Check Mates
We head down to Lower Riverside to meet a group of friends bound by their love of strategic, fast-paced, all-ages chess.
Nick Templar and Andrew Pavord have been playing chess together for years, but after the boredom and isolation of lockdown they decided it was time to put their online games to rest and get back to playing head-to-head over the board once more. So in April 2021, they took their boards, chess sets and clocks, and started up a regular game on the banks of the Thames.
“I had a lot of luxury chess sets that were simply collecting dust and needed to be shared with people,” says Nick. “So I bought a portable camping table and stools and we set up around Cutty Sark cannons and played. The response from the public was hugely positive.” So Nick and Andrew invited them to join in. “And soon we had a chess movement.”
“We set up a Facebook group to share our games and to chat with each other,” says Andrew, “and before long we had over 300 members.” Now the Facebook group is a hive of game critiquing and story sharing, as well as the place where their twice-weekly events are arranged.
The group no longer meets around Nick’s camping table, instead setting up at Seafood Disco, a permanent sculpture on Greenwich Peninsula designed by studio Morison, where they gather from 2pm to 6pm every Saturday for a resident’s session. “It’s a community event,” says Andrew, “and it’s been great to see neighbours meet each other and play chess together. Now around 20 or 30 people regularly turn up to play on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Andrew puts the success of the group down to two factors; the recent surge in chess' popularity owing to the Netflix show The Queen's Gambit, and the high-energy form of street chess preferred by the group. “Street Chess is fun,” he says. “Most games are rapid (15 minutes) or blitz (five minutes), so it's pretty fast and furious. We are not intellectuals – we may never play like Beth Harmon. We play fast and loose games, taking risks because it's exciting to play that way. And we like to beat up our friends (metaphorically) and laugh at them when they lose.”
While his description makes it sound more like dice in the alley than chess on the waterfront, the games are always good humoured, he assures me, and open to anyone of any ability. That said, “Chess is competitive, and that’s the point,” he says.
“To play well you have to hate losing, and it does hurt sometimes when you lose a game you should have won. From time to time there is teasing and a certain amount of trash talking – some players like to try to put off their opponent. It's not strictly within the rules, but that’s street chess.”
While good-natured banter and some light competition should definitely be expected by any potential new members, Nick is rather more serious about the values of the group and the cohesion chess brings to the community. “Chess is an umbrella for people of all races and cultures and social strata to unite and communicate and enjoy each other’s company as they explore the mesmerising complexity of the game and create their own symphony of movement across the board,” he says.
If that sounds like your kind of umbrella, then the Chess Club would like to hear from you, whether you’re eight or 80. The group's current youngest member, Kushal, is a seven-year-old world champion, but there are members from their pre-teens all the way up to their 80s. “I now have friends of all ages,” says Nick, “bonded by our fascination for the game. It's been an unexpected turn in my life.”
As co-founders go, Andrew and Nick are pretty different too. Nick is a personal trainer with “an impressively muscular physique and youthful looks,” he jokes. Andrew works in the film industry, and has nothing much to say about his personal appearance, but he’s effusive about the differences between his and Nick’s approach to chess:
"I’m a D4 player, Nick is E4, we have very different styles of play,” he says. “I am a classical player, Nick is a follower of the hypermodern school. This means I play for the centre, whereas Nick likes to counterpunch. I like the Caro Kann (C6) as black against E4, and the Benoni against D4…”
…and here, as someone who’s never played chess, I’m lost. But I needn’t worry, Nick reassures me, rookie players shouldn’t concern themselves with opening plays. If I’m keen to pick the game up then he and Andrew will help me and other prospective players to “grow in their understanding and appreciation of what chess can be.”
Greenwich Peninsula Chess Club meets every Saturday, 2-6pm at The Jetty, SE10 OGE, and on Sundays 12 noon-4pm at The Old Brewery, Royal Naval College, SE10 9LW. For more information visit greenwichchess.com.
