Books : The Kings of New York: A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Genuises Who Make Up America's Top HighSchool Chess Team
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 794.1097472
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Gotham
Manufacturer: Gotham
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: March 01, 2007
Publishing house: Gotham
Release Date: March 01, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 231395
Studio: Gotham
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Product Description:
An award-winning sportswriter takes you inside a year with the nation’s top high school chess team.
With strict admission standards and a progressive curriculum, Brooklyn’s Edward R. Murrow High School has long been one of New York’s public-education sucess stories, serving a diverse neighborhood of immigrants and minorities and ranking among the nation’s best high schools. At Murrow, there are no sports teams, and the closest thing to jocks are found on the school’s powerhouse chess team, which annually competes for the national championship.
In The Kings of New York sportswriter Michael Weinreb follows the members of the Murrow chess team through an entire season, from cash games in Washington Square Park to city and state tournaments to the SuperNationals in Nashville, where this eclectic bunch competes against private schoolers and suburbanites. Along the way, Weinreb brings to life a number of colorful characters: the Yale-educated calculus teacher (and former semipro hockey player) who guides the savants while struggling to find funding for his team; an aspiring rapper and tournament hustler who plays with cutthroat instinct; the team’s lone girl, a shy Ukrainian immigrant; the Puerto Rican teen from the rough neighborhood of Bedford-Stuyvesant who plays an ingenious opening gambit named the Orangutan; and the Lithuanian immigrant and team star whose chess rating is climbing toward grandmaster status.
In the bestselling tradition of such books as Word Freak and Saturday Night Lights, The Kings of New York is a riveting look inside the world of competitive chess and an inspiring profile of young genius.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
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This book is easy to read. Unfortunately it reads more like a collection of articles than a narrative. I'd have loved a bit more depth on some members of the team. Also it seems near the end that he hadn't given enough time before writing the epilogue. I'd love to know what happens to these kids 4 or 5 years later, not just the following year.
Another problem I had, was that many of the chess moves noted in the book were left with no illustration or very little description, while others, like the Orangutan were given the entire history of where the name comes from (an odd bit of chess lore in itself). Also as with any book about Chess, Bobby Fischer was discussed. In this case it just seemed like filler. It wasn't related to the story and just served to show how "normal" these kids are in comparison.
Rated by buyers -
This is very inspirational because it makes you want to play chess by the way it describes how cool the game is. However, the story-line is very slow. There was no real conflict in the story.
Rated by buyers 
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I very first heard of this book in a New York Times book review that praised the author's deft touch and vigorous reporting. That was more than enough for me. Not only am I an incompetent chess player (a.k.a., a "wood pusher"), I was also the teacher advisor of one of Oregon's state champion teams. (This team went to the Supernationals multiple times under the tutelage of parent volunteer extraordinaire Dan Sharp [www.sharpinvestments.com]).
So that pulled me into this book, but Michael Weinreb did all the heavy lifting from there. The story's diverse cast of characters from Edward Murrow High School in Brooklyn lends this tale built-in interest, and Weinreb masterfully builds on it with investigative work and style. How do these kids view their talents? Their peers? Education? And as many are from immigrant families, America itself?
By not delving too deeply into the minutia of chess technique, and staying focused on his subjects, Weinreb creates a general interest book of a fascinating subculture. That is, even if I didn't have an interest in chess, I'd have enjoyed this book.
Sidelight: One of the current featured reviews dismisses having a team advisor/teacher who is inferior to his or her team's players as "unhelpful." Not so; the teacher is in charge of serving as a liaison to the school and other teams, as well as organizing events and practices, and so forth. Among these duties would be bringing in a local Master level player to provide instruction. Rare is the teacher with a 1600+ rating who can hang with the best homies on the chessboard.
Rated by buyers 
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When I read the initial reviews. I thought by reading this I would have a similar experience to the enjoyment I got out of word freak. I was wrong.
I thought it would be a cool book about some out there people playing chess.
I was wrong.
The characters are very dull and certainly not worth writing a book. These guys are about as exciting as a documentary on garden mulch.
If you like chess alot, it might be worth it, yet it doesn't stand alone as a book.
Rated by buyers -
This book was a running commentary into the life of the top chess team in America. The book was void of sex, drugs, and other issues in the typical America high school. The book provided insight into the America education system, into the chess culture in America, and into the world of a genius. One would believe that these geniuses would be top students in high school, but most of them struggle with staying engaged in school. These young people are bored with school which does not motivate them. They are more motivated to win money playing chess. The challenge of chess is greater than the challenge that school presents. It makes me wonder about the policy of "no student left behind" because it seems that really it is "no student gets ahead." Students like these need a challenge or they will disengage from school. How can you care about school when the really test is against another grandmaster chess champion. Most people would not enjoy this book unless you enjoy chess. The book is incredibly well written. It makes the basic story a flowing narrative.
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