Chess Cafe Culture

[George Szaszvari]

This is virtually the same post that I just placed in the Centymca thread, where the subject was mentioned.

"How Bohemian is your Chess (Cafe)"?

Just to let people know that the chess cafe idea is on the back burner at present (a) because the catering contact I was hoping to work with has dropped out and (b) because I am still juggling my life as an untenured academic (think FM with a relatively low rating) which is always 'hairy' at this time of year. New terms, new students etc.

Hoping to start working for Chess in Schools and Communities in the new year as a means of adding to the dubious income I receive from my 'portfolio career' - hate that euphemism! - so if I finally get my life straight in 2011 I will hope to start making new moves on the cafe front at that point.

All the best,

Clive

Just discovered this part of the ecforum and duplicate here my last message on the London CentYMCA thread in Chess
History.

Well, good luck to Clive in the meantime, and it would be great if if he can, in due course, make it work out at the
desired site. Just one thing strikes me about the bohemian nature of the now defunct Bayswater and London CentYMCA
clubs, also Hackney, King's Head, and some other London clubs to some extent, is how they were not about being
successful in any business sense, and how they thrived when they had a free, or, at least cheap, venue to meet.
Perhaps this "down market" aspect to those clubs attracted the bohemian types that graced those places. Being able
to just wander in and play without spending any real money was important to that culture. I do know, however, that
there were (still are?) some successful cafes where chessplayers regularly played blitz in Amsterdam, although I'm not
sure how a club with team matches could work, unless they had an upstairs room, or similar. I used to visit Albert Toby
(who worked for New in Chess at the time) and we would sometimes hang out in the Twee Klaveren (two of clubs) cafe
and that was (still is?) a successful high street business where informal chess was played a lot. Andy Martin spent some
time in the Netherlands and might know more about this. The Twee Klaveren also sold beer, food, had other board games,
so if Clive can get over there it might be worth checking out to help shape some workable ideas. Good luck!

[George Szaszvari]

I'm saddened to read this. Pierre was a very amiable chap. Too soft for this world. As I recall, having lived in London for aeons, he returned to France when given the news that his mother had died there. He was greatly affected. This must have been more than twenty years in the past.

Just found out by browsing this forum, I am saddened by this (old) news too. I thought his mum was
institutionalized in the UK. I saw them both in their Brewer St flat when she was in her 80s...

[George Szaszvari]

George and Sandys go back to at least 1971, when Bayswater Chess Club was London's most bohemian. Note that the "y" in "Sandys" is silent.

I doubt that George has kept in touch with Sandys. He left for the States when Sandys was not on the Internet. George, when I last checked, had given up chess for shooting. If, as John Saunders once remarked, chess players are would be regicides, then George has become more catholic in what he hunts. I hope he doesn't whistle Stars and Stripes Forever whilst doing so.

Sandys at Bayswater goes back to at least 1969, perhaps earlier. He used to live in and look after his mum's
property on Holland Park Ave/Rd(?) and we often convened there after club and boozing hours... those were the
days of Eric Warren, Mike Hall, Pierre Lunais, Dave Macintyre and others...

Nope, I don't whistle stars & stripes, but I do cry Yippee Kay Yay and sing Ghost Riders in the Sky (and other
favorite Western ballads) when blasting off rounds in cowboy action shooting ;0)

[JonManley]

FT piece examining why chess and other games aren't played more in parks and public spaces, especially in the UK http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/94dd7eba-c877 ... z1VyaBLshO

[Ian Kingston]

FT piece examining why chess and other games aren't played more in parks and public spaces, especially in the UK http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/94dd7eba-c877 ... z1VyaBLshO

Stefan Szymanski, whose work is mentioned in that piece, used to play in the Batsford softball team with me in the 1980s. He is (or was back then) a chess player.

[Alan Burke]

There is a large chess board permanently inlaid into the ground outside the library in the centre of Huddersfield and which was certainly in use last Saturday with several games being played.

