A little one sided, but still a great film

While you can't help feel that the budget cuts are unfair, there really isn't any consideration given to the other side of the argument - yes, the chess program is giving a chance to underprivileged public school children, but at the same time it is bringing the classic "arms race" in leisure activities to chess. While that may not be new when you are talking about HS football in the state of Texas, I'm not so sure it's a good thing for 318 to be hiring grand masters, or for chess-in-the-schools to be giving kids private chess tutors.

If you understand the way chess ranking points work, every tournament win is a point, so if you have a normal school with a normal chess team and send kids to tournaments where schools like 318 come in full force, you are just essentially printing points for the juggernauts. That means either accepting that your program won't be competitive, or else chasing after the "pros" to "accelerate" your kids skills. It happens in soccer. It happens in t-Ball. I'm in agreement that chess as a way to engage kids in schools is great, but the point is missed as to the effects of the 318's dynastic might on other school's programs. Of course the rich private schools can, and probably are as we speak, matching this program with their own on-staff grand-masters, but now the bar is just that much higher for modestly funded private schools that may have a once-a-week professional chess player come in to give lessons, and putting it completely out of the reach of nearly every public school.

Still the reporting of the 318 story was great and I loved the film... I just thought when they got into the editorializing about the extracurricular cuts, they did not put forward a complete picture. The film touches on this important issue, that aside from frustration of Wall St. bankers diverting money from poor public schools... you can't help be concerned as a parent about what is required of these kids programs to be successful: how ridiculously high the bar is when you have kids who are training at 6 to be Tiger Woods, and other kids training at 7 to be the next Heifetz, and still more training at 9 to be the next Mia Hamm, but really it is a mainly US "capital investment = future success" phenomenon. Sad that it also seems to be a reality in the chess world today.