Club 64's new premises are open
It is the start of a new chapter for a community that sees in chess far more than a game.
The opening of the new premises of Club 64, Modena's chess club.
It is the start of a new chapter for a community that sees in chess far more than a game.
This is where people meet to play a casual game, to learn their first moves or explore the subtlest strategies, to test themselves in tournaments, but above all to share a particular kind of intelligence and of companionship.
Chess has something deeply human about it: a board, sixty-four squares, a few pieces and infinite possibilities. Every game is a conversation without words, in which intuition and calculation, memory and creativity, caution and courage meet head on.
As Stefan Zweig wrote in his Chess Story, chess is "a game without purpose, and for that very reason perfect".
And Benjamin Franklin, in his essay The Morals of Chess, saw in the game a school that teaches "foresight, circumspection and caution".
A line attributed to Mikhail Botvinnik captures the philosophical nature of the game: "Chess is a form of intellectual production very close to art."
Garry Kasparov grasps one of the most fascinating things about the board when he observes that "chess is a game of infinite possibilities". Behind every position there is a choice; behind every choice, the responsibility of imagining what does not yet exist.
That is exactly what makes a chess club precious: not only teaching how to move the pieces, but teaching how to think before moving them.
Club 64's new premises are a place where different generations meet around the same board: a child discovers how the knight moves for the first time, a beginner learns to open a game, an enthusiast looks for new ideas, and an experienced player, after thousands of games, still finds something they had never seen. Because in chess you never stop learning: every position can be seen from another angle, every mistake can become knowledge, every game can start again from the beginning.
Today a place for meeting, study, competition and culture opens its doors.
A place where 64 squares can still hold a universe.
Good game, Club 64. And good luck with the new adventure.
The afternoon was one of celebration and, as it should be, of chess: a toast by the cake in the club's colours, a look around the new rooms and, above all, plenty of occupied boards, with young players and adults sitting across from one another.
The new premises are meant for everyone. Monday evenings are for study, with the instructors on hand; Saturday afternoons are open play, no entry needed; during the week there are the chess school's courses for children and teenagers and the adult courses, from beginners to advanced. And when there is a tournament, the hall fills with clocks and silence.
Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us and to those who worked to have the new premises ready in time. See you at Via Salvo D'Acquisto 161: Monday evenings for the study evening, Saturday afternoons for open play.
Photos: Opening of the new premises
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