Kudos to the team for this effort, but the journalists could really avoid phrases like "ruling the world" when in reality you really are speaking about this at a national level.
All in all, inspiring article.
Article: Why NYC Kids Rule the Chess World
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I think I can give some reasons for NYC dominance.
One reason is that the primary school chess programs are very well developed, well supported, and enormously competitive. Schools like Hunter, Columbia Grammar, Dalton, and PS 6 (just to name some) have huge chess programs, and chess is in the schools' curriculum in the lower grades (at least).
There are also seemingly an unlimited number of scholastic tournaments in New York City every weekend; sometimes there are three different tournaments on a Saturday or Sunday, each with 150+ kids competing. I should say that NYC chess is extremely territorial, with programs and coaches...it is part of the culture to try to beat kids from the rival schools as thoroughly as possible.
Another reason, cited above, is the abundance of good coaching available. Kids/schools with the means have no problems getting 2600 GMs to coach them if they are willing to pay. Also, as a coach you'd better get results: I am only 2000 and I don't have so many students because competition is so huge, but ALL of my students who do what I tell them to do experience serious improvement. There is a lot of coaching rivalry, but that also creates an exchange of approaches and ideas. If a coach is going to charge $100/hr, like I do, you better get results!
Non-GM coaches can definitely succeed in NYC chess, however. Some of NYC's best coaches are rated 2000-2200.
Now, as far as the older kids are concerned (let's say middle school and above). Why are the kids so strong? One main reason...
The Marshall Chess Club.
As one person put it to me last year, "it's like training with pro boxers." And he was right. Most of the Marshall tournaments are Opens, so you are going to play masters, IMs, and GMs regularly if you play a lot. It really is not a big deal, especially if you play on Thursday night in the action tournaments run by the Chess Center of New York. Typically, the lowest player on a Thursday night is going to be around 1500, and about 50% of the tournament will be rated 2000 and above.
Here is the crosstable of this past Thursday's tournament, to give you an idea: http://www.uschess.org/msa/XtblMain.php?201105125721
There are some strong chess programs in the upper grades too. Hunter and, of course IS 318. Bronx Science in the past few years is more a function of a handful of very strong players attending the school at the same time, and not because of a massive chess infrastructure. My middle school team finished 3rd in the National K-9 Championship, which was an excellent result, but we are all usually fighting for second place since 318 has so many strong players and their chess program is enormous.
To get into Hunter or Bronx Science you have to pass tests. I don't believe there are any special requirements to get into 318.
Let's try a scenario: rather than NYC, you have grown up in the suburbs of some medium- to largish-sized American city.
Usually, you've had a fairly limited circle of potential friends and classmates. Not many of them play chess, or are particularly crazy about it if they do. Excellence in chess is as often a cause of parental embarrassment as admiration--"why the hell couldn't he have been good at FOOTBALL?!"
There may be no local chess club at all. If there is one, it's probably not "local" in any meaningful sense--a parent will have to drive you there, maybe a considerable distance. The club may not encourage learning players, having little to offer a youngster who isn't already playing at a competitive level. Your school may not have a chess club--before high school, it almost CERTAINLY won't--and its membership and school support may be vanishingly sparse.
And "chess coaches"? Where do you think you are, NYC? And if there is one--an hour's drive downtown, perhaps--good luck paying for him, or convincing the parents that such a thing is worth spending money on! It's moot, though: generally, you'll have had little opportunity to become competent enough for a chess coach to be much help.
In short, most American children grow up in areas with few available opponents, zero mobility to speak of, and no social circles where playing chess is respectable, much less worth excelling in. Those three obstacles stand in sharp contrast to NYC. Q.E.D.
There are many Russians in NYC and chess is part of their culture. The rest of the country has soccer moms and hockey moms but not as many chess moms.
arichess wrote:
There are many Russians in NYC and chess is part of their culture. The rest of the country has soccer moms and hockey moms but not as many chess moms.
I'm a chess mom in Phoenix. Come West, it's beautiful here in the winter!
Upgrayedd wrote:
Let's try a scenario: rather than NYC, you have grown up in the suburbs of some medium- to largish-sized American city.
There may be no local chess club at all. If there is one, it's probably not "local" in any meaningful sense--a parent will have to drive you there, maybe a considerable distance. The club may not encourage learning players, having little to offer a youngster who isn't already playing at a competitive level. Your school may not have a chess club--before high school, it almost CERTAINLY won't--and its membership and school support may be vanishingly sparse.
In short, most American children grow up in areas with few available opponents, zero mobility to speak of, and no social circles where playing chess is respectable, much less worth excelling in. Those three obstacles stand in sharp contrast to NYC.
