Calling Checkmate While Sipping Caramel Macchiato
Starbucks Coffee
101 W Park Ave, Long Beach, NY
The Long Beach Chess Club takes their games to Starbucks.
By Joseph Kellard
February 28, 2011
They certainly have no illusions of approaching the likes of Bobby Fischer, nor will you catch them playing marathon games into the wee hours of the morning.
“We’re not geniuses, we’re just regular players,” said Dr. Lowell Taubman, a founder and co-president of the Long Beach Chess Club. “We all have a little ADD, so we can’t play for three hours.”
Taubman and other club members set up their rooks, pawns and other chess pieces and boards at Starbucks every Thursday evening at 7:30. Last Thursday Taubman, an internist with a practice on Riverside Boulevard, and Ron Fried, one of his patients, arrived at the coffee shop on West Park Avenue a minute before their scheduled meeting time, so eager are they to order their barista-made drinks and get started.
Both men took up the board game about five years ago, in their early-50s. While they want to improve and win each week, their other motives for playing are just as important.
“I like the mental stimulation it gives me,” said Fried, who also does crossword puzzles daily.
“It gets us away from our computers and televisions — and our wives,” Taubman said half jokingly.
Although he, too, noted that he plays in part to keep mentally active. “It’s a real challenge for me because I’m still new at it and I’m a slow, steady learner,” he added.
As Taubman and Fried started to play, other club members trickled in and dragged their tables together in the middle of the coffee shop. They chat occasionally and briefly between long, contemplative stares at their chessboards.
Among them is Andy Strasser, a long-time chess player whom Taubman credits with giving him the confidence to play; club co-president James Treufhaft, who was 10 when his father taught him the game; and Nelson Vinokur and his 20-something son, Justin, who play on a board with pieces in the shape of ancient Asian warriors and emperors.
Full article here.
I play at Starbucks too, but part of Barnes and Noble in my hometown.