Chess on the 4th

Hyde Park woodpushers: For the Nth year in a row we'll have chess in Nichols Park during the 4th of July festivities on Monday. We'll be near the 54th Street cul de sac, where the chess tables used to be before they fell prey to vandalism. Come by and play a game or two. And bring the kids.

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Chess in the Park: the Threepeat

For the third year in a row, chess will be a part of the Hyde Park 4th of July festivities in Nichols Park. After crashing the picnic in 2007 and 2008 by simply showing up uninvited (though not unwelcomed) with chess equipment, this year we'll be there officially.

The neighborhood 4th of July parade down 53rd Street ends at the park, and the celebration there starts when the parade ends. If you're there, please stop by for a game of chess. We'll be in the middle of the park, around the two concrete chess tables by the big-kids playground.

We'll be playing chess and plugging the Ray School Club, the Chicago Blaze, and some ill-defined fledging neighborhood chess initiative I hope to launch. See you then.

Chess in the Park, Part II

“Chess is like ginger ale. No one thinks about bringing it, but people love it when someone remembers it.”

Liquid Egg Product

For the second year in a row, the truth of LEP’s prescient, profound, and prophetic observation has been proven true at the 4th of July celebration in Chicago’s Nichols Park. No one thought about chess, no one asked for it, but someone remembered it yesterday, and kids and adults were all over it like a cheap suit.

Please forgive the cliché; it’s a simile I enjoy too much to resist. More photos here.

Your Independence Day Moment of Zen

For life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, peace, social justice, chess, and all that good stuff.

Moment of Zen IX.

Chess in the Park Tomorrow

Everyone had such a great time when we did this a year ago that we're going to do it again. If all goes as planned, I'll be out there in Nichols Park tomorrow during the July 4th festivities with chess sets so anybody who wants to can come and play. The kids had a great time last year. Maybe this year we can get some adults to play.

The 4th of July parade in Hyde Park is scheduled to reach Nichols Park at about noon on Friday, so that's when things should get started. Look for us at the two concrete chess tables just south of the 54th Street cul du sac ("dead end" where I come from) between Kimbark and Kenwood. Come and play, very informal.

"A" marks the spot

Chess in the Park

It never fails: bring out the chess equipment and you draw a crowd. That's what happened at the neighborhood 4th of July celebration in Nichols Park. We put sets on the park's two chess tables, plus an oversized set on the ground. The kids were on it like a cheap suit. Adults, too. More photos here.