“
If the weather is cold or too rainy, I take refuge at the Café de la Régence.
There I have fun watching chess playing ...
”Since Diderot and his famous
nephew of Rameau
, we know that Paris and chess have written a common history.
Fascinated by the universe of 64 squares, reinvigorated by the formidable
Le jeu de la Dame series
, four followers of Caïssa have just opened in the capital Blitz Society, a chess café-bar inspired as much by the memory of the great Philidor as by the “
hustlers
”, the
whirlwind game enthusiasts
who make the chess pieces of Washington Square vibrate in Greenwich Village, the bohemian district of New York.
Read alsoPlay online chess against the world champion
Romain Benhamou, one of the founders of this new chess lair firmly believes in the virtues of this almost two-thousand-year-old game, which mixes, bewitched by sublime combinations, all generations:
“There is a community of chess players who eagerly dreamed of a friendly place like this.
It naturally descends from the Luxembourg Gardens and has already, in a few weeks of existence, adopted our little
“society”
.
But our great success is that here, as in Vienna in the 19th century or in Paris in the 20th century, passing enthusiasts also stop there to discover a warmth and an atmosphere. "
See also
The Lady's Game
soon to be adapted into a musical
Atmosphere, the word is well chosen since Blitz Society, this circle of reappeared blitzers, was decorated by a talented designer, Sandra Benhamou.
Around a giant photograph of the great Mikhail Tal, nicknamed the magician of Riga by his peers - because his attacks were as unpredictable as they were incalculable -, the decorator was able to find the spirit of the tables of Washington Square in New York by choosing to use only raw materials made of terracotta and weathered wood.
The portrait of Mikhail Tal, known as "the magician of Riga" throne in the middle of the chess cafe Blitz Society Blitz Society
Some masters of the 64 huts have already developed the habit, like the
Neveu de Rameau,
of coming for a walk in the rue du Sabot, in the 6th arrondissement. Sophie Milliet, the reigning French champion, never forgets
to stop by
her “
fantastic chess bar
” when she stops in Paris. The great master Jean-Luc Chabanon admits bluntly that Blitz Society is an ideal place to make riders, madmen and tricks dance on the pretty encrusted platters.
In a few days the world chess championship between Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniatchtchi will start.
One of the main trainers of the brilliant Norwegian champion is the French maestro, Laurent Fressinet, also chief animator in his spare time for the excellent chess site Chess24.
He does not despair, if his protégé retains his title, of showing him one day Blitz Society because the world champion does not hide that he loves the attractions of our capital.
And perhaps then, like Bobby Fischer in his time in New York, he will come to show his gifts in this new Regency.
The mad blitzers of the rue du sabot are already waiting, with undisguised alacrity, for his coming ...
The Blitz Society café-bar, 4, rue du Sabot Paris VIe, open Tuesday to Sunday 11 am-11pm.
The game of the Lady
(
The Queen's Gambit
) Scott Frank and Allan Scott inspired the novel by Walter Tevis, Anya Taylor-Joy
