Chess is back to the borough
Article mis en ligne le jeudi 20 janvier 2011

A new chess association has been born in CDN-NDG, but it could soon become a victim of its own success.

The Fil-Can Chess and Social Club used to play chess on Van Horne Ave. near the Plamondon metro station, calling the Tim Hortons home. But now the organization needs a new venue.

The borough pledged a one-time $1000 grant to help the philanthropic club organize creative activities for its members during 2011. The expense was authorized at the Jan. 17 council meeting.

Councillor Marvin Rotrand met with Alberto Floresca, then the acting president of the chess club that was being formed. Floresca came in with 15 or 20 founding members for a meeting when Rotrand only expected two or three. They discussed how the needs of the community could be met.

Three months later the chance to play the game of military strategy, whose origins can be traced all the way back to the time of Alexander the Great’s invasion of India in 326 BC, was drawing up to 300 members to the club’s events. The Montreal chess club (CEM) has 120 members. When the president of the Fil-Can Chess and Social Club was inducted at the beginning of December the room was packed. The club is open to all ethnic groups but, unlike Alexander, has no intention of reaching “the ends of the world and the Great Outer Sea.”

“You’ve touched a nerve. You’ve done what nobody else has done in the city. You brought chess back to life in our neighbourhood,” lauded Rotrand.

[Marie Cicchini]