Perhaps a list could be drawn up of such places so that people know about them if travelling around the country

[Stewart Reuben]

There is a large chess board permanently inlaid into the ground outside the library in the centre of Huddersfield and which was certainly in use last Saturday with several games being played.
Hastings giant set in George Street in the Old Town
Twickenham giant set in Church Street. It is missing one piece, but you can always substitute a small child.
Leeds by the town hall I believe.
Plymouth in the main shopping area
Hastings Chess club meets every day
Edinburgh Chess Club meets every day

Such an every-increasing list is obviously valuable. But it requires a new thread Carl.
Stewart Reuben

[Paolo Casaschi]

The chess café concept has been proved commercially unviable in modern times in London and Paris. It worked in days gone by because the world was so different. People could linger, they were not connected into a global communications network, and City centre retail costs were relatively lower.

The model seems to work in Brussels, I haven't been there in the last few years, but the Greenwich Pub (in the very central Rue Des Chartreaux, if my memory serves) was quite successful commercially. To counter the issue of the chess player sitting there for hours and not spending much, they introduced their own "game fee", you basically had to pay to get a chess clock to use (dont remember the amount, but was very small).

The fantastic thing about that location (at least at my time) was that you could find chess players (of any rating, I've seen the occasional GM) there any time of the day, any day of the week. If you had few hours free on a weekend or in the evening, no need to comply to the opening hours of a club, you just got there and played some blitz!

Personally, I'd be very happy to pay such a game fee in such a location; after all you pay to enter a cinema and sit there for a couple of hours, why not pay the same for playing chess for a couple of hours in a good environment?

[Adam Raoof]

Nice one Paolo!

Le Greenwich

7 rue des Chartreux, Brussels.

Telephone: 00 32 2 511 41 67

Another city classic famed for its packed tables of chess-playing regulars. A large, square hall with a long bar down one side, staff bring drinks to the tables and watch you checkmate. There's no music but the young and the beautiful still pack in to sit next to old folks who could be their parents. Drinks run to beers, shorts and coffees and we don't know why it's called Greenwich.

[JonManley]

Ireland's first outdoor chess set? http://www.mayotoday.ie/index.php/brows ... eland.html

[Stewart Reuben]

Huddersfield centre
Twickenham giant set in Church Street. It is missing one piece, but you can always substitute a small child.
Leeds by the town hall I believe.
Plymouth in the main shopping area
Hastings Chess Club meets every day
Hastings, George Street, giant set
Edinburgh Chess Club meets every day
moscow Cdentral Chess Club
Yerevan Chess Centre
Brussels, Le Greenwich
Hyde Park, Sydney lunchtime
Christchurch, NZ
Dunedin Chess Club, NZ
Washington Square Park, NY
Central Park, NY
MacArthur Park, LA
Queen Mary Ship

This is how I meant people should add locations, not give separate stories. The above way will result in a valuable catalogue. Just add yours in. If somebody wants to put them into alphabetical, or country order, so much the better.

Stewart Reuben

[Paul McKeown]

Giant set?

Try the Lammas Park, Staines, just for starters.

Euweplein, Amsterdam, though, if you want actually to be able to play someone. Amsterdam had three famous chess cafes when I lived there, and any number of other kroegen were there was a board and set.

The King's Head CC has a "social" venue off the Edgware Road with equipment for hire behind the bar and a regular supply of blitz payers. Holland Park has (or certainly had) a few years back lots of chess in an open air bar.

Just walk into a pub and get our a board, set and clock. Start playing with a friend. Someone is bound to come up to you and watch you, or talk about chess, or even play.

[Simon Spivack]

The King's Head CC has a "social" venue off the Edgware Road with equipment for hire behind the bar and a regular supply of blitz payers.

Tuesdays only, at the Wargrave Arms, the corner of Brendon Place and Crawford Street, W1.

[John Clarke]

The outdoor board in Cathedral Square, Christchurch is off limits indefinitely since the Feb 22 earthquake. I don't know how the set itself fared.

[Nick Ivell]

There has never been much of a chess cafe culture in this country, to my knowledge anyway. I remember my father taking me (aged 12) to the Prompt Corner in 1973, hoping for me to hustle the older customers for money. I have forgotten if I succeeded!

I have fond memories of the chess cafe in Hamburg. Anyone know if it is still going? I last went there in 1984. Not only chess was played, but also cards: 'skat' was a game I never mastered. The atmosphere of the cafe was delightfully relaxed. Strong players like Dr Reefschlager (sorry, no 'umlaut' on my keyboard) mingled with genuine coffee house players. The place closed when the last person left, often well into the early hours. Alcohol was also served. I have never known anything remotely like it in this country, more's the pity.