Chicago Chess Meetup Group
Posted by: panzerbjorn
Location:
Mercury Cafe
1505 West Chicago Avenue
Chicago, IL, 60622
United States 
Website: chess.meetup.com/243/
We meet Most Thursdays from 6 to 9PM. The meetup fee is only $1 for the evening and we have sets, boards and clocks available for member use on site. Check us out on the meetup.com site or at the website link included in the club description.
Chess is sometimes portrayed as a struggle between two opposing people, but those who play know that chess can be a great community activity. We want to bring chess out of that "cold war" mentality and show that a group of chessplayers can have a good time and enjoy themselves (even when they lose.)
We are a social group who meets weekly to play and also to get better. We try our best to share knowledge and generally raise the level of chess play all around. You won't find hustlers or guys who'll try to push you around with their superior chess knowledge, rather we want to encourage an environment where everyone is free to play (or not play) and have a good time. Even to learn a thing or two.
To that end we want to open up the membership of this group to as many of the experiences of chess as possible. From the casual games that you can find at a coffeehouse to more formalized games with stricter rules that you'd see at competitive tournaments. We'll have puzzle nights and evenings where we can discuss our favorite openings as well as our monthly Blitz tournament and maybe if some of our better players have the time, a little clinic now and then on how we can be better players ourselves.
May all your gambits pay off and may you never be in zugzwang.
Jae