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Among the most energetic locations on a weekday night in east London's famous street couldn't be a restaurant or a streetwear label temporary shop, it's a chess club – or rather a chess and nightlife hybrid, precisely speaking.

Knight Club embodies the unlikely blend between chess and London's dynamic evening entertainment scene. It was started by a young entrepreneur, in his late twenties, who launched his initial chess club in the summer of 2023 at a smaller bar in a nearby area, a short distance from the present location at a popular cafe on Brick Lane.

“My goal was to create chess clubs for people who look like me and people my age,” he said. “Typically, chess is only put in environments that are dominated by older people, which is not inclusive sufficiently.”

On the first night, there were only eight boards shared by 16 people. Now, a “successful evening” at the weekly club event will attract approximately two hundred eighty attendees.

At first glance, the venue seems more like a DJ event than a traditional chess meeting. Cocktails are flowing and music is playing, but the chessboards on every table are not just decorative or there as a novelty: they are all in use and surrounded by a queue of onlookers waiting for their turn.

Jimmy Ifenayi, in her mid-twenties, has been attending the club regularly for the past four months. “I had little understanding of chess before I came here, and the first time I ever played, I competed in a game against a grandmaster. It was a quick win, but it made me intrigued to study and continue enjoying chess,” she noted.

“The event is about 50% social and half people genuinely wishing to engage in chess … It's a pleasant way to decompress, which doesn't involve going to a club to see other people my age.”

A Game Revitalized: Chess in the Contemporary Age

In recent years, chess has been firmly established in the cultural spirit of the times. Its appeal of online chess proliferated throughout the global health crisis, establishing it as one of the most rapidly expanding online games globally. In popular culture, the streaming series a hit show, as well as Sally Rooney’s latest novel a literary work, have created a certain iconography surrounding the game, which has attracted a fresh wave of players.

But a great deal of this recent appeal of the chess club is not necessarily about the technicalities of the game; rather, it is the ease of connecting with others that it enables, by pulling up a seat and playing with a person who could be a total stranger.

“It is a brilliant Trojan horse,” remarked one organizer, founder of a local venue in London, a bookshop, reading room, coffee house and bar, which has hosted a popular chess club weekly since it began four years ago. Freud’s aim is to “remove chess off a pedestal and make it feel like billiards in a casual pub”.

“It's a very easy vehicle to meet people. It kind of removes the weight of the necessity of conversation away from socializing with people. One can do the awkward bit of introducing yourself and chatting to someone across a board rather than with no shared activity around it.”

Expanding the Network: Chess Nights Outside the Capital

In Birmingham, Chesscafé is a recurring chess night held at York’s Cafe, just outside the downtown area. “Our observation was that individuals are looking for places where you can socialize, socialise and have a fun evening outside of visiting a pub or nightclub,” said its founder and organiser, Karan Singh, in his early twenties.

Alongside his friend a partner, 21, Singh bought game sets, printed flyers and started the chess club in January, during his final year of university. Within months, Singh reported their event has expanded to attract more than one hundred youthful participants to its gatherings.

“Such a venue has a particular connotation to it, about it being reserved. We really try to move in the opposite direction; it is a social party with chess as part of it,” he emphasized.

Discovering and Playing: An Alternative Generation of Chess Enthusiasts

For many, chess clubs are an introduction to the game. One participant, 27, is picking up how to participate in chess with other visitors of the weekly event at the venue. Her interest in the game was piqued after an pleasurable night moving to music and engaging in chess at one of Knight Club's occasions.

“It's a strange concept, but it works,” she said. “It promotes face-to-face interactions instead of screen-based pastimes. It's a no-cost third space to encounter new people. It's inviting, you don't have to necessarily be good at chess.”

She jokingly likened the popularity of chess among young people to the facade of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an attempt to feign intellectualism while projecting the veneer of “coolness”. If the chess trend has cultivated a authentic passion in the game isn't something she is entirely sure about. “It is a positive phenomenon, but it’s largely a trend,” she observed. “When you're playing with opponents who are really serious about it, it quickly turns less fun.”

Serious Play and Community

It might all be a bit of fun and games for individuals looking to employ a game set as a networking tool, but serious participants do have their place, even if away from the dancefloor.

Lucia Ene-Lesikar, in her early twenties, who helps organise Knight Club,says that increasingly skilled attenders have established a league table. “People who are in the league will face each other, we will progress to quarter-finals, semi-finals, and then we will eventually have a champion.”

A dedicated player, in his twenties, is a competitive competitor and chess instructor. He joined the competition for about a twelve months and plays at the club nearly weekly. “This offers a nice alternative to engaging in serious chess; it gives a sense of belonging,” he said.

“It is interesting to observe how it becomes increasingly a social pastime, because in the past the sole people who played chess were those who didn't socialize; they simply stayed home. It's typically only a pair competing on a game board …

“The thing I like about here is that one isn't actually playing against the digital opponent, you're facing live opponents.”