Help Send The PS 139 Chess Ninjas To The Nationals

Our neighborhood’s incredibly talented PS 139 Chess Ninjas are, once again, heading to to the National Elementary Chess Championship — and they’re looking to the community to help support our always amazing chess prodigies.

Neighbors can help defray lodging fees for more than 30 of the ninjas at the national tournament, which begins this Friday, May 8, in Nashville by going to the team’s gofundme site, a fundraising effort that has helped children attend tournaments this year that they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to afford.

The ninjas say on their fundraising page:

Over the years, the Chess Ninjas of Public School 139 have been to New York state and national champions and continually rank in the top 20 in New York City tournaments. This April, they aim to reclaim their titles at the U.S. Chess Federation’s National Elementary Championship in Nashville, Tenn.

P.S. 139 is a Title I school and struggles, like most public schools, to maintain its extracurricular programs within a limited budget. Yet under Coach Ian West, and with the commitment and support of team parents, and the school’s administration and parents’ association, the chess program has thrived for over a dozen years. But even cases filled with trophies aren’t the real testament to this program.

The children who come through this program learn to be analytic thinkers and critical problem solvers. They’re motivated to become better learners. Chess helps children prepare for life. And, being on a team teaches them about community. The Chess Ninjas are among the brightest in a diverse school of smart, striving children, and they go on to succeed.

If you’d like to help support the ninjas, you can go here to donate, and if you’d like to learn more about the team, you can visit their Facebook page and read our coverage of Coach Ian West here and the team here.

Good luck, ninjas — we can’t wait to hear how the championship goes!