Ravers are swapping dancefloors for chessboards

It was peak COVID. A week before the government announced the UK’s second lockdown, The Queen’s Gambit was released on Netflix. A sharp period drama starring Anya Taylor-Joy as chess prodigy Beth Harmon, the series catapulted the ancient board game – some estimates place it around 1,500 years old – into the mainstream cultural consciousness. It became Netflix’s most-watched scripted series at the time, drawing in 62 million viewers, while some manufacturers reported a 1,000% surge in chessboard sales. 

Before the show, chess’s reputation had been of a quiet and exclusive pastime. In the 2014 biopic Pawn Sacrifice, which tracks the rise of chess grandmaster Bobby Fischer, he was often captured alone with the board, while in the series Elementary, which ran from 2012 to 2019, Sherlock Holmes is often shown playing chess against himself – a nod to his relentless, unmatchable intellect. But The Queen’s Gambit’s cut-throat, fast-paced and flirtatious world drew in swathes of new players who didn’t fit its traditional mould. 

Flash forward to today, and another chapter in the chess renaissance is being penned. This time, chess is becoming a key piece in a new form of nightlife – where lovers of electronic music are swapping sweaty, late-night dancefloors for early evening chess matches, soundtracked by DJ sets and club ready beats, as a means to enjoy their favourite tunes, while also connecting with others away from nightclubs.

It makes sense that this is happening now. The pandemic, combined with increased digitisation, has left us starved of real-life social connections. With so many of our daily experiences (dating, shopping, socialising, etc.) being funnelled through pixels and swipes on screens, opportunities for organic encounters have become rarer. As a game that forces you to sit across from someone else – without the distraction of a phone – chess has become a surprisingly effective antidote to rising digital fatigue.

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It’s not just this though. There’s a shift in the way people are socialising in general. A rise in sober or sober-curious behaviour – a recent YouGov study found that 39% of 18 – 24 year olds don’t drink alcohol at all, while 38% of UK drinkers regularly choose low or non-alcohol alternatives – has created an environment where third spaces can flourish. Within nightlife specifically, this has led to a rise in ​“soft clubbing” – DJ sets in coffee shops, listening bars and even saunas. Karan Singh, who co-founded Birmingham’s chesscafé, whose biweekly nights are soundtracked by garage house and ​’90s hip-hop, noticed there was a lack of these spaces in his city, and felt music and chess would be the perfect solution. ​“Birmingham needs more hangout spots that aren’t centred around drinking… where you can hang out and talk to people without having to shout and where showing up alone doesn’t feel awkward,” he says. 

Creating new spaces for people to meet and share culture outside of traditional venues also alleviates the sting felt from a wounded club industry. A 2024 Night Time Industries Association report found that between March 2020 and December 2023, 31% of nightclubs across the UK had shut down as a result of increased maintenance fees and reduced punter spending. To combat rising costs, ticket prices have bloated, with Time Out recently reporting that from 1995 to 2025, the entry price to get into Camden’s Koko – one of the few venues still standing from that time – has risen from £6 to around £29.50, an increase of over 300%. In turn, 68% of clubbers now say they go out less. With fewer places to convene, the communities that once thrived around nightlife are losing ground.

“It’s getting harder and harder to meet new people, community culture is fading, and events like these matter more than ever,” says Dan Palmer, the director of Eat Your Greens in Leeds, whose monthly chess sessions enlist local selectors like Andrew Devine and Henry Sanderson to provide the music. ​“One of our taglines for the event is: ​‘Bring a friend, or come alone and meet some new ones.’ I think that says it all.” 

Knight Club, which meets every Tuesday at Hi-Fi Audio Bar Café 1001 in East London, has seen people seeking out this community in real time. ​“I’ve seen people who have met through the chess club travel abroad together,” says creative director and founder Yus Ntahilaja, who goes by MAJI when he’s behind the decks crafting fluid, percussion-heavy sets. In February, Ntahilaja coined the term ​“soft clubbing” via his Substack. ​“I always see people from the chess club going to each other’s events, and that’s so beautiful to see.” 

