Chess, Camaraderie, And Celebration For Academy Of Arts And Letters’ Rook Stars
Three cheers for the Rook Stars chess team at the Urban Assembly Academy of Arts and Letters!
The final rankings of the 2015 Elementary School Chess Nationals were astounding in the best possible way: not only did first-time competitors from Arts and Letters come in 5th Place overall in the “K-5 Under 900 Section,” but first-time players Zane Babbush Fisher and Maccabee Barron came in 9th place in the nation and 21st Place in the division, respectively, in the individual rankings.
“The kids were anxious and wondering [how they’d do], but this exceeded any expectations we had,” said Dawn Babbush, A&L’s after-school programs coordinator and mom to 9th place finisher Zane.
“We were over the moon; we were ecstatic and dizzy after a long weekend of work and training and competition. meet, eat, study, practice, play, study, play. . . for three days straight,” added parent volunteer coach Sam Barron, whose children Maccabee and Ozzy were also on the ranking team.
The win was a huge thrill and much-deserved, validating the hard work and dedication of both students and parent volunteers, not just to weekly and twice-weekly training sessions after school, but also to coaching and, this year, to fundraising for a professional coach and airfare to and from the Nationals competition in Tennessee.
Rook Stars was formed three years ago by parent volunteers with a small group of kids, inspired by conversations between Barron and A&L dad Carlos Graupera, who coaches kids at PS 503. Now, the team consists of 40-50 kids — half of whom compete in tournaments twice a month — and nearly a dozen of whom attended Nationals.
The benefits of winning go beyond the giant, shiny, taller-than-some-of-the-kids trophy, though.
“I saw Zane and Macabee holding hands the other day and I think they brought that [teamwork] spirit back with them to school,” said Babbush. “We’re trying to build a rich supportive community where it’s not just about winning. Our school doesn’t even do rankings.
“As parents, all of us want our kids to find opportunities in their life to shine with things that spark their interest. For me personally, to see that hard work, commitment and follow-through, going in on weekends, coming home and doing puzzles — to watch a child learn commitment and follow through and hopefully victory — I hope this expands to a life lesson and is not just about chess. We talk about scholarly habits, camaraderie and teamwork. We saw them cheering each other on.”
For Barron, seeing his seven- and nine-year-olds progress has also impacted his play-relationship with them. “I view them as totally interesting people for me to play, too, and I think they’re very enthusiastic about competing again next year. They still have a lot of different interests.”
Academically, there’s also the fact that “there’s no way studying chess and exercising that cerebral discipline doesn’t improve their capacity for focus and strategic planning,” as well, said Barron. And sportsmanship is also a key life lesson.
“Chess has lots of life lessons,” he said. “All these kids have learned to win and lose gracefully. At the beginning it was very difficult for them to win and lose without throwing a tantrum. So they’re learning sportsmanship at an early age.”
On the school level, Barron also notes that a goal for next year is “to get chess in the curriculum at school” because “it seems that most of the competitive chess teams have it not as after-school.”
School District 13 was particularly well represented at the Elementary School Chess Nationals, with Park Slope’s PS/MS 282 also coming away with team and individual wins, in the sections for “K-6 Championship” (tied for 8th Place), “K-6 Under 1000” (3rd Place), “K-5 Under 900” (tied for 20th Place), “K-3 Under 800” (12th Place), “K-1 Championship” (23rd Place), “K-3 Blitz” (tied for 29th Place, plus 3rd Place in the 1100-1100 class). “K-6 Unrated,” and “K-3 Unrated.”