If you follow the Chicago chess scene on Facebook, chances are that you have heard about the Chicago Chess Blitzers. Thanks to enthusiastic promotion by Nathan Kelly on YouTube and social media, word is spreading fast about this strong chess club on Chicago's southside.
While blitz players on Chicago's southside have been meeting at McDonald's at 95th and Halsted for a long time, ten Chicago Chess Blitzers recently pitched in to secure the lease on a storefront at 8622 S. Pulaski in Chicago.
The doors of the Chicago Chess Club will open on July 1, 2017 and will remain open from noon to midnight daily.
Founding board members are Tim Donnahue, Edwin Walker, Nathan Kelly, Sedrick Prude, Johnny Strapp, Louie Green, Stephen Jennings, Roger Hickman, Chet Parks, and Willie Granderson.
Easily accessible by public transportation, the chess center is poised to be the new hub of blitz chess in the Windy City, offering casual play, instruction and eventually tournaments.
Players from out of state have come by the club in recent months to challenge chess legends -- such as Tom Murphy -- in five-minute blitz games.
Earlier this month, FIDE Master James Canty from Detroit and Candidate Master Aakaash Meduri lost blitz matches against two of the strongest blitzers -- CM Daniel Jones and Expert Remi Adekola, respectively.
FM Atulya Shetty from Michigan, the K-12 national champion in 2013, has also visited the club on several occasions.
A 10-player squad of Blitzers travelled to St. Louis recently to face off against ten members of the Memphis Chess Club, winning the match 130 - 70. (Editor's Note: All 10 players of the Blitzers played each of the ten from the Memphis squad in dual blitz matches -- 2 x 10 x 10 = 200 games!)
As Roger Hickman put it, this shows that "Chess is alive on the southside of Chicago!"
A Facebook posting suggests the website is www.chicagochessclub.org and an email address of This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
(Editor's Note: Bill Brock writes in to wish the club well and asks that the public not be confused with his organization's Chicago Chess Center: www.chichess.org)