NOTE:  Anyone age 13 or older can sign this petition — students, parents, educators, chess players, and other supporters are all encouraged to add their names.

Chess participation drops dramatically as students reach high school. In recent New York State competitions, only about 200 high school students participated, compared with roughly 1,800 elementary school students. Some decline is natural as students get older and develop new interests, but a difference that large is difficult to dismiss as a simple drop-off. It raises an important question: why are so many students who play chess when they are younger no longer competing in high school?

One factor may be the difference in institutional and financial support available to students as they get older. New York City already invests public money in chess programs for younger students, including a program expected to serve approximately 6,000 students in participating public elementary and middle schools. Once students reach high school, however, chess does not receive the same level of New York City Public Schools support.

That matters because competitive chess can become expensive. Players improve by practicing, competing against strong opponents, and, at higher levels, working with coaches. Tournaments throughout New York City charge entry fees, and established clubs such as the Marshall Chess Club may also require membership fees. Coaching can cost even more. Once tournament fees, memberships, coaching, and travel are added together, families can end up spending thousands of dollars to support a student who wants to compete seriously. For many families, those costs can make continuing chess much harder.

New York City already has a structure for supporting organized competition at the high school level. The Public Schools Athletic League (PSAL), which is part of New York City Public Schools (NYCPS), coordinates interscholastic sports competition for the city’s public high schools. It currently oversees 25 varsity sports across more than 400 high schools. Chess, however, is not one of them. This leaves high school chess outside the city’s established structure for school-based athletic competition.

We are asking NYCPS and PSAL to help close that gap by providing greater funding, coaching, and organized team and individual competition for high school chess. With greater support, schools could build stronger chess programs and help cover costs such as regional, state, and national tournament entry fees, and travel. More students would have the opportunity to compete with and for their schools while continuing to develop as players without depending so heavily on what their families can afford.

There is also well established precedence to treat chess as a serious competitive activity deserving of that support. The International Olympic Committee recognizes FIDE, the International Chess Federation, as an international sports federation. Competitive chess has ratings, individual and team events, organized tournament formats, and extensive training through coaches, practice, and chess engines. In 2000, two of the world’s strongest players, Viswanathan Anand and Alexei Shirov, even played an exhibition match at the Olympic Village during the Sydney Olympics.

Other school systems have reached similar conclusions. Scholastic chess has received formal recognition or support in several states, and the Mississippi High School Activities Association officially sanctioned chess beginning with the 2019-2020 school year. Chess has also been extensively documented to help improve cognitive functions like memory, focus, and problem-solving, as well as math skills, critical thinking, and neuroplasticity through complex pattern recognition and spatial visualization. These examples show that competitive chess can have a meaningful place within the structure of high school activities.

But the strongest reason to support high school chess is not simply what another organization calls it. It is what chess can give individual students.

Chess has been a major part of our family for years. Maya, Hillel, and Yotam have all grown up playing and competing. Recently, Yotam won the Under 1400 section at the National Middle School Championship in eighth grade with a score of 6.5/7. It was the largest tournament he had ever won and showed him what he could accomplish through sustained effort. Hillel has also won major tournaments, including the Under 1700 section at the 2025 SuperNationals, an event held only once every four years. Maya won the All-Girls National Championship in 2015, an achievement that opened educational opportunities for her that our family otherwise might not have been able to afford.

Those accomplishments are personal to us, but the larger point is not. Chess can give students confidence, discipline, patience, friendships, and something meaningful to work toward. It gives them the chance to represent their schools, compete as individuals and teammates, and experience the satisfaction of improving at something difficult. Those opportunities should not suddenly become much harder to access when a student enters high school.

There is already meaningful support for changing that. The Citywide Council on High Schools (CCHS) recently passed a resolution, introduced by CCHS Council Member, Mr. Benjamin Morden, urging PSAL to include competitive individual and team chess. That adopted resolution shows that the issue has already been formally presented to New York City’s public school system. What is still missing is the funding and institutional support needed to turn that recognition into stronger high school chess programs.

That is why we are asking for your support.

New York City already invests in introducing thousands of younger students to chess. Yet when those students reach high school, continuing to compete can require their families to pay for tournaments, coaching, memberships, and travel largely on their own. The opportunities available to a young chess player should not depend so heavily on what their family can afford.

By signing this petition, you are asking New York City Public Schools (NYCPS) to provide stronger financial and institutional support for high school chess. New York City has already helped thousands of younger students discover the game. We are asking the NYCPS and the PSAL  to make sure that a lack of funding does not force that journey to end just when they reach high school.

Thank you for your support and advocacy on this issue.

Yotam, Hillel and Maya Doron-Repa

P.S. Please take one more step to help: Send our prepared letter directly to New York City education officials asking them to support competitive chess in NYC high schools. It only takes a minute.

Send the letter here: Please Fund Competitive Chess in NYC Public High Schools