punky QB and How the '80s Created the Modern Athlete. His previous book, The Kings of New York (paperback title: Game of Kings), won the Quill Award as the Best Sports Book of 2007, was named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com and The Christian Science Monitor, and was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice.

He is also the author of Girl Boy Etc., a short-story collection. He has written for The New York Times, ESPN, GQ, Grantland and Sports on Earth. His work has also been anthologized in the Best American Sports Writing collection. His book Season of Saturdays: A History of College Football in 14 Games, was published in Fall 2014 by Scribner and was named one of the best books the year by Newsweek and Quartz.

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I admit it. I gave this book 5-stars for purely subjective reasons. If I hadn't been on my high school chess team, didn't care about chess, or didn't find books about high school education interesting, I probably would have rated it 3-stars.

Man, I loved this book. While my high school chess team was nothing like Murrow's, the dynamics were the same: a few students wildly devoted/obsessed with chess, some interested only in pick-up games, and others that showed up only once or twice a year.

Weinreb is clearly someone who's never been bitten by the chess bug, but he does a great job of shining a light on those who have been - or reminding those who had been why chess is such a gorgeous addiction.

Like the title says, Weinreb shadowed the Murrow chess team for more than a year - the students clearly became comfortable with him, and he was able to glean some killer insights and stories.

One of my favorite sections was Chapter 14, which could have been subtitled "When Two Worlds Collide" - the Murrow team from inner-city New York at Nashville, Tennessee for the Supernationals. I've tried three times now to type out sections, but you know what? It needs to be read in context, so really, find a copy of this book and read it for yourselves!!!

[Tung · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting characters with uniquely different personalities? Check. Niche activity? Check. Niche activity’s history filled with crazy characters and memorable events? Check. Gripping drama and excitement? Ah, this is where Weinreb and this book fail to live up to the blueprint set by the best nonfiction books (Friday Night Lights, Seabiscuit, The Greatest Game Ever Played, et al.). Weinreb spends more than a year tracking the chess team from Edward R. Murrow High, a Brooklyn school whose teams regularly win state and national competitions. Where other high schools recruit athletes, Murrow recruits chess prodigies from the Eastern European communities that make up one neighborhood in Brooklyn, allowing this inner-city minority school to compete against and often dominate the suburban, private schools that usually succeed at academic competitions. Weinreb not only traces the history of Murrow’s chess team, but also the brief history of successful American chess players (i.e. Bobby Fischer). In doing so, Weinreb successfully explains the challenge of having a chess career in the 21st century – if you’re good at math and strategy, why not be a successful poker player where the payoff is huge rather than mastering chess for little economic value? Unfortunately, the best nonfiction contains more than a unique story, and this book lacks any real drama. Weinreb spends little time in discussing matches between the Murrow players and other students – possibly because it’s exceedingly difficult to do a play-by-play of a chess game since the games often turn on moves only a chess master would understand. Chess is simply not an exciting or gripping pastime, making this book little more than a character study of the Murrow chess team members – and considering that some of the members are rather closed and shy, a few of the characters’ stories are fairly shallow. If you like chess, you’ll find this interesting. If you read a lot of good nonfiction each year like I do, you’ll only find this tolerable.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The kids in the book didn't care about the major tournaments written about. So why should I? The author never really addressed this. I had high hopes for this book and I walked away disappointed because the kids never became endearing. Whether that's their fault or the author's I don't know.

I wonder if while writing he wished he choose a different team to follow. They were all just so apathetic and I was lulled into apathy myself.

I'd be interested to hear about what other people thought.

[Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 Stars

Writing books about a specialized, somewhat obscure topic is difficult - the level of detail to include is such a hard balance to strike. This book was really interesting (a little outdated, but still relevant) but the detail felt a little too overwhelming at times. Overall, a great story about the underdog chess team at Murrow High School in Brooklyn.

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Normally, these types of books would be written about high school athletes or standard "high-achievers" (straight As, ivy league bound). Interesting book about a group of kids that aren't normally talked about. It was really cool learning about each kid's individual struggles and goals.

[Rich Sanidad · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting read (it helps if you have a passing interest in chess, obviously), but I was never sure what the focus of the book was supposed to be. Was it Eliot Weiss, the team's faculty advisor and coach? Edward Murrow HS, the high school the team attended? The boys that were members of the team during this snapshot in time? Chess and its influence on the young? I'm glad he touched on so many themes, but he did it in such a way that had your thoughts sprawling and unsettled. I assumed the book was going to focus on the boys on the team, but I think he went off on too many tangents that weakened that focus.

