Katterhaus hosted its first Queer Chess Night in San Francisco.

Alongside Mother and Gamescape SF, it was a Chess night for the ages.

Check Out our event recap complete with the photo gallery and instructions on how to join the Queer Chess club on Chess.com

Setting Up

Usually, Cameron is with me to set up, but today she was actually in San Rafael — so this was my first time truly setting up alone.

I left my house conveniently late as I was incredibly nervous (typical by KC standards). The San Francisco sprinkle greeted me as I hauled 15 chess sets to my Uber (some donated by Gamescape SF last week after hearing about the event, thank you y’all!), said Hi to my driver Walter and was on my way.

The car arrived at 5:36 pm to Mother. From the bouncer to the bartenders, Mother was lovely to work with, and I felt a little safer when I gave a little pat to Dakota the dog who was standing guard at the door.

There were a couple of patrons enjoying drinks bar-side as I set up boards before the night. Originally, there were 6 chess boards set up. Some alongside the side tables and then a couple in the back booth. I kept the others stored just in case.

6:00 pm, then 6:05 pm rolls around and my nerves start to subside, this is fine. I am fine - play chess with a couple of new friends and meet some new people.

6:09 pm.. I sat up at the front table and waited by one of the boards for perhaps a chess night attendee or Cameron. A couple minutes later my prayers were answered when Cameron walked in. She was thrilled to see me all set up and I was relieved she was there,

“so anyone here for chess night yet?” she asked.

“Not y-”

That is when quite literally the bar patrons looked over, got up, and that’s when I realized….

Wait… all the people at the bar were WAITING for CHESS… oh…

Spoiler: 30 minutes and 15 katterhaus chess boards later we had about 30 people playing chess at once.

I’m gonna need more chess sets…

The Event

Side note: For context, we also run an event called Sapphic Shred, and we usually get around 15 attendees. I was expecting around that number of attendees and I am proud to announce that

Chess night was a hit. Hell yeah.

As guests started rolling in, I was filled with so much joy in seeing others play their first games of chess, meet new friends, and getting to know one another over one of the World’s oldest games. From experienced players to those who have never touched a pawn, all levels of chess experience were welcomed this evening.

6:30 pm, I once again text my mom that PEOPLE ARE SHOWING UP because who wouldn’t and she was like “I thought you said nobody showed up, lmfao” (yeah 20 minutes ago a lot has changed, I spoke way too soon, sorry mom).

Chess night was open play, meaning that you can come and play any board that is open and available. If someone was looking for others to play with, we tried to help facilitate matching players to play. Cameron and I tried our best teaching chess to some others who wanted to learn, but hosting, teaching, and playing chess is a different level of multitasking so apologies on my focus being pulled every which way this evening.

From B learning the game of Chess, to Don and other experienced players lending their boards and expertise so everyone could play, to Mark and Claire only finishing only one game in about 3 hours, to Abbott and Carmina shutting it down right at 9:45 pm as our last table of the night (almost an hour after the event officially ended)- it was almost cinematic.

Thank you to everyone who helped teach new players and thank you to new players who were brave enough to come learn something new! To add ~ Thank you to everyone who was able to help lend their boards during the event tonight whenever we were at our limit and a big thank you to everyone who attended! I hope you enjoyed!

I am thrilled you found a place this Tuesday evening to enjoy our community, this was awesome to create and am hoping to chess more (and other things) soon.