Chess.com’s first worldwide meetup full of fun

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011


Hi everyone,

We found this nice little article spreading the cheer of chess across the planet. Who cares if someone is there to praise us or not, if someone is there to cheer us on or not… we love chess and the lovers of chess go on…

Last weekend, people in local communities all over the world got together to enjoy chess – offline and in person – as Chess.com along with Meetup.com collectively rang in the first-ever Chess.com worldwide meetupwith help. Interesting idea. The site then called out for the members to send in stories and photos. Here are the results:

Columbia, South Carolina USA

Nice venue! Also, apparently very kid-friendly. How many travel chess sets make such a perfect complement to a Dora The Explorer drink-bottle?? Score!

Arlington, Texas USA
“Greetings from Texas. Of the twelve people who RSVP’d, we had nine
show up. J.R. Bentley’s was a wonderful host. This local pub has a
great back room, a perfect place for a casual game of chess. The owner Dana told us we were welcome to return anytime. We arrived at 11:00 AM and stayed until about 2:30 PM.


Occasionally, a game would get interesting and others would lean over to see what was happening. The post-mortems became group activities. Everyone wanted to give their opinion on how a game was won or lost. We are already making plans for our second meet up.” ~ David H

Dover, New Hampshire USA

“The Dover, NH meet up was held at Café On The Corner and 5 Chess.com members attended. A good time was had and some good games played.” ~ Scott M (aka “Methos1979”)

London UK

After a week or two with Toronto, Canada in the lead for largest meetup community, London overtook the #1 spot and never looked back! Not surprisingly, it’s looking like this might mark the beginning of a vibrant new network of chess-friends.

Austin TX USA

The gang at Brainstorm Coworking appreciate a good game of chess!


San Diego CA USA

Healthy crowd of chess enthusiasts in SD!!


Vancouver BC Canada

Chess with a side of some of the city’s most colorful characters and best cappuccino!


New Delhi, India

Two works! (One… not so much.)
“It was a nice first meet, only two people could make it. But I guess
two was the minimum required and therefore we are happy that our first
meet was successful. Myself and Avinash played three interesting games and had a great time.

We will look forward to the next meet and hopefully the numbers of the participants will go up next time.” ~Saurahb

Sunnyvale CA USA
Without a doubt, one of the more beautiful venues we’ve seen! And a giant chessboard to boot!



Too bad about Erik and Jay crashing the party & making everyone play 3-minute bughouse…

Regensburg, Germany
Getting ready to rock in the Stadtpark…

Barcelona, Spain

“Dear chess.com friends, Congratulations on the initiative of MEETUP DAY! The Team Catalonia have not failed. We met today in Barcelona and we had a great time. Many people interested in the meeting could not come because in Spain today begin the Easter holiday. The Bar where we had arranged to meet, was closed for holidays!… So quickly we had to find another place nearby and we found it. This is the poster that we haveclosed the door of the bar:


         

In the second bar where we went, the owners have been delighted. The women owner of Bar has signed up today at chess.com! And their children too! He told us that we can arrange further meetings there.”~Pau P, Admin of Team Catalonia

…And that’s just a fraction of the chess that went down in 100s of cities and towns last Saturday. Frankly, it was so much fun, we’ve already decided to do it again. So mark your calendars – the 2nd Chess.com Worldwide Meetup is set for June 25!
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From Alexandra Kosteniuk’s
www.chessblog.com
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