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Starred Review. Weinreb
makes several choices that work well for a year-in-the-life account.
For one, he eschews unnecessary speculation about the teen chess
prodigies' psychology, a strategy that taken with his deft reporting of
how they view themselves and one another renders them more accessible,
more natural and consequently more interesting. Weinreb also expands
his arena by investigating the cultural milieu of the modern chess
world. He describes what it takes to be a successful high-level chess
player, the difficulties women have in this world, the very nature of
the game and the phenomenon of the chess prodigy, using the experience
of Josh Waitzkin, who has now retired from competitive chess and was
the subject of the movie Searching for Bobby Fischer. All this
is supported by well-chosen detail, intelligence and terrific writing.
Weinreb clearly develops an affection for the eclectic members of the
team, and because of the skill he brings to his project, so will his
readers.
Publishers Weekly
The set-up seems ripe for a standard inspirational Stand and Deliver
narrative, but the book is compelling in its ambivalent view of the
role of chess in these young students' lives-their brilliance does not
translate into stellar grades, and the future educational and
professional prospects of the Murrow team are anything but secure, an
irony driven home when the championship team, diffident, distracted and
directionless, are congratulated in a photo-op by George Bush. Weinreb
paces the action expertly-the individual chess matches are rendered as
exciting as any NCAA nail-biter-and the season's ebbs and flows
intermingle with the prosaic details of inner-city adolescence to
singularly lyrical effect...A fascinating subculture sensitively brought to light, along with some troubling questions.
Kirkus Reviews |
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Links to reviews from the New York Times, USA Today, Christian Science Monitor, Chess Life and more on the home page.
(Weinreb) presents the young men with whom he spent more than a year in all
their glory and goofiness, inviting the reader to see them as
intriguing and worthy of attention, both in spite of and because of
their passion for chess.
Bill Littlefield, NPR's "Only a Game"
Meet some kids from Brooklyn and thrill to their success. Weinreb, an award-winning
sportswriter, details a year in the life of the chess team at Edward R. Murrow High
School, a diverse school so dedicated to pure learning it has no sports teams. But the
elite chess team is one of the best in the country and here their individual stories are
told as they make their way to the national championships. Weinreb also covers the history
of chess and its prodigies.
New York Daily News
Watch the NY1 story about Murrow and The Kings of New York.
Weinreb is at his best when he tells the stories of the kids and the adults
who nurture them....While "The Kings of New York" is meant to be an uplifting book about
a can-do team, ultimately it sends a message that we should all start worrying
about the schools, neighborhoods and jobs of the next generation of Americans.
Newsday
This year-long account of an unconventional chess club's domination of
its rivals is set in the unexpected landscape of inner-city Brooklyn,
New York. Here, an often arid sport is refreshingly illustrated as
street games, state tournaments and national championships are
colourfully recreated with humour and simplicity. The book's strength
lies in Weinreb's detailed exploration into the uncharmed lives of a
motley bunch of immigrant, hip-hop-listening child geniuses who rely on
this curious sub-culture as a means of expression and distraction.
Fabienne Williams, U.K. Observer Sport Monthly
The Kings of New Yorkby Michael Weinreb
(Yellow Jersey, £11.99) is much the best book in the Sportsbooks
in-tray at the moment, and I would rather write about a good book that
may or may not be about sport than a book which is definitely about
sport but which is also definitely pants.
Andrew Baker, sportswriter, UK Telegraph
Weinreb's exciting, uplifting book shows how the game can offer another possibility off the board -- that of a different life.
John Harding, UK Daily Mail
Weinreb writes well, in the way that many American sportswriters do: a
muscular and highbrow style, driven by the drama of the event without
sacrificing a sardonic, wise-guy tone. It is a template for good, manly
prose and, in Weinreb's hands, makes for a smart and stylish read. He
handles the characters and competitions clearly and brings a light
touch to the technical side of chess.
Nicholas Blincoe, U.K. Telegraph
You can add The Kings of New York, Michael Weinreb's lively,
inspiring book, to the subgenre about Nerdy but Likable Kids Who Win
Our Hearts as They Win Countless Chess Matches. (In fact, Josh
Waitzkin, the now-grown-up prodigy of 1993's ur-text Searching for Bobby Fischer, makes a brief cameo.) Weinreb
spends a year with some remarkable high schoolers who do battle for
Brooklyn's ethnically diverse Edward R. Murrow High, eloquently showing
the democratization of genius and ability. With his vivid portraits and
brisk narrative style, he manages to find high drama in a roomful of
brilliant young minds pushing little pieces across a 64-square grid.
Entertainment Weekly
He spent a year with
the cultural melting pot of
underprivileged children who
made up the team and his
engrossing reportage is as much
a portrait of adolescent brilliance
and social struggle as it is an
exposé of the hothouse conditions
under which US school chess
prevails.
Alan Chadwick, Metro (U.K.)
