The Chess Players at Washington Square

Alexandra Kosteniuk's Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) 2013


Hi everyone, 

Here is a nice feature on the chess scene in New York - Washington Square to be specific. Every new feature about the chess players in the park is interesting. Though, it's sad that the historic legacy of the chess scene has wanted now. Read on: 

BY LAEL HINES | Attracting a wide variety of parkgoers, Washington Square is renowned for its diversity. The park welcomes offbeat street performers, bohemian musicians, young families, seniors, clean-cut yuppies, N.Y.U. students, and dogs and their owners, among others. (Robert at his chessboard in Washington Square. Photos by Lael Hines)

In the park’s southwest corner, yet another well-known user group can be found: the chess players. Over the decades, the corner has been a legendary spot for chess players in New York City.

“Where we are sitting here is where many legendary chess players played,” said George, who has been playing chess in Washington Square since the 1960s. “Mr. Bobby Fisher would play here,” said George, who didn’t give his last name. “No park has the history we have here in Washington Square. There was a time in the ’50s and ’60s when the world community of chess congregated here. You would come here and see world-famous chess players around these tables.”

A longtime Village resident painted a picture of the tightknit chess community in Washington Square during the ’70s.

“It was a lovely little hangout,” she recalled, asking that her name be withheld. “All the guys knew each other. There were a bunch of characters who hung out there. It was all about the game of chess. They took it so seriously: I would see a guy lose and nearly have a nervous breakdown.”

Despite this historic legacy, by all accounts, Washington Square’s chess scene has waned. Around 3 o’clock on a recent sunny Friday afternoon, two-thirds of the chess tables were forlornly empty.

“Everyone has migrated to Union Square,” explained Julian Turner, a Washington Square chess player since the ’90s. “There’s more business in Union Square, there’s more money. The Union Square area has a lot of traffic. You have the Whole Foods, the two trains and just a lot of people around there. In a sense, chess has become a business; a lot of people just do it for the money.”

The Union Square chess area, located just outside the subway entrance near the northeast corner of 14th St. and Union Square West, mirrors the fast pace of its environment. Dozens of chess players sit on crates and use makeshift tables. They lure passersby with offers to try to beat them for $5 to $10 per game. Matches can be played “on the clock,” or without it. They disdain the term “chess hustler.”

Two young girls teamed up to try to beat 

a chess sharp in Union Square.

Omar, a Union Sq. chess player, described his attraction to the location.

Read more »