MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Basketball's March Madness may have just started, but the country's reigning college chess champions are preparing for their own final four. That's Saturday. The Texas Newsroom's Ana Campbell takes us to the U.S.-Mexico border.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Laughter)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Good game. Good game, guys.
ANA CAMPBELL, BYLINE: About 600 million people play chess around the world, but only 2,000 can call themselves grandmasters. And at least five of them live here in the chess capital of Texas, Brownsville.
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CAMPBELL: The southernmost tip of the Rio Grande Valley, Brownsville is a little slice of paradise. Green parakeets roost in the palm trees that sway gently in the ocean breeze. Maybe you know it for a different reason.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #1: It began with a critical New York Times piece about the growing mess at the Mexican border. And this...
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER #2: The immigration crisis on the U.S. southern border.
CAMPBELL: But around the world, Brownsville has earned a different reputation.
JOSE JUAN GUAJARDO: I affected my community in a very positive way, and affected thousands upon thousands of kids and parents, through the magic of chess.
CAMPBELL: Born in Brownsville in 1956, Jose Juan Guajardo - or J.J. - learned how to play chess at a young age.
GUAJARDO: That was the era of Bobby Fischer and things like that.
CAMPBELL: Like a lot of Mexican Americans of his generation, J.J. was looked down on in school because he spoke Spanish. But after he won a chess tournament in junior high, he felt like he'd earned the respect of his teachers. He was hooked.
GUAJARDO: I kept playing as I got older. And so when I became a teacher, I always had a chess set in my room.
CAMPBELL: His students at Russell Elementary School here in Brownsville picked it up quickly. In 1993, they won their first state title.
GUAJARDO: A lot of people couldn't believe that our kids from a little barrera (ph) school in Brownsville could be that effective.
CAMPBELL: Back then, Brownsville was really going through it. The mayor had been indicted. And babies were being born with severe birth defects, possibly linked to pollution from nearby maquiladoras - or factories.
GUAJARDO: The community, they just - I mean, I felt like they were desperate for something good in our community.
CAMPBELL: Turns out that was chess. Russell Elementary would win an unprecedented seven consecutive state titles. J.J. started organizing tournaments in Brownsville and teaching other coaches how to organize them, building a system that has produced countless local, state and national champions.
GUAJARDO: And then I held our first chess tournament there. We had about 50 kids show up. But by the time I ran my last tournament in 1999 there, where I was the senior tournament director, we had about 1,200 or 1,300 kids.
CAMPBELL: And all those kids needed to keep playing and competing. So, in 2000, the local college launched its own chess program. And greatness begets greatness.
BARTEK MACIEJA: My name is Bartek Macieja. I am a chess grandmaster.
CAMPBELL: Bartek joined the University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley 14 years ago all the way from Warsaw, Poland. Under Bartek, the men's chess team has won four national titles. The four players on the current team are internationally renowned chess grandmasters, and the oldest is 21. They're from all over.
JOSE GABRIEL CARDOSO CARDOSO: We're from Colombia.
SHAWN RODRIGUE-LEMIEUX: Canada.
GLEB DUDIN: I'm from Russia and Hungary. Russia Hungary.
CAMPBELL: Jose Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso, Santiago Avila Pavas, Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux and Gleb Dudin will defend their national title at the President's Cup in Missouri. The women's team will also compete at the first competition for women.
For NPR News, I'm Ana Campbell in Brownsville, Texas.
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