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eliot Weiss, math teacher, devoted his career to helping kids find purpose through chess. Eliot provided the environment, chess coaches and sought funding for his team to travel and participate in tournaments. The kids were often so unappreciative of the opportunities given to them, as part of this chess team or for higher learning, but unfortunately that's reality! Not being a chess player, the book seemed to drone on and on about the same things, just different days. I respected the concepts in this book and enjoyed the overall story, but read way more than I cared about regarding chess moves, strategy and scoring.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book will be fascinating to two groups of people: those interested in scholastic chess and those interested in Murrow High School. Seeing how I fall into both categories, I rather enjoyed this book. It was well written and nicely researched. However, I don't think it transcends the boundaries of its subject matter, unlike, for example, Louis Sachar's "The Cardturner," which is lovely even if you know nothing about bridge. The Kings of New York was fun for me, but I honestly can't think of anyone else in my circle of friends who would enjoy it.

[Dale · Rating 1 out of 5]

a year among the geeks, oddballs, and geniuses who make up American’s top high school chess team.
Quill Awards, Sports Book of the Year, 2007; 278 pgs., hardback via Berea Library. Tried to read Ap.. ’08, I didn’t care about those weird characters and figure it was the sole book submitted for the Sports Book of the Year award.

[Nicky · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this for book club and struggled to get through it. I guess reading about chess and it's players isn't my thing. Good for the teacher Mr. Weiss for doing what he did for this program. That was awesome.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quote:

Players of Ilya's caliber, if they can see three moves ahead—your next move, your opponent's next move, and your ensuing move—are often in good shape. The rest of the game is often dictated by feel; once you know the fundamentals of the game, you see a position and you can eliminate the moves that don't make sense [i.e. thinking positionally]. Bruce Pandolfini calls the three-move maxim "The Rule of the Three." If you can do that, you can be a 1600-1800 rated player, no problem. It does not require a great amount of genius, but it does require an ability to focus and think ahead and consider the consequence of one's actions. "It's very simple," Pandolfini says. "It's nothing profound. It's not what people think."

[Adrienne Wentzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

"It may sound cruel, but this game is rife with unkind possibilities, and coming to terms with one's identity as a chess player involves coming to terms with one's own shortcomings, not to mention the shortcomings of society itself." AND "But this is the problems with chess, and one of the reasons why it's never found a more widespread audience: Its existence is grounded in an understanding of minutiae."

[Max Lansdowne · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it was about chess, and I’ve been on a chess kick lately, but chess ended up being the least interesting thing about it! Game of Kings takes you on a wonderful trip through the intricacies of Murrow High School and its interesting values, the members of its chess team and their unique backgrounds, and, of course, chess. Whether you know anything about chess or not Game of Kings is a wonderful book!

[Sylvan Clarke · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the true to life characters depicted here. Amazing story telling about the hidden mindsets of each player and their own personal demons that they fight each and every day. The one great thing that brings them all together is their strange love hate relationship with the elusive stratagem that is chess. Fabulously fantastic read.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun bit of journalism that follows the top rated High School chess team over the course of a year. It's a diverse team from Brooklyn and follows the players and educators as they play in tournaments around the country while deadling with their normal High School lives. I'm a fan of chess, but also from Brooklyn, so this was especially fun to connect with.

[Barrai Heffernan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic, some great characters. You don't need to know much about chess to read this book. However, I feel at times the writer fell into some cliches and stereotypes.
I would recommend it for anyone with a passing interest in chess or an interest in alternative forms of education.

[Sean O'Brien · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun story that was very well paced. It really gets you thrilled to play some games of chess. The only real knock is the problematic language of the time, but it still enjoyable nonetheless.

[Hal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounded up a very solid 3.5, points taken off because at one point the story just seems to drag on and on, and while the ending is unsatisfactory; life is also unsatisfactory. Just like a game of chess

[Beau · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about languishing; it's about the pointlessness of being; it's about avoiding the real world; and it's fascinating. I forgive the author the numerous chess mistakes throughout.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating piece of journalistic non-fiction, by the end I cared about an entire competitive world that I previously had no knowledge of.

