The Raging Rooks

In 1991, eight middle schoolers from Harlem stunned the chess world. Known as the Raging Rooks, they became the first team from an inner-city public school to win the U.S. National Junior High Chess Championship.

Photo courtesy of Chess in the Schools.

Before the Raging Rooks’ breakthrough, the championships were consistently won by elite, resource-rich programs in private schools and magnet schools. For example, Manhattan’s Dalton School was among the favorites at the 1991 championship. It had won the national junior high title three years in a row leading up to the Raging Rooks’ entry. With tuition around $12,000 per year at the time, Dalton’s team was well-funded, and they had access to professional coaching and resources unavailable to many.

In contrast, the Raging Rooks came from Adam Clayton Powell Junior High School in Harlem, a neighborhood struggling with poverty, drugs, and violence. The Rooks faced daily challenges that could have easily derailed their futures. Team captain Kasaun Henry recalled: “For us the choice was every day between conquering this universe or joining it. It was, literally, a matter of survival.” Henry spent part of the year living in a slum hotel after his family’s apartment burned down. His teammates had their own share of struggles. Jonathan Nock was mugged on a basketball court, and Steven Yow was chased down the street by a drug dealer who tried to force him to buy drugs. In a world like that, chess offered these boys something rare: a safe space to think, strategize, and imagine possibilities beyond their perilous living conditions. As team member Michael Johnson explained: “Around where I live, there’s a lot of drugs, a lot of people getting killed. Chess takes my mind away.”

Guiding the Raging Rooks was Maurice Ashley, a Jamaican immigrant and a chess enthusiast who grew up in Brownsville, one of New York’s most dangerous neighborhoods. Instead of screening for the most promising players with best natural chess ability, Ashley opened the classroom to anyone willing to learn. He was demanding of his students, as he firmly believers that “competition is good for the soul and chess is a worthy passage from childhood to maturity”. Inspired by the rigor of Russian masters, Ashley taught the Rooks to prepare deeply, play relentlessly, and face any opponent without fear. While pushing the Rooks through long, intense, combative training sessions, Ashley also distilled in them discipline, self‑control, and a growth mindset that proved crucial for their success in the 1991 championship tournament. In the second last round, two players on the team failed to secure a win because they became overconfident after their smooth sale through previous rounds. Both boys got very upset. Ashley took them aside, reminded them of discipline and self-control, and explained to them “success is not a matter of getting to a point and then quitting. You're never finished. Each step you make, you're growing. The achievement is in the growing." The two players adjusted quickly, won their matches in the last round, and the Raging Rooks tied for first with Dalton.

Their victory landed them on the front page of The New York Times, a symbol of how Harlem kids could excel in a game long associated with privilege.

The skills and confidence gained through chess carried the Rooks beyond the playing hall. Charu Robinson, for example, earned a scholarship to Dalton. In an interview, he said: “Instead of having to sell drugs to survive, I’m going to college.” Kasaun Henry, the team captain, went on to earn a PhD and build a career in education, music, social advocacy, and motivational speaking. Their coach, Maurice Ashley, soon guided another Harlem team, the Dark Knights from Junior High School 43, to back‑to‑back U.S. High School Chess Championships in 1994 and 1995. Building on these victories, Ashley launched a chess revolution across New York City. He designed a curriculum any school could adopt, created the CASPER program to bring chess into classrooms everywhere, and established a clear pathway of tournaments so talented kids from any neighborhood could rise to the national stage. He transformed the Rooks’ single stunning victory into a system to serve communities too often overlooked. In 1999, Ashley himself became the first African‑American grandmaster, and ever since, has been using his influence to create opportunities for marginalized youth.

The story of the Raging Rooks will continue to inspire us. To the inner-city kids, chess became more than a game – it was a refuge and a training ground for life. Each move demanded patience, discipline, foresight, and perseverance, qualities essential for thriving in life. Their triumph demonstrated that resilience can be taught, and that chess is powerful tool for teaching it and opening doors to opportunities and hope.

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Works Cited

Boulet-Gercourt, Philippe. “The Incredible Story of the 8 ‘Kids,’ Harlem Chess Players.” Chess in the Schools, 26 Dec. 2020, https://chessintheschools.org/the-incredible-story-of-the-8-kids-harlem-chess-players

Drummond, Tammerlin. “Harlem’s Chess Kings.” TIME, 7 Feb. 2000, https://time.com/archive/6740287/harlems-chess-kings/.

Grant, Adam. Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things. Viking, 2023.

Kleinfield, N. R. “Harlem Teen-Agers Checkmate a Stereotype.” The New York Times, 23 Apr. 1991, https://www.nytimes.com/1991/04/26/nyregion/harlem-teen-agers-checkmate-a-stereotype.html

“Young Chess Players Show It Can Be Done.” The New York Times, 6 May 1991, https://www.nytimes.com/1991/05/06/opinion/l-young-chess-players-show-it-can-be-done-147091.html

Von Drehle, Dave. “Chess Players Destroy Nerd, Black Stereotypes.” The Seattle Times, 2 June 1991, https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/19910602/1286717/chess-players-destroy-nerd-black-stereotypes