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Among the most vibrant spots on a weekday evening in the East End's famous street couldn't be a restaurant or a streetwear brand pop-up, it's a chess club – or a chess club-nightclub combination, to be exact.

This unique venue embodies the unlikely crossover between chess and the city's dynamic nightlife culture. It was started by a young entrepreneur, in his late twenties, who began his first chess club in August 2023 at a smaller bar in Aldgate, not too far from the current location at a popular cafe on Brick Lane.

“My goal was to make chess clubs for individuals who share my background and people my generation,” he said. “Usually, chess is only placed in spaces that are full of senior individuals, which isn't diverse sufficiently.”

On the first night, there were just eight boards shared by sixteen people. Today, a “successful evening” at the weekly Knight Club will draw approximately two hundred eighty attendees.

Upon arrival, Knight Club feels closer to a music night than a chess club. Mixed drinks are being served and tunes is in the air, but the game boards on each table aren't just decorative or there as a gimmick: they are all occupied and encircled by a queue of onlookers waiting for their chance to play.

Jimmy Ifenayi, in her mid-twenties, has frequented the club often for the last four months. “I possessed no knowledge of chess before my first visit, and the initial occasion I tried it, I competed in a game with a grandmaster. It was a swift win, but it left me intrigued to study and keep playing chess,” she noted.

“The event is about half social and 50% participants genuinely wanting to play chess … It's a nice way to unwind, which avoids going to a club to meet other people my age.”

A Game Revitalized: Chess in the Contemporary Age

Lately, chess has been firmly established in the cultural zeitgeist. Its appeal of digital chess proliferated during the pandemic, establishing it as one of the most rapidly expanding internet games in the world. In popular culture, the streaming series a hit show, along with Sally Rooney’s recent novel Intermezzo, have created a certain imagery surrounding the sport, which has attracted a new generation of enthusiasts.

However a great deal of this recent appeal of the chess night is not always about the intricacies of the game; rather, it is the ease of social interaction that it facilitates, by taking a seat and engaging with someone who could be a complete unknown individual.

“It's a brilliant Trojan horse,” said Jonah Freud, co-founder of a local venue in London, a bookshop, library, coffee house and bar, which has hosted a popular chess club every Wednesday since it began four years ago. His aim is to “take chess off a pedestal and transform it into like billiards in a dive bar”.

“It is a very easy tool to meet people. It somewhat removes the weight of the necessity of small talk away from socializing with people. One can handle the uncomfortable bit of making an introduction and talking to someone across a board instead of with no context around it.”

Growing the Community: Chess Nights Outside London

Elsewhere in the UK, Chesscafé is a regular chess night held at a city cafe, near the city centre. “Our observation was that people are looking for places where you can socialize, interact and have a fun evening beyond going to a pub or nightclub,” stated its founder and coordinator, Karan Singh, 21.

Together with his associate Abdirahim Haji, also young, Singh bought game sets, printed promotional materials and started the chess club in the start of the year, during his last year of university. Within months, Singh said their event has expanded to draw more than one hundred young players to its gatherings.

“A chess club has a specific reputation associated with it, about it seeming reserved. We really try to go the opposite direction; it's a social get-together with chess as part of it,” he emphasized.

Learning and Engaging: A New Cohort of Players

For many, chess clubs are an introduction to the game. One participant, in her late twenties, is picking up how to play chess with other attenders of chess night at Reference Point. She became curious in the game was sparked after an pleasurable night moving to music and playing chess at a previous the club's occasions.

“It is a strange concept, but it functions well,” she said. “It encourages in-person interactions instead of screen-based pastimes. It's a free neutral ground to meet strangers. It's welcoming, one doesn't have to necessarily be skilled at chess.”

She jokingly compared the trendiness of chess among the youth to the superficial image of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an attempt to simulate braininess while projecting the appearance of “hipness”. If the chess craze has cultivated a authentic interest in the game isn't something she is entirely sure about. “It's a positive phenomenon, but it’s largely a trend,” she said. “When you compete against people who are truly dedicated about it, it rapidly becomes less enjoyable.”

Competitive Gaming and Togetherness

It might seem like a bit of fun and games for those looking to employ a chessboard as a networking tool, but serious players certainly have their place, albeit away from the main party area.

Another organizer, 22, who assists in running Knight Club,says that more competitive attenders have established a league table. “People who are in the league will face one another, we will go to quarter-finals, semi-finals, and then we will finally have a champion.”

A dedicated player, in his twenties, is a competitive competitor and chess teacher. He has been in the league for about a year and plays at the club nearly every week. “This offers a welcome option to engaging in intense chess; it provides a feeling of belonging,” he said.

“It is fascinating to see how it evolves into increasingly a social activity, because previously the sole people who played chess were those who rarely socialize; they just remained home. It is usually just a pair competing on a game board …

“The thing I like about this place is that you're not really facing the digital opponent, you are facing live opponents.”