VIDEO: City's Last Chess Battles Rage In Greenwich Village Backroom

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY – Nestled in the back room of a rundown Greenwich Village store, you can almost hear the intense concentration. At tiny tables, people sit in silence, staring at checkered boards, deep in battle.

The shop is the only place left in Manhattan where people can walk in, take a seat and focus on the game of chess.

The front of Chess Forum on Thompson Street features display cases crammed with all kinds of game sets, from rows of “Super Mario” characters to stately traditional boards.

But the back is where the magic happens, with old timers and novices alike hunched over wooden tables calculating their moves.

(Video by Marissa Duhaney)

On a recent weeknight, an 11-year-old boy visiting the city with his mom from Fair Lawn, N.J. sat down to challenge a 25-year-old player.

On-site teacher Rahim Jamal, 56, was giving advice to the older player, a Chess Forum regular – and sounded more like an old-school boxing coach than a devotee of the game of kings.

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“You have a chance to do a lot of damage, but you don’t do it,” Jamal admonished the regular, Nash Sacamano.

Jamal turned to the out-of-towner, Ron Baver, and said, “You know what I would do? I will tell you after (Sacamano) makes his move.”

The boy’s mom, Anna Baver, said the Greenwich Village shop was something her son could never find at home.

“There’s a lot of opportunities for learning, but not in a casual atmosphere like this,” she said of her hometown.

An hour at a table and a few friendly games cost $5, or $1 for seniors. On Saturdays from 2 to 4 or 5 p.m., Chess Forum offers free games and lessons.

“This is a game that is not restricted by age,” said owner Imad Khachan, 52. “A 5-year-old could beat a 50-year-old, easily.”

As a family came in to buy a backgammon set, Khachan tried to encourage the youngest member of the group, a 4-year-old, to get into chess.

He gave the boy a hardcover chess book for free and shouted to the back of the store, “Mr. Rahim, teach this young chess champion!”

Khachan, originally from Beirut, conveys his enthusiasm to everyone else who enters the store, quizzing them about their backgrounds and exhorting them to sit down for a quick game.

Colorful regulars like Avron Soyer, 78, reinforced the friendly atmosphere. A lanky retired arts educator with bushy white hair and a mustache, he resembled novelist Kurt Vonnegut.

“I feel this is a community. Once I stayed away for months and I walked back and everybody said hello as though I had been there yesterday,” he said between games with an old buddy.

“And I like chess. I’m not very good at it, but I like it.”

Chess Forum, at 219 Thompson St., is perhaps the last business specializing in the game in the city. Chess Shop, long located across street, closed after a long, bitter rivalry. Now that storefront is occupied by The Uncommons, a cafe that offers a huge number of board games.

The same street has a couple of other throwbacks to Greenwich Village of old, like Generation Records and Stella Dallas Vintage Clothing.

You can still, of course, find players looking to squeeze a few bucks out of you in games at Washington Square Park and Union Square.

But to Sacamano, there’s no contest between those spots and Chess Forum.

“It’s a very friendly atmosphere, as opposed to playing in the park,” he said. “It’s a bit aggressive out there.”

After roughly half an hour of play with Ron, he was getting ready to head home. The boy had won.

“He’s quite good!” Sacamano said with a smile.

Lead image by Shant Shahrigian/Patch.