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Among the liveliest locations on a weekday evening in east London's Brick Lane isn't a restaurant or a urban fashion label pop-up, it's a chess gathering – or rather a chess and nightlife hybrid, to be exact.

This unique venue represents the unlikely crossover between chess and the city's fervent evening entertainment scene. It was started by Yusuf Ntahilaja, 27, who launched his initial chess club in the summer of 2023 at a smaller bar in Aldgate, not too far from the present location at Café 1001 on Brick Lane.

“My goal was to make chess clubs for individuals who look like me and people my generation,” he explained. “Typically, chess is only placed in spaces that are dominated by older people, which isn't inclusive sufficiently.”

On the first night, there were only 8 boards between sixteen people. Today, a “good night” at the regular Knight Club will attract approximately 280 people.

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

Jimmy Ifenayi, 24, has been attending the club regularly for the past four months. “I possessed little understanding of chess before I came here, and the initial occasion I tried it, I competed in a game with a expert player. It was a swift win, but it left me intrigued to study and continue enjoying chess,” she noted.

“This gathering is about half networking and half participants genuinely wishing to play chess … It is a pleasant way to relax, which avoids going to a club to see others my age.”

A Game Revitalized: The Ancient Game in the Modern Age

Lately, chess has been cemented in the cultural zeitgeist. The popularity of online chess expanded rapidly during the global health crisis, establishing it as one of the most rapidly expanding online games in the world. In popular culture, the streaming series The Queen’s Gambit, along with Sally Rooney’s latest novel Intermezzo, have crafted a distinct iconography surrounding the game, which has drawn in a fresh generation of players.

However much of this recent attraction of the chess night is not always about the intricacies of the game; rather, it is the ease of social interaction that it enables, by taking a chair and playing with a person who may be a complete stranger.

“It's a great Trojan horse,” remarked Jonah Freud, founder of Reference Point in the city, a bookstore, library, coffee house and bar, which has hosted a popular chess club every Wednesday since it opened several years back. His aim is to “take chess off a pedestal and transform it into similar to pool in a casual pub”.

“It's a very simple vehicle to meet people. It somewhat takes the pressure of the necessity of small talk from interacting with people. You can do the awkward bit of introducing yourself and chatting to a new acquaintance over a board instead of with no kind of context involved.”

Growing the Community: Chess Nights Beyond the Capital

Elsewhere in the UK, a similar initiative is a recurring chess event held at a city cafe, near the city centre. “Our observation was that people are looking for places where one can go out, socialise and enjoy a good time outside of going to a bar or nightclub,” said its founder and coordinator, Karan Singh, 21.

Together with his friend Abdirahim Haji, also young, he bought game sets, created promotional materials and started the chess club in the start of the year, during his last year of college. In less than a year, he said Chesscafé has grown to attract more than 100 youthful players to its gatherings.

“A chess club has a particular connotation associated with it, about it being reserved. Our approach is to go the opposite way; it's a convivial get-together with chess as part of it,” he said.

Discovering and Playing: A New Cohort of Players

For many, chess clubs are an entry point to the game. One participant, in her late twenties, is learning how to play chess with fellow attenders of the weekly event at Reference Point. She became curious in the pastime was sparked after an pleasurable night dancing and playing chess at one of the club's occasions.

“It is a unique concept, but it works,” she said. “It encourages in-person interactions rather than digital activities. It is a no-cost neutral ground to meet new people. It is inviting, you don't need to necessarily be good at chess.”

She humorously compared the trendiness of chess with young people to the facade of the “ostentatious intellectual”, an attempt to simulate intellectualism while projecting the veneer of “hipness”. Whether the chess trend has cultivated a genuine passion in the sport is not something she is quite convinced by. “It's a positive phenomenon, but it’s very much a trend,” she observed. “When you compete with people who are truly serious about it, it rapidly becomes less enjoyable.”

Competitive Gaming and Togetherness

It might all be a bit of lighthearted activity for individuals looking to employ a chessboard as a social vehicle, but competitive players do have their role, albeit off the main party area.

Lucia Ene-Lesikar, in her early twenties, who assists in running Knight Club,explains that increasingly skilled attenders have formed a competitive ranking. “People who are part of the competition will face each other, we will progress to quarter-finals, advanced stages, and then we'll eventually have a league winner.”

A dedicated player, 23, is a serious player and chess teacher. He joined in the league for about a twelve months and plays at the club nearly every week. “This is a nice option to playing serious chess; it gives a sense of belonging,” he said.

“It is interesting to see how it becomes more of a communal activity, because in the past the only individuals who played chess were people who didn't go outside; they simply remained home. It's usually only two people playing on a game board …

“The thing appeals to me about here is that you're not actually playing against the computer, you're facing live opponents.”