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One of the liveliest locations on a weekday evening in the East End's famous street isn't a restaurant or a streetwear label temporary shop, it's a chess gathering – or rather a chess and nightlife hybrid, to be exact.

This unique venue embodies the surprising crossover between the classic game and the city's fervent evening entertainment culture. It was started by Yusuf Ntahilaja, 27, who launched his initial chess club in August 2023 at a smaller bar in a nearby area, not too far 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 generation,” he said. “Typically, chess is only placed in spaces that are dominated by older people, which isn't inclusive sufficiently.”

On the first night, there were only 8 boards between sixteen people. Today, a “good night” at the weekly Knight Club will draw approximately 280 people.

At first glance, Knight Club seems more like a DJ event than a traditional chess meeting. Mixed drinks are being served and tunes is in the air, but the game boards on each table are not just decorative or there as a novelty: they are all in use and surrounded by a line of onlookers waiting for their turn.

Jimmy Ifenayi, in her mid-twenties, has frequented the club regularly for the last several months. “I possessed little understanding of chess prior to I came here, and the initial occasion I ever played, I competed in a game with a grandmaster. It was a quick victory, but it made me intrigued to learn and continue enjoying chess,” she noted.

“This gathering is about half networking and half participants actually wishing to play chess … It is a pleasant way to decompress, which doesn't involve going to a club to see others my generation.”

A Game Reborn: Chess in the Modern Era

Lately, chess has been firmly established in the cultural spirit of the times. Its appeal of online chess proliferated during the global health crisis, establishing it as one of the most rapidly expanding internet pastimes globally. In popular culture, the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit, as well as the author's recent novel Intermezzo, have created a certain iconography associated with the sport, which has drawn in a new generation of players.

However much of this newfound attraction of the chess club isn't necessarily about the intricacies of the game; instead, it is the simplicity of social interaction that it enables, by pulling up a chair and engaging with someone who could be a total unknown individual.

“It's a great clever disguise,” remarked Jonah Freud, founder of Reference Point in the city, a bookstore, reading room, cafe and lounge, which has hosted a popular chess club every Wednesday since it began four years ago. His objective is to “take chess from its elite status and transform it into similar to billiards in a dive bar”.

“It is a very easy tool to get to know people. It kind of removes the weight of the need of conversation from socializing with people. One can do the awkward bit of making an introduction and talking to a new acquaintance over a board instead of with no kind of shared activity around it.”

Growing the Network: Social Gatherings Beyond the Capital

In Birmingham, a similar initiative is a recurring chess event taking place at a city cafe, just outside the downtown area. “Our observation was that individuals are looking for spaces where you can socialize, interact and have a good time beyond visiting a pub or club,” stated its creator and organiser, a young leader, in his early twenties.

Together with his friend a partner, 21, Singh bought chessboards, created flyers and began the chess club in the start of the year, while in his last year of college. Within months, Singh said their event has grown to attract more than 100 young players to its gatherings.

“Such a venue has a particular connotation associated with it, about it seeming reserved. Our approach is to move in the contrary way; it's a social get-together with chess involved,” he said.

Learning and Engaging: An Alternative Cohort of Players

Among numerous attendees, chess clubs are an entry point to the game. Zoë Kezia, in her late twenties, is picking up how to participate in chess with fellow attenders of the weekly event at the venue. She became curious in the pastime was piqued after an pleasurable evening dancing and playing chess at a previous the club's events.

“It is a strange idea, but it works,” she commented. “It encourages face-to-face exchanges instead of screen-based activities. It is a free third space to meet strangers. It is welcoming, you don't have to necessarily be good at chess.”

She humorously compared the trendiness of chess with the youth to the facade of the “performative male”, an attempt to simulate intellectualism while signaling the veneer of “coolness”. If the chess trend has fostered a genuine interest in the game is not something she is quite convinced by. “It is a wholesome phenomenon, but it’s largely a fad,” she observed. “Once you compete with opponents who are truly dedicated about it, it rapidly becomes less enjoyable.”

Serious Play and Togetherness

It might seem like a bit of lighthearted activity for those aiming to employ a chessboard as a networking tool, but competitive players do have their role, albeit away from the main party area.

Another organizer, 22, who helps organise Knight Club,says that more skilled attenders have formed a league table. “People who are in the league will face one another, we'll progress to quarter-finals, semi-finals, and then we'll eventually have a league winner.”

A dedicated player, in his twenties, is a competitive player and chess instructor. He has been the competition for about a year and plays at the club nearly weekly. “This is a welcome option to playing serious chess; it gives a sense of community,” he said.

“It is fascinating to see how it becomes increasingly a communal pastime, because previously the sole individuals who played chess were people who didn't socialize; they simply stayed home. It is usually only two people competing on a chessboard …

“What I like about here is that you're not really facing the computer, you're facing live opponents.”