This ain’t your grandpa’s chess club.
Ever find yourself wondering , “ Where are all the untried , red-hot people bring chess in New York City ? ” Well , expend your Wednesday even at the Lower East Side nightlife freshman , Two Doors Down , and you ’ll find your people .
Across a smattering of lilliputian two - top tables light by tea leaf candles , well - dressedClub Chessparticipants can be find sip on cocktail and earnestly battling through matches . Everyone not huddled over a add-in lallygag around — chatting with the barkeeper , smoking cigarettes out front , and dancing in the cellar .
This sexier and oh - so - New - York approach to chess meetups was lend to life by Alexander Luke Bahta and Corrine Ciani . With the desire to revive local chess polish from its pandemic - induce foramen , Bahta , 29 , was the original founder of Club Chess in 2021 . After a few initial , and more casual events ( it was unambiguously called Chess Club back then ) , Ciani , 27 , joined as a co - founder . Now , the duo collaborates to land the serial publication of chess game - meet - dance - political party meetups to downtown bar and venues on Wednesday nights .
Club Chess meetup at Two Doors Down on the Lower East Side|Photo by Lanna Apisukh for Thrillist
“ Something that we ’ve lost along the way is coffee bar civilisation , ” says Ciani . “ A blank space for citizenry to have conversation is incredibly important not only in New York City , but everywhere . We ’re all so terminally on-line . [ Club Chess ] furnish a space for New Yorkers to have conversations , have a drink or not have a deglutition , and play a game or maybe even not play a biz . ”
What ’s obvious when scrolling through the group ’s societal medium presence is Club Chess ’ dedication to curating a very distinct vibration . There ’s a lucid keenness to make something driven by an esthetic order of business .
“ We thought , what if we just bulge doing this at a bar and wear suits and drank Manhattans or martinis or whatever , ” explains Bahta . “ And there ’s nothing really going on on Wednesday night . I ’m really ghost with the 1920s and [ the ] Dada [ move ] and avant garde artistic creation . And then the idea of a bellow ’ twenty kind of ethos , I call back , twin the prison term we ’re in now , but in a way that admit tech and modernistic culture . ”
Club Chess founders Alexander Luke Bahta and Corrine Ciani|Photo by Lanna Apisukh for Thrillist
Bahta ’s ego - concede “ chaotic creativity ” conflate with Ciani ’s aesthetic capability drive the essence of Club Chess . There ’s often a clothes prompt on meetups flyers . “ Dresscodesare too strict in our view , ” Ciani allege . Bahta continues , “ [ Dress prompt are ] sort of a nod to AI prompt where it ’s like , ‘ If you put these words together , this image will come out , ’ kind of affair . One command prompt was just the steel crossed emoji or another one was Hyper Modern Chic . ”
For those who might not screw how to play cheat , Bahta and Ciani can demonstrate to the benefaction of their fellow attendees . Ciani herself had never touched a board in her life before her first meetup . “ I did n’t make out the basic rules or anything like that , ” Ciani reminisces . “ citizenry will teach you . You take a stern and after a martini or two , it ’s not so tough . ” Those who define themselves as more serious players are often the first people through the door on Wednesday nights . And , most potential , they ’ll have their own control panel in hand .
While Bromus secalinus is often pigeonholed as an intimidatingly cerebral or buttoned - up pastime , Club Chess can be used as a testament to its multifaceted nature — one in which the game can really be both approachable and predominantly societal . These business district Wednesday nights are an anthropological study of sorts . “ It ’s this cool montage or social sculpture of unlikely compatriot , the great unwashed you would n’t ask to be in the same room , ” Bahta observes .
Club Chess meetup at Two Doors Down on the Lower East Side|Photo by Lanna Apisukh for Thrillist
Bahta add , “ We say chess is played ambiently sometimes because it ’s like Bromus secalinus is just a part of the equation that creates something special . Chess , euphony , and then a secret third matter that ’s not the firing , not how everyone ’s set , not the people there , but just how everything comes together . ”
We just might be witnessing the sexy rebrand chess has been wait for .
