Keeping it social
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the history of organised chess competitions began in cafés of Europe's major cities. People gathered to discuss society and politics, art and culture, and passed the time with games: card games, billiards and, of course, chess. The Café Central in Vienna, the Café de la Régence in Paris and Simpson's in the Strand in London are names of famous cafés that still exist today, even if chess is rarely played there any more. Similar meeting places for chess players could once be found in many other cities. In Hamburg, this role was fulfilled by the Schachcafé Rübenkamp in Barmbek.
Over the years, however, chess players' interest in these cafés has somewhat declined. The possibility of playing chess online from home any chance one gets certainly played a major role. Yet playing a game on a screen with a mouse against a more or less anonymous opponent is quite different from sitting across from a person at a chessboard, touching and moving real pieces, pressing a chess clock with energy and then discussing missed chances either during or after the game.
In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.Sven Rehders wants to revive the culture of chess cafés together with several collaborators under the motto "Chess Meetup". And he is already doing so. The chess café at Rübenkamp, now officially called Barmbeker Schachcafé, is the starting point, but certainly not intended to be the end of the project.
Sven Rehders originally comes from Stade and learned chess from his father. He also played in a chess club for a while, though he was never particularly ambitious. Later, his busy professional life left little room for chess, but now that he has a somewhat calmer office job, he has rediscovered his old passion for the game and came up with the idea of chess cafés.
Above all, Sven Rehders wants to reach chess enthusiasts who, like him, do not wish to play regular competitive chess in a club but would simply like to enjoy an occasional game – hobby players who may still feel hesitant about joining a chess club, as well as beginners. They can choose to simply remain within this sociable circle. Others who develop ambition and wish to improve may find here a gateway to competitive environments. Financial considerations can also play a role for some chess fans. Club membership involves paying an annual fee regardless of how often one attends or makes use of the offers. Under Sven Rehders' chess café concept, visitors pay only when they participate. An evening of chess costs five euros. This, incidentally, was also the case in the chess cafés of earlier times – one paid an entrance fee. On site, players find everything needed for a game: pieces, boards and clocks.
However, not only casual and occasional players are being targeted. Dedicated blitz enthusiasts are also welcome. On certain days, there is even an incentive for them in the form of prize money.
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.Chess evenings now take place every Wednesday and Friday at the Barmbek Chess Café. Players then gather on the gallery of the restaurant, which is located in the old station building of the Rübenkamp S-Bahn stop. The station was originally built in the autumn of 1913 to provide access to the Barmbek hospital. After a modernisation of the station in the early 1980s, the building was no longer required and was slated for demolition. In 1984, an association acquired the building and had it placed under heritage protection in 1987. Since then, it has been used for social events and by the restaurant with its beer garden.
Good weather allows for chess to be played outdoors
As a former station building at an S-Bahn stop, the Barmbek Chess Café is of course very easy to reach by public transport. The S1 line runs from Hamburg and even extends as far as Wedel. From Rübenkamp station, the line continues northwards. With a change to the U1 underground line at Ohlsdorf, one can also reach Norderstedt very quickly.
This is where the sports club TuRa Harksheide is based, which also has a chess branch. Eberhard Schabel came to Norderstedt in the early 1990s and took over chess coaching at TuRa Harksheide in the mid-1990s. He was particularly committed to fostering girls' interest in chess, teaching and training them, and gradually forming a strong girls' and women's team. The TuRa Harksheide women's chess team competed in a number of competitions and eventually reached the Women's Bundesliga. The team was first promoted in the 2015/16 season but was immediately relegated. Since gaining promotion again in 2017/18, however, it has managed to remain in the top division.
Sven Rehders has developed especially strong connections with TuRa Harksheide and has since become a member of the club himself. When the Women's Bundesliga team plays a home match over a weekend, some of the Bundesliga players come to the café on Friday and play blitz games.
On evenings featuring such chess personalities, the gallery of the building, reserved for chess players, is particularly vibrant.
The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.A couple of Fridays ago, Eberhard Schabel accompanied his players. He recounts how he trained his first girls' chess group at the age of just 16. In Norderstedt, he taught chess to children for TuRa Harksheide and gradually increased the number of his training groups. At times, he was teaching as many as 900 children of all age groups.
Eberhard Schabel has been a professional chess teacher and coach since 2003 and makes his living from it. Together with the club, he has developed a good model for the Women's Bundesliga team that makes it possible to field several titled foreign players without incurring excessive financial costs.
"We are very proud that our amateur team has managed to remain in the Women’s Bundesliga for so long, now in its seventh season since the most recent promotion. It is just a little unfortunate that this achievement is not really acknowledged in the media, including specialist outlets. Attention is usually directed either towards the top teams or towards the newcomers to the league. If you are somewhere in between, you are often overlooked".
Then Eberhard Schabel asks a young opponent to work out how he will win his queen in four moves. Once a chess teacher, always a chess teacher.
Sven Rehders would not be unhappy if his initiative also proved commercially successful. However, this is not his primary motivation. The launch of the Barmbek Chess Café has already borne fruit. Over the course of the past year, the chess café enthusiasts have brought more than 700 additional guests to the venue across 104 chess evenings. This encourages Sven Rehders, his collaborators Leon and Max, and several other chess aficionados to continue expanding the project. It also provides a strong argument in discussions with further locations that they hope to open up for more chess players. With the "Café Love Story" on Grindelallee, Hamburg now has a second chess meeting point, and there are promising talks with a restaurant at Altona's Spritzenplatz.
The chess meetup group thinks strategically and in modern terms. They have already developed an app, chess.connect, in which players can register and see where other chess players, groups or clubs are located nearby or elsewhere. Using the app, for example, one can see whether anything is currently happening at one of the meeting points. Each player is represented by a small piece icon, and when many such icons gather in one place, it signals that other chess enthusiasts can be found there for a game.
For many years, clubs and federations have been considering how to draw chess players away from the screens of online platforms and bring them back to the boards. Perhaps this strategy ends up working.
Naturally, the young chess meetup aficionados also make use of other social media channels to promote their idea.
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