The World's Oldest Game
Is Now A Way Cool Sport.

Chess is losing its highbrow image as kids discover the world's oldest game offers a challenge mightier than Nintendo and a competition safer than that found on the streets. The Wall Street Journal reports that kids under 20 now constitute the largest membership category in the U.S. Chess Federation, the leading organization of chess enthusiasts. And parents and teachers are delighted. Chess improves critical thinking skills and concentration, gives kids a focus, improves behavior, and even helps hyperactive kids calm down.

Along with mathematics and music, chess produces prodigies. These young gifted players are the subject of the 51-minute documentary, Chess Kids, produced and directed by Lynn Hamrick, aired on over 125 public television stations across the nation.

Hamrick became intrigued with the phenomenon of young chess players when she read a newspaper article on the Hungarian star, Judit Polgar, who at 15 became the world's youngest grandmaster and now ranks as one of the world's best players. Polgar, the only woman in the world's top 100 players, is leading the charge on what has for 1500 years been a male-dominated sport. Today, girls are winning national scholastic titles traditionally held by boys.

In interviews with prodigies like Josh Waitzkin, the real-life subject of Searching for Bobby Fischer, Hamrick captures the humor, spontenaity and concerns of young chess players. Her camera takes us on a personal tour of their world and provides us with close-ups of their personalities, hopes, dreams and fears. Watching Chess Kids, we learn more about the emerging world of chess as we encounter the quirky and delightful spirits who are bringing the world's oldest game into the computer age.