Charlottesville chess club

If you live in Central Virginia and you are a lover of classic board games, you might be familiar with the Charlottesville chess club, which was quite active in the mid to late 1990’s. They met on Monday nights at 7:30pm at the St Marks Church on the corner of Ivy and Alderman. Once at the church, you had to go through a series of passages that make it seem like you are heading into some exclusive underground society, which really adds to the appeal of the club.

In order to get to the meeting, you had to go through the door with the lion above it, then through another door and down the stairs to an area on the other side of the basement. Membership was free and 6 to 20 attended every week. Skill levels ranged from USCF 1400 to 1600 among members, so of course, new comers were always welcome. Your time clock and favorite chess set was welcome as well. The first recorded match for the club was against the South Virginia Chess Club in Harrisonburg where five members of the Charlottesville team were routed 1 - 9. This took place on August 11, 1995. Charlottesville’s next match was against the nearby University of Virginia Chess Club a few months later on October 25, 1995.

Resulting in another loss to the much more experience college squad, Charlottesville put up a valiant effort in a score of 13.5 – 8.5. Perhaps the most prominent activity of the club during its height was the rematch played against the University of Virginia chess club on October 21, 1996 in which U. Va. edged out a narrow 6.5 – 5.5 victory. The new central Charlottesville chess club met at the new Game Place, located at the downtown mall.

This club is affiliated with the USCF and met from 6 – 9 pm on Tuesday night. Other chess club affiliates at the time were the local Barnes and Nobles bookstore café and a coffee shop called the Espresso Corner. Barnes and Noble would occasionally sponsor tournaments and the Corner endorsed meetings on Wednesday nights from 7 – 10 pm. This was actually one of the more popular meetings.

There also a few places to get chess equipment in Charlottesville. Aside from the chess books you can find at the Barnes and Noble, you can find some used books at Blue Whale books at the downtown mall. Game Place, too, can satisfy all your gaming needs.