Atlanta’s Underground Board Obsession? Bishops and Queens!
The Immortal Game lives in Atlanta! Chess is among the longest lasting, most powerful contests humanity has created, and Atlanta has a chess culture. It’s not talked about or covered in the paper, but people here talk about chess, think about chess, and support institutions that let it thrive. It’s an underground movement.
Here then are three of the most important places on the chess circuit in Atlanta:
- The Atlanta Chess Center is a great resources. That there is a cultural center dedicated to chess here speaks highly of the city. Annual memberships are only $100 and you can sit in and play a casual game for $2. They sell chess clocks, sets, books, and videos as well as a variety of snacks! It’s a great place to do play actual people rather than a computer or on line. It’s also a chance to get some instruction if you want to move your game to the next level.
- Woodruff Park. The Southwest side of the park is Chess Hustler Central. Again, no chess hustlers, no real city. The chess here is often for money, is fast and furious, and transcends all. This is where the well-healed and the homeless meet on equal turf. Everyone’s King is equal and everyone’s a pawn. Just be ready for the kibitz that will surely come your way.
- The Village Bakery. This is the chess players’ tavern in town. There are four sets in the the building including one that is a meter square! Located at Memorial Drive and Ponce in Stone Mountain, the German food is excellent, the beer is fresh, and the proprietor, Clause is a great guy. He’s also not a bad player! On a recent visit the bar was not crowded and friendly people stopped by to check out the boards in play. Places such as the Village Bakery deserve community support as they are the real deal. This might be the true thinking man’s tavern.
Hopefully, Atlanta will begin to acknowledge the broad based support for the game. It would be great to see Creative Loafing or Sunday Paper carry a regular column on chess. It would be even better if all the Starbucks and other coffee houses in town which had chess boards on their tables went to their local dollar stores and bought a couple of chess sets. It would create community for the coffee houses and symbolize the city’s commitment to more than one kind of Queen.