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Among the liveliest venues on a weekday night in the East End's famous street couldn't be a dining spot or a streetwear brand pop-up, it's a chess club – or rather a chess and nightlife combination, precisely speaking.

This unique venue represents the unlikely crossover between chess and the city's dynamic evening entertainment scene. It was founded by a young entrepreneur, 27, who launched his first chess club in the summer of 2023 at a smaller bar in Aldgate, a short distance from the present location at a popular cafe on Brick Lane.

“I wanted to make chess clubs for individuals who look like me and people my age,” he explained. “Typically, chess is only placed in spaces that are dominated by older people, which isn't diverse sufficiently.”

On the first night, there were just 8 boards between sixteen people. Now, a “good night” at the regular Knight Club will attract approximately two hundred eighty people.

Upon arrival, the venue feels closer to a music night than a traditional chess meeting. Cocktails are flowing and music is playing, but the chessboards on every table are not just ornamental or there as a gimmick: they are all in use and surrounded by a line of spectators waiting for their turn.

One regular, in her mid-twenties, has been attending Knight Club often for the last four months. “I possessed little understanding of chess prior to I came here, and the initial occasion I ever played, I played a game against a grandmaster. That was a swift win, but it left me fascinated to study and keep playing chess,” she noted.

“This gathering is about half social and half people actually wanting to play chess … It's a nice way to unwind, which avoids visiting a club to meet others my age.”

An Activity Revitalized: Chess in the Modern Age

In recent years, chess has been cemented in the cultural zeitgeist. Its appeal of online chess expanded rapidly throughout the global health crisis, making it 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 created a certain imagery associated with the sport, which has attracted a new generation of enthusiasts.

But much of this newfound attraction of the chess night isn't always about the technicalities of the game; instead, it is the ease of connecting with others that it facilitates, by pulling up a chair and engaging with someone who could be a complete unknown individual.

“It's a great clever disguise,” said Jonah Freud, co-founder of Reference Point in the city, a bookstore, library, coffee house and bar, which has hosted a popular chess club weekly since it began four years ago. Freud’s objective is to “take chess from its elite status and transform it into like billiards in a dive bar”.

“It is a really easy vehicle to get to know people. It somewhat takes the weight of the necessity of conversation away from socializing with people. One can do the uncomfortable bit of introducing yourself and chatting to someone across a game instead of with no kind of context involved.”

Expanding the Community: Chess Nights Beyond London

Elsewhere in the UK, Chesscafé is a regular chess event held at York’s Cafe, just outside the city centre. “We found that people are seeking spaces where one can go out, interact and enjoy a fun evening beyond visiting a pub or nightclub,” stated its creator and organiser, a young leader, in his early twenties.

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

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

Learning and Playing: An Alternative Cohort of Players

For many, chess clubs are an entry point to the game. One participant, 27, is learning how to play chess with other attenders of chess night at the venue. Her interest in the game was sparked after an enjoyable evening dancing and engaging in chess at one of the club's occasions.

“It is a strange idea, but it works,” she said. “It promotes face-to-face exchanges instead of digital activities. It's a free third space to encounter new people. It's inviting, you don't need to necessarily be skilled at chess.”

Kezia jokingly compared the popularity of chess among the youth to the superficial image of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an attempt to feign intellectualism while projecting the veneer of “coolness”. Whether the chess craze has fostered a authentic interest in the game is not something she's entirely convinced by. “It's a positive phenomenon, but it’s largely a fad,” she observed. “When you're playing against people who are really dedicated about it, it rapidly becomes less enjoyable.”

Serious Gaming and Togetherness

It might all be a bit of lighthearted activity for those looking to employ a chessboard as a networking tool, but serious players certainly have their role, even if off the main party area.

Lucia Ene-Lesikar, 22, who helps running Knight Club,says that increasingly competitive players have established a league table. “Participants who are in the league will face each other, we will go to early rounds, semi-finals, and then we'll finally have a league winner.”

A dedicated player, 23, is a competitive player and chess instructor. He has been in the league for about a twelve months and plays at the club nearly weekly. “This offers a welcome alternative to playing serious chess; it gives a sense of belonging,” he said.

“It's fascinating to see how it becomes more of a communal activity, because in the past the sole people who engaged in chess were those who didn't go outside; they simply stayed home. It is typically only a pair competing on a game board …

“What appeals to me about here is that you're not really facing the digital opponent, you are facing live opponents.”