Chess Is King, but No One Rules at the Park

Oblivious to the clamor of rush-hour traffic and drunks scavenging for food, a group of chess players sits on stone benches slamming their palms against timers, shouting or silently studying their boards.

The players have turned sections of the park at Dupont Circle in downtown Washington into a mini-melting pot where issues like class, race, sex and politics fade.

At any time of day, entrepreneurs in smart suits can be found playing against homeless people with unkempt beards and students learning from the more skillful players.

“It’s the only spot where the lowest of low and highest of high can get together and fight it out over the same table,” said Mike Jones, 38, a pension-law specialist who has been playing park chess for the last 10 years.

The two most popular spots for park chess in the nation’s capital are at Dupont Circle and Lafayette Park, across from the White House.

They became hangouts for chess lovers in the mid-1970s after the Recreation and Parks Department installed stone tables--10 in each park--with chess boards painted on them and four square benches around them.

More than a dozen players usually can be found at each park, with the number swelling to about 25 around lunch hour and in the evening.

Most bring their own boards. Few bring partners. They find them in the parks.

The most popular form of the game is “blitz” chess, which allows players to finish the game in one to 10 minutes.

“We like it because everyone’s in a hurry and because you can do more experimenting and can test more ideas,” Jones said.

Many players, like Tapio Christensen, 25, a graduate student, go to the park to improve their skills. “I come here to learn. The strongest players are here,” he said.

Others at Lafayette Park enjoy seeing faces familiar from TV strolling in the park.

“I have seen many White House celebrities here and lots of White House correspondents,” Jones said. “But I have not seen the president.”

Few women play park chess.

Some, like Deva Perez, 21, said they were intimidated by men who looked like professional players and were afraid they would not be accepted.

Perez said it took her almost two years to muster enough courage to play at Dupont Circle.

“I thought everybody will be mean to me. But they were very nice. Someone saw I had my game and asked me to play,” she said.