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One of the liveliest spots on a weekday night in the East End's famous street couldn't be a restaurant or a urban fashion brand pop-up, it is a chess club – or a chess club-nightclub hybrid, to be exact.

This unique venue embodies the surprising fusion between the classic game and the city's fervent evening entertainment scene. It was founded by a young entrepreneur, 27, who began his first chess club in the summer of 2023 at a more intimate bar in Aldgate, a short distance from the current location at Café 1001 on the iconic lane.

“My goal was to make chess clubs for people who look like me and people my age,” he said. “Typically, chess is only placed in environments that are full of senior individuals, which isn't inclusive sufficiently.”

Initially, there were only 8 boards between sixteen people. Now, a “successful evening” at the regular club event will attract approximately two hundred eighty attendees.

Upon arrival, the venue seems closer to a music night than a chess club. Cocktails are flowing and music is in the air, but the game boards on every table are not just decorative or there as a gimmick: they are all in use and surrounded by a queue of spectators waiting for their turn.

Jimmy Ifenayi, 24, has frequented Knight Club regularly for the past several months. “I had no knowledge of chess prior to my first visit, and the first time I tried it, I played a game with a grandmaster. That was a swift victory, but it left me intrigued to learn and continue enjoying chess,” she noted.

“The event is about half networking and half people actually wanting to play chess … It is a pleasant way to relax, which avoids visiting a typical nightspot to meet other people my age.”

An Activity Revitalized: Chess in the Modern Age

In recent years, chess has been cemented in the societal zeitgeist. The popularity of online chess expanded rapidly throughout the global health crisis, establishing it as one of the most rapidly expanding internet pastimes in the world. Across media, the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, as well as Sally Rooney’s latest novel Intermezzo, have crafted a certain imagery associated with the sport, which has drawn in a fresh generation of players.

However much of this recent appeal of the chess club is not always about the technicalities of the play; rather, it is the simplicity of connecting with others that it enables, by pulling up a seat and playing with a person who could be a complete stranger.

“It is a great Trojan horse,” said one organizer, co-founder of Reference Point in London, a bookshop, library, coffee house and lounge, which has organized a popular chess club weekly since it began four years ago. His aim is to “remove chess from its elite status and make it feel similar to billiards in a casual pub”.

“It is a really easy tool to get to know people. It kind of removes the weight of the need of small talk from interacting with people. You can do the awkward bit of introducing yourself and chatting to a new acquaintance across a game instead of with no kind of context involved.”

Growing the Community: Social Gatherings Beyond the Capital

Elsewhere in the UK, a similar initiative is a regular chess event taking place at York’s Cafe, near the downtown area. “We found that people are seeking spaces where you can socialize, interact and have a good time outside of visiting a bar or nightclub,” said its creator and organiser, Karan Singh, 21.

Together with his friend a partner, 21, he purchased chessboards, printed flyers and started the chess club in January, during his final year of university. In less than a year, he reported Chesscafé has grown to attract more than 100 young participants to its gatherings.

“A chess club has a particular reputation associated with it, about it seeming quiet. Our approach is to move in the contrary direction; it is a convivial get-together with chess involved,” he said.

Discovering and Playing: A New Generation of Players

For many, chess clubs are an introduction to the game. One participant, 27, is picking up how to participate in chess with fellow visitors of chess night at Reference Point. She became curious in the pastime was sparked after an enjoyable night dancing and playing chess at one of the club's events.

“It's a strange concept, but it functions well,” she said. “It promotes in-person exchanges instead of digital pastimes. It is a free neutral ground to encounter new people. It is inviting, one doesn't need to necessarily be good at chess.”

Kezia jokingly likened the popularity of chess among the youth to the facade of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an effort to simulate intellectualism while signaling the veneer of “coolness”. Whether the chess craze has fostered a authentic interest in the game isn't a notion she's quite sure about. “It's a positive phenomenon, but it’s largely a fad,” she said. “When you're playing against people who are really serious about it, it rapidly turns less fun.”

Competitive Play and Community

It might seem like a some fun and games for those aiming to employ a game set as a networking tool, but competitive players do have their role, even if off the main party area.

Lucia Ene-Lesikar, in her early twenties, who assists in running Knight Club,says that increasingly skilled attenders have established a league table. “Participants who are in the league will face each other, we'll progress to quarter-finals, advanced stages, and then we will finally have a league winner.”

A dedicated player, 23, is a competitive competitor and chess instructor. He joined in the league for about a year and participates at the club nearly weekly. “This is a nice option to engaging in intense chess; it gives a sense of community,” he said.

“It is fascinating to observe how it becomes increasingly a communal pastime, because in the past the sole people who played chess were people who didn't socialize; they just remained home. It's typically just two people competing on a chessboard …

“The thing appeals to me about this place is that you're not really playing against the computer, you are engaging with real people.”