This article is one of the winning submissions from the first annual New York Post Scholars Contest, presented by Command Education.
Despite NYC’s reputation as uncaring and anonymous, many of its residents are considerate and generous with their time—and money. The unique after-school program that opened its doors on Manhattan’s West Side on January 9 is an excellent example of the city’s capacity to rise to new challenges with compassion.
In 2022, Coach Russ Makofsky, director of NYC’s Impact Coaching Network, a program that provides chess education in NYC public schools, and director of the Gift of Chess, a not-for-profit organization, was contacted by his former students led by Kyle Lancman, a USCF National Chess Master. He is a Stuyvesant High School student originally from Argentina who wanted to start teaching chess with his twin to underserved Spanish-speaking NYC children. They published a website “Unidos Podemos Mas” (unidospodemosmas.com) and were bouncing ideas around with Coach Russ when busloads of migrants from Latin America began to descend on NYC. Suddenly, they knew what to do.
They had to focus on the Upper West Side since public schools there were receiving so many of these children. Several recent news stories described desperate principals receiving overnight tens if not hundreds of new non-English speaking students and in which irate parents of existing students expressed unhappiness with how this influx was diverting the teachers’ time and slowing down the regular pace of learning.
Serendipitously, just before the new year rolled in, the coach was approached by an anonymous donor from the chess world who wrote a check. This was used to establish a Spanish-language chess program where the migrant children would have a safe learning space after hours. In just weeks, Coach Russ activated his network, secured a large room in St. Luke’s Lutheran Church and hired the Dominican Republic’s Women’s National Champion, Raydily Rosario Almanzar, as the program’s chess coach. Of course, his Spanish-speaking Stuyvesant High School students of Unidos Podemos Mas became volunteers working one-on-one with the children and George Skelcher of the Lower East Side Art Lab created an art corner where children could use paint and clay. Coach Russ commented about his program “I know people have different feelings about the migrants, but we need to understand that they are already here and if we don’t support these kids, they are vulnerable to gangs, drugs and abuse. This type of program is showing how chess can be a bridge to welcome these future Americans.”
The Times Square program continues to grow in an organic manner. For example, a staff member, Stella Lillig, recognized that the parents waiting for their children did not speak English, so she began giving language lessons. The need for warm dinners (and not the moldy sandwiches the families were provided at night in their shelters) also became apparent so daily snacks and pizza (once a week) were brought in. More recently, the children and their families have slowly started sharing chilling stories of their journeys. These included months spent crossing treacherous jungles on foot, braving raging rivers and barely eluding bandits and attacks. Volunteer psychotherapists may be the next service needed. Also, Coach Russ expects the number of chess volunteers to soon increase as he continues to share with others what is happening in this clubhouse in Times Square and the city’s chess community bands together to offer support.
Emotional migrant parents expressed their gratitude for this unparalleled program, “it’s the best of the best, the humaneness we found here has no comparison.” Moreover, given the success of this program, Coach Russ says, “we may need to expand to Manhattan’s Lower East Side because many migrant students are also arriving there.” The Gift of Chess (Regalo de Ajedrez) needs help to continue to support these initiatives and those that will pop up in the coming months.
A 10th-grader at Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan, Lancman aspires to be an author if his dream of playing professional soccer doesn’t work out.
Donations are accepted through a Gofundme page: gofundme.com/f/times-square-refugee-chess-center