Chess Clubs You have been a member of.

[Fred Henderson]

List them in order, and say a few things. Which was the best, and why? I'm on the run. I'll post my list soon.

[Hugh Brodie]

I could say a lot about Montreal chess “clubs” which I have attended over the years – both as a member and not.

By the early 60’s, traditional chess clubs (i.e. with a membership fee, executive, regular events, and a team to compete vs other clubs) in Montreal were disappearing fast. By the time I started playing (1966-67), there was only one club left – the Metropolitan CC. We younger players had a team organized by Dudley LeDain, and one of out matches was against this club. It met on the second floor above a restaurant at 201 Rachel E. I still pass by the building regularly, but of course the club is long gone. Around 1969 or 1970, it began using the facilities of the Vanderbilt Bridge Club – in an old mansion on Mountain St. The bridge club went bust a few months later, and there went chess.

Along came the summer of 1969, when LeDain’s chess column announced that the Alekhine CC was going to open in a building called the Show Mart – easily accessible by Metro. The building was used for conventions and other large meetings, and had two floors with small offices – many used as practice rooms by musicians.

The Alekhine CC used the after-hours space of an organization called the “Quebec-USSR Cultural Society". We never really figured out what they did, but there was lots of literature promoting the USSR. Arthur Langlois – a regular at tournaments – ran the club. He charged a membership for anyone who wanted to pay, or didn’t know they could play for free. In those early days, it was mostly blitz – often for small stakes – with Langlois being a major loser. Kevin Spraggett began his career there – winning almost every one of the weekly blitz tournaments with perfect scores. I began organizing the blitz tournaments - with a rating system that I would continue for another 30 years.

The club would move (along with the Soviets) in 1972 to 6827 St-Hubert. A few scholastic tournaments were held there – introducing us to players like Sylvain Barbeau and Francois Leveille.
In 1974, it moved to 4570 St-Denis – above a big bookstore owned by a chessplayer. He gave the Soviets a good deal on second-floor space, and the chess “club” (and Arthur Langlois) followed. There was space for close to 200 players, so a good tournament site.

The final years of the ACC – the Soviets closed up, and the club moved to College Maisonneuve during 1977-78 – using a vacant classroom on Friday evenings for its weekly blitz tournament.
Meanwhile – the Fischer boom arrived, and small clubs started appearing around the city – making for a few very successful team tournaments – as many as two sections of 10 or 15 teams each. With Leo Williams, I started a club in 1972 at the Downtown YMCA, which was open Saturdays and Sundays. It lasted about a year and a half, before we both got fed up with it. There was a token rent to pay, but it was always a challenge trying to collect membership fees from poor, starving chess players.

At the same time – Café En Passant on St Denis (a block north of the current Strategy store) came into existence. It rented sets for 50c an hour, but for $5 you could buy a year’s membership allowing you to play for free. It was hard for management to check up on everyone, so when the boss came in the front door to check for memberships – a number of players would quickly exit by the rear door.
During the Fischer-Spassky match, they had contact with “La Presse” newspaper, which was getting the moves by Teletype. Every 10 or 15 minutes, someone would phone the Café with the latest moves. A strong player (such as Camille Coudari or Leo Williams) would play and analyze the moves on a demo board to a packed house. Thus was for members only, and fairly reliable sources told me they sold over a thousand $5 memberships. The food and beverages (it wasn’t licensed) were cheap – but again it was hard to get poor, starving chess players to buy – unless they had a good night at money games. The Saturday night blitzes were popular, along with GM visits (Quinteros spent several months in Montreal) and simuls (I beat Portisch in one). The Café lasted until 1981.

More to come – featuring the clubs of Serge Lacroix and Roman Pelts, and more cafes.

[Fred Henderson]

Thanks Hugh, I'll be watching for it.

[Hugh Brodie]

My previous post continued...

I should also mention university chess clubs – McGill had an active club when I was there. They had a room available Monday to Friday all afternoon. As long as there was someone with a key to the locker where we stored the equipment, it was open noon to 6. McGill hosted the 1969 North American Intercollegiate, in which Camille Coudari went 8-0, and McGill won the championship. Top four scores counted on each team – I was probably 6^th or 7^th for McGill.

Serge Lacroix started off with a club on the Cote d’Abraham in Quebec City in the mid-60s. He would let us sleep on the floor there if we were in a tournament in the city. In the early 70s, he moved to Montreal and set up “Le Specialiste des Echecs” at 1111 de Maisonneuve E. It was a chess bookstore as well as a club.

After a few years there, the property was expropriated and demolished. He moved a few blocks away to 1365 St Catherine E, where it would stay until the early 2000s when it merged with CMA.
Serge ran it for a few more years, and then decided to sell, and set up a new club elsewhere. This was in the Merlion (now a Best Western) Hotel on Drummond St. It was open 7 days a week, but got light attendance, and closed about a year later. He tried another location on Mt Royal E, but it failed as well after a year. By the mid to late 80s he gave up opening any more clubs.

Roman Pelts came to Montreal in 1979 or 1980 and opened a club in his brother’s ballet studio on St Catherine W – right downtown. He had some dedicated members, but he was so sure he was going to get hundreds more that he moved his club to a second floor in Westmount. He was able to attract the old timers (Witt, Schlosser, Fox, Gersho, etc.) but he needed a younger crowd. I bought a membership just to support him – even though I ran weekly blitz tournaments and was willing to waive my membership fee. He lasted there about a year before heading off to Toronto. (his lack of French was a negative point).

