Inside Washington Square Park’s Street Chess Community

This guest blog post by 2024 Chessable Research Award winner FM Eugene Choi Yoo introduces us to one of the most famous street chess communities in the world. At Washington Square Park, New York City, chess hustlers view the game as both a passion and a source of income. After spending time there, Yoo finds that despite the competitiveness, street chess attracts caring individuals who achieve harmonious positions in chess and who work well together. Along with his research, Yoo created a short documentary film, Street Chess: Community, Care & Competition. Read his impressions:

Street Chess Community: Conflict, Care, and Competition 

Street chess in Washington Square Park is unique. While many outdoor spaces promote human interaction, street chess is more than that: it forms a self-regulated society governed by laws.

Managed by the chess hustlers that come to earn money every day and claim this place as their own, street chess has its own internal social dynamics yet also interacts with other forms of law, such as park regulations and New York City policies. This society operates as a group when it shares its craft, and each hustler connects to other communities in the city’s life, like hairstylists, telephone operators, or Wall Street loan officers.

Chess-thinking people like to analyze competition chess. Urban anthropologists and architects consider forms of urban space-making. For all the interest in chess and city design, there are few studies of street chess. Fine (2021) is an ethnography describing social hierarchy and the community that arises through tournament chess. Desjarlais (2011) captures the sensation of playing in tournaments and online platforms. Lavenda (2003) discusses chess anthropology but fails to include street chess.

Contemporary street chess literature uses the game as a framework to explore societal issues. Bonomo (2016) examines illicit drug use and public drinking in a chess park in downtown Atlanta to assess the effectiveness of the criminal justice system. Korsant (2022) connects street chess playing in Greenwich Village, NYC, to protests against police violence and systemic racism. Both Bonomo and Korsant suggest that chess hustlers are predominantly low-income African-American men.

In this blog post, I build on this research by arguing that the game has become a type of social infrastructure connected to the built-in chess tables in the park. Its function has surpassed playing chess, fostering important social interaction among the players. My insights come from spending several months undertaking ethnographic fieldwork with a street chess community in New York City.

Economics and Time

Washington Square Park is one of the most popular parks in NYC. Located in West Village in lower Manhattan, it spans 10 acres. Washington Square Park serves as a cultural hub filled with jazz bands, a monolithic marble arch, and a central fountain. In it, people from all walks of life congregate: street vendors, skateboarders, and in one of the far corners, the chess hustlers.

The setup of the chess area, which I refer to as the chess ring, contains 15 tables arranged in a circle. As the boards are already carved into the tables, which contributes to the park feel, hustlers only bring chess pieces and clocks. Some tables don’t have benches, so the hustlers utilize crates as makeshift chairs. The area is closely linked to history: Bobby Fischer and other world-famous chess players have played here in the past, giving the ring a different aura.

Street chess is predicated on two major factors: money and time. While outsiders might consider street chess a form of entertainment, to the hustlers themselves, chess is a passion and a source of income. As such, hustlers play with clocks, not only as a way to defeat their opponents, but to ensure that money keeps flowing every given time interval. The standard price when I visited the park was 5 dollars for 3 minutes per side. One hustler reported that he can earn upwards of 600 dollars if it’s a particularly good day.

Hustlers have an unconventional playing style. Many of them are former tournament players, but it’s visible how their chess has transformed. As the time control is shorter, street chess becomes more a sport than a relaxed pastime. It depends on instinct and ease of play. During one game, I observed a hustler sacrifice his chess pieces to generate a massive kingside attack. When I asked him why he did it, he smiled and said, “I’ll take a fun position over a boring one any day.”

The game and tables bring people to the park, sustain a community feeling, and improve people’s days. People play, interact, hustle, and stay longer in the open air to share a New York moment.

Chess Hustler Interactions

While the games can get intense, the majority of chess hustlers are friendly and help each other out. When one hustler has to leave, they offer their spot to another person. Ambitious challengers get passed from one hustler to the next so that everyone can make a profit. In the long run, the group wins together.

While most hustlers are African-American men, the community is open to anyone who wants to play. When I spoke to a Turkish hustler, he said he’s never felt out of place. As a Korean-American, I can attest to the fact that the street chess community transcends age and race and is inclusive to anyone who loves chess. The chess ring forms an ethnically tolerant enclave in the heart of New York City.

Chess hustler Cheese, a rapper who makes videos on current events such as COVID-19 mandates and the Hans Niemann cheating scandal, always speaks passionately about his son. Recently he has faced financial struggles but he shows up with the brightest smile, the most creative catch phrases, and a sense of excitement that makes people naturally gravitate to him. Cheese tells me about his desire to play well and much so he can support his son and pay for his schooling. He lost his job during the pandemic.

Marty is another standout player. One of the most down to earth people at the park, he is popular among chess visitors, inviting them with the phrase, “the chess shop is open.” In him I see a deep compassion for others as he speaks lovingly about his family and his top priority to see his granddaughter each day. Once I asked him what he did when not in the park, and he surprised me by saying he was preparing his home for the winter, stocking up on candy, and writing his own book on chess openings. Marty enjoys talking trash to me, and whenever I approach his board he likes to greet me with phrases like “hold it there, mister” and “whatcha think you’re doing in my house.” I love reciprocating with friendly banter.

Discussion

Street chess has made me reconsider how I think about and understand culture, community, and people. Perhaps one can never evaluate a community until one has embraced the people for who they are. When I was younger and heard stories about the chess hustlers at Washington Square Park, I unfairly judged them as idle people. But now I’ve come to appreciate them for pursuing their craft together with joy, and for creating not just competition but also care and community on a daily basis.

References

Bonomo, E. (2016). Crime and control at the chess park [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Georgia State University. https://doi.org/10.57709/9434784

Desjarlais, R. (2011). Counterplay: An anthropologist at the chessboard. University of California Press.

Fine, G. A. (2021). Players and pawns: How chess builds community and culture. University of Chicago Press. 

Korsant, C. J. (2022). Playing chess in public: Recreational traditions in a time of crisis. Streetnotes, 29. https://doi.org/10.5070/S529057452

Lavenda, R. H. (2003). Pushing the wood: Chess playing as an anthropological subject. The Cultural Anthropology, 44(5). https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/379265 

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