Chess miracle at the ‘second poorest school in New York’

The chess team of Rosalyn Yalow School in the South Bronx just won the 58th New York State School Chess Championship. Next month, the students will attend the national chess tournament in Baltimore, Maryland.

This school is named after nuclear physicist Rosalyn Yalow, and is also the “second poorest school in New York”, with almost all students coming from difficult circumstances, of which 22% come from homeless families.

This small school educates students from kindergarten to grade 8, of whom 17% have special educational needs. About 50% of the students are people of color, most of them are children of West African immigrant families, and the remaining 50% are Latino students.

However, the school’s students’ results on standardized tests far exceed those of their peers in the region and the entire state. 73% of Rosalyn Yalow students passed the state’s standardized math test, 34 percentage points higher than the average for surrounding public schools in District 7 in the Bronx. This rate is also 16 percentage points higher than the statewide average.

The English test pass rate at this school also reached 64%, 25 percentage points higher than surrounding schools and 11 percentage points higher than the state average.

Rosalyn Yalow’s school day lasts from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Children can also participate in extracurricular activities such as chess and fencing, which are integrated into the daily curriculum.

The school was founded in 2015 by principal Alec Diacou as a semi-autonomous public school model, where the board of directors has autonomy over the curriculum. He then decided to introduce chess and fencing into regular classes. Previously, his three children studied these two subjects as extracurriculars, so he wanted his students to have the same opportunity.

The school’s chess team has 26 members, competing with more than 1,700 “little players” from across the state. On the team is Roger Basurto, 6 years old, one of the youngest players in the tournament. There is also Ishaan Nikhil, 11 years old, who just started playing chess last year.

“When I see a good move, I make it right before I forget it,” Roger shared with the media, saying chess taught him many life lessons. “Failure is not a mistake, not learning from failure is a mistake.”

The school’s chess team is coached by many of the country’s top players, including Irina Krush, the first and only American female player to win the title of International Grandmaster.

Samuel Lin, a team member, said most of his best memories are related to chess.

“I really enjoyed the practice sessions with Grandmaster Irina Krush and National Grandmaster Ilia Kakushadze, as well as being able to compete with my friends,” Lin said. “I always try to enjoy and learn from my and my opponents’ mistakes, instead of just focusing on the results.”

Principal Diacou called the team’s performance in the tournament “fantastic”.

“This success is about more than just chess. It also reflects how we prepare our students for life. Our goal is to prepare them for the future. That’s why the school has built one of the best chess programs in America, capable of competing with any of the top private schools in the area,” he said.