[Slow3635 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about languishing; it's about the pointlessness of being; it's about avoiding the real world; and it's fascinating. I forgive the author the numerous chess mistakes throughout.

[Angel Gomez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was good but dragged on a little overall it was alright

[Terry · Rating 4 out of 5]

read

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably my favorite non-fiction book about a group of inner city high school chess geniuses.

It's a group consisting of one, but still - #1 is #1, even if on a technicality (as this book shows).

The author follows a high school chess team from the Bronx for nearly two years, cataloging their tournaments, giving brief biographies of the players, and a look at their home and school life. The book also serves as a bit of a critique of the NYC school system. I felt that the author did a good job in particular of being evenhanded in that regard.

One thing that I kept thinking as I read the book was, "What if these kids were basketball or football players?" Most of them got into this High School (one of the best in New York) simply because they were skilled chess players. For many of them, their grades in school were lacking, they skipped class constantly, and they showed little interest in anything but chess. I believe neither of the seniors graduated on time. And yet the chess coach pulled strings to get them in, played the middle man in apologizing to their other teachers, and took them out of classes for long periods of time for tournaments. It's generally considered that this sort of thing isn't OK for traditional sports, yet I think a lot of readers would be OK in this instance.

That's not to say these are bad kids. I was rooting for all of them and I think that the last few chapters show at least some growth for all of them (although I wonder how much of that is the writer bending things a little for a happy ending). I'm glad that they could all find something to be passionate about. One kid, Shawn Martinez, says at one point, "I've been hanging around with the wrong crowd." This doesn't mean gangs or drugs, as it might in most kids cases. For Shawn that meant he was playing too much chess in the parks and neglecting school. There are obviously worse things to be addicted to, Chess builds a lot of good skills. But the schools job isn't to make them better chess players. Shawn gets to attend a Championship Event even though he hasn't been doing school work because, as his coach said, he "doesn't want to crush Shawn's spirit." WHAT? I'm betting he let Shawn go because the coach wanted another championship. Regardless of the sport, most coaches want wins. The author was very complimentary to the coach, but it really felt to me like he was using these kids and he didn't want to upset them (making them quit the team) by applying any rules whatsoever. These kids faced absolutely no repercussion as far as the team goes, no matter what they did. That's a failure of the coach.

One other criticism I would have is that the author writes far too casually in many circumstances, trying to mime how the kids speak in his writing. And I'm not talking about quoting them, he'd do it on occasion when describing a scene, or another person. It just reads incredibly fake.

I think anyone who digs chess at any level would enjoy this book, and even most of those who don't. It's a neat story that doesn't insult our intelligence. Not all the kids will go on to great things. The teachers and administrators are absolutely not selfless. It's an interesting look at a group of kids with a very special talent, and it manages not to glorify them.

I really liked the blurb on the back jacked from Chuck Klosterman, wish I had thought of it. Paraphrasing - "It's like 'Friday Night Lights' for Chess"

[Gabrielo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up while browsing random shelves at the library. Non-fiction. Quirky and beautifully written, interesting people and good stories, with lots of insights into the world of competitive chess, from Bobby Fischer to the US high school circuit (of 20 years ago). The amount of research that must have gone into this is amazing. If you're a chess hound, this is a good read.

[Steven · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was competently written but little more, falling neatly into the obsessives-and-their-niche-games genre that ballooned a few years ago.

Some of the more intersesting tensions within the book have to do with the esteem related to chess as it is represented as the ultimate mental contest, yet accomplishments are so cheaply rewarded and come with an ample dose of apathy. This gives rise to the notion that people do it for a love of the game, yet they quickly go after any money that is offered and scorn tournaments that don't have any cash prizes.

Still though, to be any good at chess, you have to invest an inordinate amount of time. This anxiety (or what most people would call "drive") to become better is exacerbated by the fact that each player is objectively scored and given a numerical ranking. So you have this mixture of the self-confidence that is useful in chess and that humility of knowing how many players in the world are better than you. It's a constant pull of proving that you care more about it than anyone else and are willing to sacrifice more and more of your life.

It's a quick read, and it helps to already be interested in chess (I'm only guessing, here). The odd thing about reading relative unknowns is that you can now hop on facebook and twitter and stalk the characters in the book. Because you've already made some amount of emotional investment in them there's a temptation to friend them and ...I don't know what happens after that.

