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Among the most energetic venues on a Tuesday evening in east London's famous street isn't a dining spot or a urban fashion brand temporary shop, it's a chess gathering – or a chess and nightlife combination, precisely speaking.

Knight Club embodies the unlikely crossover between chess and the city's fervent evening entertainment scene. It was started by a young entrepreneur, in his late twenties, who launched his first chess club in the summer of 2023 at a more intimate bar in Aldgate, a short distance from the present location at a popular cafe on Brick Lane.

“I wanted to create chess clubs for people who look like me and people my age,” he explained. “Usually, chess is only put in environments that are full of older people, which isn't diverse sufficiently.”

Initially, there were only 8 boards between 16 people. Now, a “good night” at the weekly club event will attract approximately two hundred eighty attendees.

Upon arrival, the venue feels closer to a DJ event than a chess club. Mixed drinks are flowing and tunes is playing, but the game boards on each table aren't just decorative or there as a novelty: they are all occupied and encircled by a line of onlookers eagerly anticipating for their chance to play.

Jimmy Ifenayi, in her mid-twenties, has frequented Knight Club regularly for the last four months. “I possessed little understanding of chess before my first visit, and the first time I tried it, I competed in a game with a expert player. That was a quick victory, but it made me fascinated to study and keep playing chess,” she noted.

“This gathering is about half networking and 50% participants actually wishing to engage in chess … It is a nice way to decompress, which avoids visiting a typical nightspot to see others my age.”

A Game Reborn: The Ancient Game in the Contemporary Era

Lately, chess has been cemented in the cultural spirit of the times. The popularity of online chess expanded rapidly throughout the pandemic, making it one of the fastest-growing internet games globally. In popular culture, the Netflix series a hit show, as well as the author's recent novel Intermezzo, have crafted a certain imagery associated with the sport, which has drawn in a new wave of enthusiasts.

However a great deal of this newfound appeal of the chess club isn't always about the intricacies of the game; rather, it is the simplicity of connecting with others that it enables, by pulling up a seat and playing with someone who could be a complete unknown individual.

“It's a great Trojan horse,” said Jonah Freud, founder of Reference Point in London, a bookshop, library, coffee house and lounge, which has organized a popular chess club weekly since it opened several years back. His objective is to “remove chess from its elite status and transform it into like pool in a casual pub”.

“It is a very simple tool to meet people. It kind of removes the pressure of the need of conversation from interacting with people. You can do the uncomfortable bit of introducing yourself and talking to someone across a board rather than with no kind of shared activity involved.”

Expanding the Network: Chess Nights Beyond the Capital

In Birmingham, Chesscafé is a recurring chess night taking place at a city cafe, just outside the city centre. “We found that people are looking for spaces where you can go out, socialise and enjoy a fun evening beyond visiting a bar or nightclub,” stated its creator and coordinator, Karan Singh, 21.

Together with his friend a partner, 21, he bought game sets, created promotional materials and began the chess club in the start of the year, during his final year of university. Within months, Singh said Chesscafé has grown to draw over 100 young participants to its events.

“A chess club has a particular connotation to it, about it seeming quiet. We really try to move in the opposite way; it's a convivial party with chess as part of it,” he said.

Discovering and Playing: A New Cohort of Players

Among numerous attendees, chess clubs are an entry point to the game. One participant, 27, is learning how to play chess with fellow visitors of chess night at Reference Point. Her interest in the pastime was piqued after an enjoyable evening dancing and engaging in chess at one of Knight Club's events.

“It's a strange concept, but it functions well,” she said. “It encourages in-person exchanges rather than screen-based pastimes. It's a no-cost neutral ground to encounter strangers. It is inviting, you don't need to necessarily be skilled at chess.”

She jokingly likened the trendiness of chess among young people to the facade of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an attempt to simulate intellectualism while projecting the appearance of “hipness”. Whether the chess trend has cultivated a genuine passion in the game is not a notion she is quite convinced by. “It is a wholesome phenomenon, but it’s very much a fad,” she said. “When you compete with people who are truly dedicated about it, it quickly turns less fun.”

Serious Gaming and Community

It might seem like a bit of fun and games for individuals aiming to employ a game set as a social vehicle, but competitive players do have their place, even if off the main party area.

Lucia Ene-Lesikar, in her early twenties, who helps running Knight Club,says that increasingly competitive attenders have established a competitive ranking. “Participants who are part of the competition will play one another, we'll progress to early rounds, semi-finals, and then we will finally have a league winner.”

A dedicated player, in his twenties, is a serious player and chess instructor. He joined in the league for about a year and participates at the club almost every week. “This offers a welcome alternative to engaging in intense chess; it provides a feeling of belonging,” he expressed.

“It's interesting to observe how it becomes increasingly a communal pastime, because in the past the only people who played chess were people who didn't go outside; they just remained home. It is typically only two people competing on a chessboard …

“What I like about here is that you're not really playing against the computer, you are engaging with real people.”