A poetic look at Owen, a middle aged Union Square chess hustler as he reminisces about his life and visits his old haunts throughout New York.

For Owen, a 55 year old chess hustler, is a veteran of the Union Square chess circuit. Life has not always been kind to him struggling with poverty and living an existence on the margins. We join Owen, as he visits his old neighborhood growing up in Spanish Harlem to the day to day struggles down in Union to visiting his distant son in the Bronx. Throughout we see the many lives of Owen. Notes from a Chess Hustler is a poetic odyssey across old school New York. It’s about how even though life and oppressive circumstances can be cruel, the joy of the game still abounds.