Lastly, I personally liked the cameo from Jennifer Shahade and Irina Krush, who I read about in Shahade's book, Chess Bitch. For whatever reason, it was comforting.

[Curtis Seven · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting look at tournament chess and the role it has played in some New York City middle schools.

I think chess is somewhat less prevalent than it used to be and certainly less so in the midwest and western United States nevertheless it's an interesting story. Most chess prodigies begin as kids to the extent where you are considered 'old' by the time you are old enough to vote.

This is not a historical work but it does allude to prominent figures in the history of Chess and to times when it was played much more widely than today. Today's kids probably can scarcely imagine a time before video games, televisions, radios, iPods, and all that but back in the day a board game like Chess might have been their equivalent. So in a way this might be a better book for a parent looking for inspiration in terms of getting the kids away from the Playstation or Xbox or in the U.S. even for a kid who is old enough to appreciate it.

I'd have to hazard a guess that despite the bias towards 'starting them young' that in the contemporary U.S. a parent should in fact ignore that and if they could get a kid interested in say Chess as opposed to other pursuits they pick up from peer pressure and whatnot it would not be a bad thing. Here in Minnesota you can find Chess clubs on the internet and I'm fairly certain that would prove to be true in many states.

As a game it prepares a kid for higher ideas like Game Theory and even for gaining a deeper understanding of history as Chess after all goes way back in time and was once considered the game of royalty.

[Ensiform · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author, a sports writer, examines the winning chess team at Edward R. Murrow school, a progressive institution in Brooklyn. Led by Eliot Weiss, a math teacher who built the chess team out of love for the game, the mostly underprivileged “oddballs” and slackers play in tournaments in various cities, overcome their fears, and try to maintain their grade point averages in a school that allows them to get away with a lot.

This is the type of book that I’m interested in, but it didn’t grab me like Stefan Fatsis’ Word Freak did. Perhaps that’s because Weinreb has no skill at chess, so he doesn’t draw the reader into the drama of the games, or perhaps because despite the title the kids in this book come off as just regular kids – bright, with a few special interests, but hardly oddballs and geeks – but either way, I felt this book could have gone deeper. Deeper into the kids’ lives, to see if chess really did change them, or deeper into the strategy and elegance of the most important games. Still, it’s a fine look at competitive chess, and an admirable picture of Weiss, the altruistic man who created this team on his own initiative. It also tangentially makes a few shrewd critical comments on the state of public education and the place of arts and other extracurricular activities in this No Child Left Behind world.

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know anything about chess, but I know quite a bit about public schools in Brooklyn, which is why I picked this one up- everybody who teaches in Brooklyn knows Edward R. Murrow High School.

This was an enjoyable read but I found myself getting distracted from the thin narrative thread involving Murrow's team of national chess champions. Maybe it has something to do with the nature of the game itself- to me, someone who only barely understands the rules of chess, the games described in this book didn't really have any sense of urgency beyond my interest in the boys playing the game. It was hard for me to get wrapped up in the game itself because chess remains a mystery to me.

I'm not saying that this should have been some kind of "How to Play Chess" manual or anything, just that I didn't find myself getting involved the same way I did when I read other sports books like Friday Night Lights.

I loved the various asides sprinkled throughout the book about the history of chess in the 20th century, hitting all the high points (Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov) and the low points (Bobby Fischer, again) in a way that really kept the story rooted in this idea that the game, while known and loved by many, isn't really valued in the way that other competitive sports are.

[Mark Schlatter · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 to 4 stars for me. I thought the beginning of the book was too diffuse, and I didn't feel like I got distinct impressions of the individual kids in the first few chapters. (The grainy photos did not help.) But the book builds, and the ending was very powerful. Two notes in particular:

1) It's a compelling look at kids for whom nothing but chess motivates. These aren't geniuses who decide to focus on chess, these are chess smart kids who focus on almost nothing else. I was especially moved by the student whose counselor was bemoaning the student's failing grades, but knew if the boy stopped chess he wouldn't do any better. Chess kept him coming to school, but did not help him in school.

2) I loved and dreaded the emphasis on what competitive chess is like: the lack of support, the constant battling, the struggles with confidence, the instinctual moves that work, and the instincts that betray you. The little I have seen playing go I saw large scale in this book. Just for those glimpses of the monomania around abstract games, the book is worth reading.