There is plenty of literature available for the devoted player wishing
to polish his end game or master the Sicilian opening, but for those of
us with just a passing interest coverage is rare. Now in addition to
the excellent Bobby Fischer Goes to War,
we have Michael Weinreb's fascinating book which tells the amazing
story of Murrow High School, the most successful chess playing school
in America.
Weinreb follows the Murrow School team on their journey to the
national championships competing against much wealthier and illustrious
private schools. We witness the financial struggles faced by the team,
the frustration of pupils and teachers alike as the dedication and
brainpower required on the chessboard doesn't transfer to the academic
environment and how teenage boys (for it is largely teenage boys) no
matter how gifted, are still just teenage boys trying to grow up. It's
an engaging story of devotion to a complicated game and at the same
time a rites of passage tale of young men trying to make their way in
the world.
Jacques Claw, Word of Sport (U.K.)
Chess attracts both child prodigies and general oddballs, both of which
can be found in abundance in this well-constructed and intriguing book
about America’s top high school chess team. The Edward R Murrow School
in Brooklyn is an experimental, hippyish institution where kids are
allowed to cut classes, but which boasts an incredibly successful chess
team. Unlike posher private schools, Murrow’s team is full of
underprivileged kids from a cross-section of backgrounds, and Michael
Weinreb tailed them for a couple of years as they went about the
business of hammering all opposition into submission. Weinreb is a fine sports writer, and does well at getting inside the
heads of these outsiders and geeks, working out the motivations and
psychology of some incredibly gifted youngsters.
The List (Scotland)
Sportswriter Michael Weinreb's
The
Kings of New York:
A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who
Make Up America's Top
High School Chess Team is just as entertaining as
it sounds.
Men.Style.Com (Website of GQ and Details magazines)
The lives of teenage super-geniuses, as seen through the eyes of chess
prodigies at Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School: a Puerto Rican
student from a rough neighborhood, an aspiring rapper, two Eastern
European students jostling for grandmaster status and the team's lone
girl.
Indianapolis Star
In the spirit of books and movies on Scrabble and crossword players, comes The Kings of New York, about Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School, following 'A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team.'
Manhattan User's Guide
Covering a game that draws intellectual outliers and social misfits, sports writer Weinreb ushers us through a year in the life of a scrappy, and elite, chess team from Brooklyn's Edward R. Murrow High School. Meet Sal and Alex, both from Eastern Europe, two of the best players in the United States. And Oscar, a Puerto Rican immigrant who loves a move called "the Orangutan." These guys are mercurial and brilliant, and Weinreb takes us inside their moves and motivations. But there is another story here beyond rooks and pawns. This is the story of modern immigration and a sport with no cultural boundaries.
Catherine New, Psychology Today
Watch the Murrow chess team on ESPN2's Cold Pizza.
My current chess-porn of choice: Michael Weinreb's The Kings of New York...a very engaging group portrait of the top-ranked
chess team at Edward R. Murrow high school, which is half high-ranking
Russian immigrants and half ghetto prodigies. On the back Chuck
Klosterman calls it "the Friday Night Lights of high school chess," so
there you go.
Lev Grossman, TIME.com
One of "three books you'll want to read in the coming weeks and months."
Mike Vaccaro, New York Post
Read the Q and A with Michael Weinreb on the Dystel and Goderich Literary Management web site.
The Murrow kids and their dedicated teacher, Eliot Weiss, make for a terrific story. Michael Weinreb beautifully captures their ups and downs, and I felt myself back in the trenches of scholastic chess with them, saddened by their defeats and delighted by their successes. A wonderful book. I really enjoyed it.
Bruce Pandolfini, renowned chess author and teacher
Writing with the deft, propulsive style of a young Frank Deford,
Michael Weinreb has captured both the intellectual insanity-and the
curious normalcy-of what it's like to be a teenaged super-genius. The Kings of New York is the Friday Night Lights of high school chess.
Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs and Chuck Klosterman IV
The Kings of New York is about chess in the same way that Darcy Frey's The Last Shot
was about basketball. Michael Weinreb's real subjects are the nature of
talent, the onset of adolescence, and the kingdom of Brooklyn. This is
a wonderful book.
Mark Kriegel, author of Pistol: The Life of Pete Maravich and Namath: A Biography
Michael Weinreb has done a heroic job doing something once thought
impossible-making an eminently readable topic out of chess. Part Word Freak, part Season on the Brink, The Kings of New York is a gripping inside look at an endearingly quirky subculture.
L. Jon Wertheim, author of Transition Game and Venus Envy
The Kings of New York
isn't so much a book about high school chess as it is an unforgettable
journey into the blessing and curse of adolescent genius. With a
narrative rich in voice-a gathering of intoxicating characters-Michael
Weinreb has delivered nothing short of a generational classic. This is
a stunning book. You won't soon forget it.
Adrian Wojnarowski, author of The Miracle of St. Anthony
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