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For other clubs, such as Pieces Chess Club, which hosts sessions across Europe and swaps a ticket fee for a voluntary donation to charities like Medical Aid for Palestinians (M.A.P.), their events are a chance to make the game more inclusive and diverse. ​“Traditional chess clubs tend to be dominated by white men and can feel quite intimidating, especially for newcomers,” says An-Tim Nguyen, a co-creator of Pieces along with Charles Yaw. ​“We wanted to create a space that was genuinely welcoming to everyone. Women, people of colour, LGBTQ+ and anyone who felt excluded from those traditional competitive environments. Our goal was to make chess accessible and enjoyable for people who might otherwise never pick up the game.” 

This attitude is reflected in who they select to soundtrack their nights, which take place once a month at The Bath House in Hackney. ​“Our music selection is really intentional. We prioritise booking DJs from underrepresented communities, particularly women and people of colour, because representation matters in every aspect of what we do,” says Nguyen. 

Having a proper pawn-filled knees up is also high on Pieces’ list of priorities, so much so that often once the final checkmate is called, the boards get rolled out the way to create a dancefloor. ​“The goal is to have danceable, upbeat music that breaks people’s expectations of what a chess event should feel like. We’re trying to create an atmosphere that’s more like a social gathering or party, where chess happens to be the main activity.” 

With previous nights soundtracked by the likes of Dare Balogun, a DJ whose selections emphasise the connection between contemporary dance music and traditional west African genres such as highlife, soukous and makossa, creating this club-like environment where people play chess is something Pieces is getting pretty good at – maybe even too good. ​“The police came to shut down our second event in Lisbon,” says Nguyen. ​“It was comedic. Imagine the feds arriving to shut down a party but then realising it was just people playing chess.”

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Acid Chess Club, which takes place every last Wednesday of the month at Next Door Records Two in Stoke Newington, has a similar approach. ​“Each month we invite a DJ to soundtrack the evening’s chess adventures, and they’ll each come with a catalogue full of their own music selections,” says host Bec Sthenski. ​“The genres are so varied between the DJs, we’ve had UKG, 1970s funk, and house tracks.”

For some, pairing music with chess doesn’t just add an element of fun, it’s also essential to playing the game effectively. ​“Music is a means to concentrate, and it’s also a means to unlock creativity and use an alternate part of your brain,” explains Sthenski. And although chess and dance music may seem disparate partners, she believes that there are far more connections than originally meets the eye – especially with the logic of music production.

“Chess has been a deep love for many notable artists in our time, and it’s hard to disassociate the two when so much of the music has been inspired by their love for the game, and the way it provides a creative gateway into a strategic mind. A notable example is Manuel Göttsching’s record E2-E4, which he named after one of chess’s most common opening moves. The vinyl sleeve was designed to be used as a chessboard. He is one of techno and electronic music’s founding fathers, and he immortalised chess into the music scene from that point onwards.”

When paired together, music and chess create more than just a game – they create a welcoming, social space. ​“Having a chess club in a listening bar [like Next Door Records] is an opportunity to reframe the social positioning of chess,” Sthenski continues. ​“It eases the competitive spirit to know that your opponent might be three pints deep”.

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For Nguyen, music is an equaliser, and so is chess. ​“Music and chess both bring people together, no matter where you’re from or what language you speak, but somehow traditional chess decided they don’t mix,” he says. ​“Music immediately tells people that this isn’t going to be one of those intimidating chess spaces.”

The chess clubs’ current popularity appears to be just the beginning, as they experience increasing success with every passing month. Pieces, for example, has grown from being strictly Lisbon-based to hosting clubs in five different cities across Europe. For Knight Club, the sessions have been a springboard into other events, including a pop-up at Paris Fashion Week and a string of events coined Club Knight, which take form as more traditional nights out, but still have some chess boards in smoking areas for those wishing to play a quick game.

What seems significant about these clubs lies not in the act of playing chess itself, but in what they offer to the people who attend them. ​“It’s special to see people make connections over the board, and everyone comes from all walks of life,” says Sthenski.

And without the guarantee for survival, as economic challenges still bubble in the background, it’s important to take stock so far, while looking ahead to the future. As Palmer puts it: ​“Things are tough, and it often feels like a bit of a fight for survival. But in a way, it makes you realise what’s important: community, care, and giving back.” 

Bella Koopman is a freelance writer and journalist. Follow her on Instagram.

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