This weekend, a group of high school students from Brooklyn are traveling upstate to defend their title as the best chess teams in the country. NY1’s Cheryl Wills filed the following report.
Whether you call them geeks, oddballs, or geniuses — this quirky group of teens are to high school chess what Michael Jordan is to basketball: there is no one better.
"It’s exhilarating, I mean you just get to be in the spotlight like this all the time," said Mikhail Furman, a chess player at Edward R. Murrow High School.
And members from Edward R. Murrow High School’s chess team are in the spotlight year after year.
Since 2004, they have successfully defended their title as National High School Champs — beating the best teen chess players in the country.
They are so popular that writer Michael Weinreb has written a book about them. It is appropriately called "the Kings of New York."
“It’s their competitiveness,” said Weinreb. “It’s kind of the heart and that dedication to the game and never wanting to give up."
Murrow High School does not have any athletic teams, but the chess team more than makes up for it. The trophy case can hardly hold all of their awards and honors, including a photo of them meeting President George W. Bush in 2004.