I often wished I had been brought up in NYC and could have crossed swords regularly with masters while in school or college--no club in JHS and had to start one in HS. I had to become an organizer or TD practically by default. Only got to Expert (have since fallen way back) and only title is "Forrest Gump of Chess".
hushpuckena wrote:
One of the schools we beat out was Bronx Science; another, Garfield HS of Seattle, led by Yasser Seirawan, who was defeated by our third board (rated 1810).
cool! 
New York has nice parks where you people can sit down, get robbed and have a nice game of chess... No other city in the USA provides such a service.
renumeratedfrog01 wrote:
New York has nice parks where you people can sit down, get robbed and have a nice game of chess... No other city in the USA provides such a service.
Isn't it still illegal to play chess in NYC parks? I thought they passed a law saying you couldn't be in the children's area of a park without children, and then classified all chess boards as children's areas.
Upgrayedd wrote:
Let's try a scenario: rather than NYC, you have grown up in the suburbs of some medium- to largish-sized American city.
Usually, you've had a fairly limited circle of potential friends and classmates. Not many of them play chess, or are particularly crazy about it if they do. Excellence in chess is as often a cause of parental embarrassment as admiration--"why the hell couldn't he have been good at FOOTBALL?!"
There may be no local chess club at all. If there is one, it's probably not "local" in any meaningful sense--a parent will have to drive you there, maybe a considerable distance. The club may not encourage learning players, having little to offer a youngster who isn't already playing at a competitive level. Your school may not have a chess club--before high school, it almost CERTAINLY won't--and its membership and school support may be vanishingly sparse.
And "chess coaches"? Where do you think you are, NYC? And if there is one--an hour's drive downtown, perhaps--good luck paying for him, or convincing the parents that such a thing is worth spending money on! It's moot, though: generally, you'll have had little opportunity to become competent enough for a chess coach to be much help.
In short, most American children grow up in areas with few available opponents, zero mobility to speak of, and no social circles where playing chess is respectable, much less worth excelling in. Those three obstacles stand in sharp contrast to NYC. Q.E.D.
Sounds pretty accurate. As for as I know, I've never met a chess player in person in my life. Until I joined this site, I had never heard of GMs, IMs, or any of the rest. Also didn't know there were chess tourneys or even chess clubs.
They have a great teaching method and training program. I live in San Francisco so I'm spoiled as far as chess schools, private teachers and clubs go. It is difficult for kids to find decent chess instruction. Just ask any of my students who I teach via the internet.
I grew up in south jersey and as i recall there was a certain chess club in MANHATTEN favored by that skinny little kid from brooklyn who destroyed that invincible Russian Machine, the soviet school of chess. BOBBY FISHER ( rip ) 
mateologist wrote:
skinny little kid from brooklyn who destroyed that invincible Russian Machine, the soviet school of chess. BOBBY FISHER ( rip )
LOL, one match with Spassky hardly qualifies as "destroying" the Soviet chess. Do you seriously think Fischer could have won against Kasparov? Or Karpov for that matter? Even against Tal, Fischer had a negative record of 2-4-5.
renumeratedfrog01 wrote:
mateologist wrote:
skinny little kid from brooklyn who destroyed that invincible Russian Machine, the soviet school of chess. BOBBY FISHER ( rip )
LOL, one match with Spassky hardly qualifies as "destroying" the Soviet chess. Do you seriously think Fischer could have won against Kasparov? Or Karpov for that matter? Even against Tal, Fischer had a negative record of 2-4-5.
WORLD-CHESS-CHAMPION bobby fisher : He just made us so proud to be Americans !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL
interesting article which popped up in my RSS feed today
http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2011/05/13/why-nyc-kids-rule-the-chess-world/
“New York teams are so dominant, they might as well call this the state championships,” Matthew Noble, a chess coach at a school in Tucson, Ariz., said during the tournament in Dallas.
The city’s chess prowess extends to all grades. At the junior high championships in April, New York City schools claimed first and third in the top level and won three of the remaining five sections. When high schools from across the country faced off in Nashville earlier this month, traditional chess powerhouses Hunter College High School, Brooklyn’s I.S. 318 and the Bronx High School of Science took all three top spots in the tournament’s highest level of play.
New York’s best grade school team demonstrated just how powerful the city’s scholastic chess scene has become with an extraordinary feat: besting accomplished opponents nearly twice their age. The Panda Pawns from P.S. 124 in Manhattan’s Chinatown won top honors in the second-toughest division at the national high school championship.