A nice event yesterday morning. Chinatown elected officials and DOE Chancellor Dennis Walcott paid a visit to P.S. 124 on Division Street to honor the school’s formidable chess team, the Panda Pawns. Last month, the elementary school students were victorious in a national chess tournament in Nashville, deafeating a team of high school kids.
State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, City Councilwoman Margaret Chin and State Senator Daniel Squadron praised the students and the chess program, which has won nationwide acclaim. The kids were supposed to be competing against students their own age, but ended up taking on players twice their age due to a scheduling conflict with a mandatory state exam.
A couple of weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal featured the Panda Pawns in a story about the dominance of New York based student chess teams.
See a couple more photos after the jump.
