The Kings of New York

I've been working on a ChessCafe review of the new Michael Weinreb book The Kings of New York, subtitled A Year Among the Geeks, Oddballs, and Geniuses Who Make Up America's Top High School Chess Team. Weinreb follows the diverse and unique individuals who comprise the chess team for Edward R. Murrow High School in New York City.

It's quite a book, one which may alternatively anger and amuse the reader, so it caught my eye when several recent related internet reports have appeared.

On March 2, a NY1 News report went online about the Murrow team preparing to play in the 2007 New York State Scholastic Chess Championship. It includes a button to click for a quick two-minute video news report.

The following day, a similar article by Amanda Bensen appeared at PostStar.com.

Today, March 5, another NY1 News report from today says simply: "The 'Chess Wizards' from Edward R. Murrow High School are moving along in their quest for a fourth straight national championship. The team won the state title this weekend."

Two interesting reviews are already out, one from the New York Times by James Kaplan, and another at EW.com by Wook Kim.