RECAP: March Queer Chess Night @ Mother
Katterhaus, Gamescape SF, and Mother joined forces to put on another incredible chess night — check out how it went!
Check Out our event recap, photo gallery and how to join the Queer Chess club on Chess.com!
Setting Up
This time I was still super nervous, but with the flyers up all month at Mother and others sharing their excitement for the night I knew we would be in good hands. This time around, all of the chess sets were in a duffel bag and it was much easier to carry than a bunch of Ikea bags (I also looked way more professional with my cool pawn filled duffel too).
I get to Mother right at 5:32 pm after leaving late and ordering a quiet but lovely Uber. Dakota comes to greet me at the door, and we are back in. Setting up all the boards was much easier this time around since I was not shaky from all the nerves, and the Mother team was stellar as usual. Cameron was again going to be late today due to the long commute, so any support was greatly appreciated.
Siobhan over at Mother even helped me put my Chess Night graphic up on Mother’s big screen - I felt like a star, thank you.
With 8 boards out to start out the night, I then wait.
The Event
We had a relaxed start to chess night with meeting new friends like Alice who was absolutely thrilled to have a chess night.
She was telling me about how they usually bring a deck of cards into the bar to spark of conversation as well as have something to do, and that resonated. It’s really the reason why I do this event and others - socializing is an art in itself and we deserve the art third spaces like Mother create with activities like chess.
One of the most surprising stories of the evening came from Alex who actually came to Queer Chess Night all the way from Connecticut, well sorta. They were looking at moving to San Francisco, saw Chess Night, they happen to love Chess, and came with a friend. They found us through the power of the Internet, then came over when they visited because this matched their interests - I think that’s beautiful.
Seeing others come back for another chess night like Bri and Jen who also brought their chess loving friends back with them, to seeing my good friend Brooke who I have now known for years learn to play Chess with Cameron as her coach. I also appreciate that despite 9:00 pm rolling around, chess players were still coming in to play.
As I was putting up one of the boards, I heard “Aw.. already? No way it’s already 9:00 pm”
Who am I to stop a Queer’s Gambit? So we kept on playing.
Our last boards were finished by 10:10 pm for the evening with 3 boards out until 10:00 pm — wow.
We were playing chess LATE into the night Queers!
Thank you all once again for your continued support of this project, I can’t wait to play bring more Chess to the Queer Community with all of you!
Wanna practice before next Chess night?
Join our Online Queer Chess Club on Chess.com!
Photo Gallery
Even with Queer Chess Night (QCN)’s success (thanks to all of you!) I’m still trying to figure out QCN and how to be the best host for everyone, so thank you all for coming and being open about the event as well as suggestions that have come my way!
I’m hoping we can debut some new boards next month as well as some other wares (Queer Chess Club pins anyone?).
Couldn’t make it to Queer Chess Night this time around? Our Next Queer Chess Night at Mother will be April 14th!
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