The first Wolrd Chess club lived in Moscow, in a cavernous space near Patriarch Ponds where chess mixed with cocktails, DJs, and the occasional world champion. It quickly became a strange little institution — a place where you could order a Negroni and then lose a pawn to a 12-year-old prodigy. The club eventually closed, but not before proving the point: chess doesn’t have to whisper in libraries, it can shout from the middle of the city. The founding team of the club is writing a book about their experience of experimenting with chess. More at https://merenzon.com.