SUCCESS ACADEMY STUDENTS WIN BIG AT NY STATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP — BRINGING A NEW LEVEL OF DIVERSITY TO THE SPORT

SUCCESS ACADEMY STUDENTS WIN BIG AT NY STATE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP — BRINGING A NEW LEVEL OF DIVERSITY TO THE SPORT

With 1 out of every 8 players at the tournament, Success Academy is leading the charge in diversifying scholastic chess in New York State.

Saratoga Springs, NY — This past weekend, Nura Baalla, a Success Academy sixth-grader who is half Puerto Rican and half Moroccan, took home the ninth-place trophy in the state’s elementary championship. Baalla’s win broke gender barriers in a boy-dominated sport: she was the only girl to place among the top ten in this competitive division.

Baalla is currently ranked fourth nationally among girls under age 11 and is the product of four years of training in the Success Academy program. The program has a record of developing top chess players from groups that tend to be underrepresented in the sport, including girls, Hispanics, and African-Americans.

“Early exposure, excellent instruction, and a proactive recruitment strategy are key to getting students from all backgrounds passionate about the sport,” says Sean O’Hanlon, director of the Success chess program.

Approximately 9,000 SA students — the majority of whom are students of color and from low-income families — receive chess instruction starting in kindergarten. In third grade, select scholars join teams that play in 100 internal and external tournaments each year and receive extensive coaching in afterschool and summer programs. The network often recruits players who, because of lack of confidence or exposure at home, might not otherwise volunteer for the team. They also work hard to encourage female players, bringing top-rated girls to the girls-only championships in Chicago each year.

Like so many of Success Academy’s chess players, Baalla probably wouldn’t have played competitive chess if she hadn’t been recruited to the team in third grade. Her mother Ketty Baalla, a single mom, says that even if it had occurred to her to give Nura chess lessons, she probably wouldn’t have been able to afford them. “Nura discovered her passion thanks to this program,” says Ms. Baalla.

This year, 14 Success Academy teams of 135 players attended the state championship, representing neighborhoods ranging from Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem in Manhattan, to the South Bronx and Brooklyn’s Bed Stuy. In a tournament once dominated by private and G&T public schools, Success Academy students now made up 12% of all players. This year, they walked away with an impressive number of wins, including:

• Six top-three division wins, including four first-place trophies in high school intermediate and reserve, K-5 intermediate, and elementary intermediate divisions.

• 14 top-ten individual wins, including Baalla (SA Hudson Yards) in 9th place for elementary championship, Brewington Hardaway (SA Hells Kitchen) in 3rd place for primary championship, Tabia Davis (SA Bed Stuy 1 MS) in 2nd place for K-5 intermediate, Kyle Chen (SA Hudson Yards MS) in 1st place for elementary intermediate, and William Perez and Dionald Suazo (SA Bronx 1 MS) in 6th and 10th place for middle school intermediate.

Success Academy is devoted to closing gaps of all kinds at it schools. Now in its 12th year, the Success Academy chess program is proving that great chess players come from every neighborhood, background, and gender.

ABOUT SUCCESS ACADEMY CHARTER SCHOOLS

Founded in 2006, Success Academy Charter Schools are free public K-12 schools open to all children in the state through a random lottery. With 41 schools across Brooklyn, the Bronx, Manhattan, and Queens, Success Academy enrolls 14,000 students, primarily low-income children of color in disadvantaged neighborhoods: 77% of students receive free or reduced-price lunch, 95% are children of color, 12% are children with disabilities, and 8.5% are English language learners. Ranked in the top 1% in math and the top 1.5% in English on 2016 state proficiency tests, Success Academy schools received more than 20,000 applications for about 3,200 open seats this year.  

For more information about Success Academy, go to Successacademies.org and virtualtour.successacademies.org.