Brooklyn chess star battles the pressure of expectations

“It’s made chess become — instead of the game I love — it’s become like a job,” said the 18-year-old phenom, a college freshman who returned to East Flatbush last week from the United Arab Emirates after an unsatisfying finish at a world youth championship tournament.

Ballantyne’s followers assumed she would swiftly reach her goal of becoming the first African-American female chess master.

It has proved to be an elusive goal.

The distinction is based on a rating system that swings up and down based on a complicated formula that accounts for total victories as well as the strength of a player’s opponents.

Ballantyne’s U.S. Chess Federation rating is currently 2,062; she needs to reach 2,200 to become a master.

Now attending Stanford University on a full academic scholarship, Ballantyne is still chasing master status as the pressure — which is mostly self-imposed — grows.

Her lackluster performance in last month’s World Youth Chess Championship didn’t help.

She lost four of nine games in the Middle East and returned to Brooklyn on Dec. 30, still struggling to put it into perspective.

“I didn’t do bad,” she said. “I should be happy.”

For years, she was.

Ballantyne began playing at age 8, and soon emerged as a star. By the time “Brooklyn Castle” filmmakers started following the powerhouse chess program at her school, Williamsburg’s I.S. 318, Ballantyne was the program’s best player.

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