Over the next decades, cafes came and went – but there was always a steady place to play until Covid in 2020. There are plans to open a new club at the FQE’s new offices, in conjunction with the Transnational Championship in June, but it’s not likely to meet more than once a week. In the meantime, we play sporadically at Kofi Crepe on St-Denis, or in good weather, in the park at Rachel and Berri. Facebook is our friend, so we know who (if anyone) is coming to play. (e.g. tonight, I see at least four have confirmed).

[Fred Henderson]

Thanks, I'll bookmark that for later. I won't try list mine all at once.

Probably my favorite format was the Bayview Games Club, which eventually folded because not enough players, especially 2000+ players, would pony up the membership fee.

Toughest by far was the Toronto Chess Club on Vaughan Road in the late 80s. Nickoloff ruled the roost. I battled my ass off in the reserve section of the Wednesday night 15min, but never won. Unone night I finally got it done. At least I thought, Until Nickoloff took the lion's share on a technicality. The TD felt bad, he was very apologetic.

I did make an appearance at the Simon Fraser University Chess Club. I had a fried who was already in it. My first day, I won a very tough game, then my opponent offered to play me for money. Feeling confident, I went "sure, how much?" Somehow my friend managed to slip me the news that his name was Alex Kuznecov, so I begged off.

[Ian Findlay]

For me in the early 70's, I played at the Central YMCA, which had well over 200 members after the Fischer-Spassky match and boasted that it was the largest chess club in Canada. Great old masters like Fuster, Theodorovitch, Kuprejanov would play there as well as younger players such as Day, Amos, Nurmi, Selick and Nickoloff. Around 1975 they were forced to pack up and leave and headed to an old courthouse on Adelaide Street. The club was run by Martin Jaegar and Wilf Ferner at this time. This lasted for about 2 or 3 years, when they had to relocate to Vaughn Road. This club was managed initially by David Lavin and then Lawrence Day. It was very strong and as Fred says, Nickoloff was the dominant player, as well as a young Deen Hergott and Lawrence Day when he played.

Hart House Chess Club at the University of Toronto was in a small room on the 2nd floor at Hart House. On Friday night there would be Bughouse and always a full house. It would be frequented by the likes of Robert Morrison, Ray Stone, Dave McCleod, Ian Kilgour, Martin Buckholz, Ernest Benz, Bill Hyde, Jan Pajak and myself. In the late seventies, early 80's it was run by Ray Stone, Robert Morrison and myself.

The Scarborough Chess Club always had well over 100 members, but they did not really cater to the top players and there were few masters who played there, but they did eventually have speed tournaments which I participated in. It was run by Al MacDonald who really did not try to attract strong players.

The Bayview Games Club initially run by Mark Dutton was very strong. It had great young players like Bluvshtein, Stevens, Vaingorten, Zugic, Cummings Tyomkin,, Ochkoos. Then Vlad Dobrich took over and it slowly declined through no fault of Vlads. Eventually Vlad would run tournaments out of local pubs which was a lot of fun, but not the best environment for chess. A very young Nicholas Vettese, Samsonkin and the Plotkins were among the top players.

More recently, the Calgary Chess Club which when I arrived in 2015 was run by Frank Klutymans. Around 2017 Steve Sklenka took over as President and completely revamped the club. There is the main room and the skittles area. Steve upgraded all the equipment, cleaned the club to the point of it looking like a hotel, added paintings, new furniture and last but not least, revamped the library. Around 2020, the club was then run by Michael Anderson. Michael went even further to enhance the club and volunteers over 100 hours each month. He is ably helped by Treasurer Gordon Campbell, who is a GM at bridge and former British Junior Chess Champion. The library was put in a secured cabinet, expensive wooden sets and DGT sets were bought for the club. It helps that they receive Casino Funding. They have many tournaments during the week and open house Fridays, when sometimes Masters give simuls and lectures.

The Edmonton chess club where I have played tournaments, but never belong is also quite impressive. It is run by Terry Seehagen, who does a fabulous job of keeping everything in order. They also receive casino funding and it is a first class club. I would say the ECC and the CCC are the two nicest clubs I have ever been witnessed. They both run Internationals, but Edmonton ran much stronger Internationals with stars like Shirov, Short, Ivanchuk, Shankland, Ganguly, Kamsky, Shabalov, Benjamin, Harikrishna, Wang Hao, Sutherman to name a few.

I look forward to moving back to Toronto in March 2023 and exploring the new clubs.

[Brad Thomson]

Thanks to Hugh and Ian for their historical accounts, these are very interesting.

[Fred Henderson]

<snip>

I look forward to moving back to Toronto in March 2023 and exploring the new clubs

What will you look for in a new club to join?

"Somewhat" accurate comparison of Dutton Chess and Bayview Games Club, DuttonChess attracted more members, but they were average players, You had to be a member to play at DuttonChess game/week club tournament. The club was only open two or three days a week. Dutton's bigger tournaments at the Bayview location were completely separate from the club. Don't think Dutton club proper had any experts or masters as members.

Vlad took over and created a new format and called it Bayview Games Club. Vlad charged a significantly higher membership fee, but the club was open seven days a week I'm pretty sure. I guess that did not offer eough appeal to average players, given the higher cost. Vlad's tournaments were open to non members who paid a tournament fee. I am pretty sure all the masters you mentioned played in some of his tournaments, but were never members of the club.

Also, and perhaps most significant, I believe Mr. Dutton basically propped up the club with his own money, I doubt he made any profits. I say Vlad tried to run a business and failed, because most chess players wouldn't pay full value for what they were getting. Perhaps we can blame the lack of success of the Bayview Games Club on the Internet, where you can get your chess fix much more cheaply, with a higher standard of competition.

Regards...

[Ian Findlay]

What will you look for in a new club to join?

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One that gives FM's free membership :)