The dub techno chess club
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In the depths of the developing Trafford area of Manchester, Stretford Mall is being reinvented. The ghostly shopping centre is set to be demolished, just one part of Trafford Council’s plans to reinvent the area into a new town centre equipped with new houses, flats and a public park. It was amongst these sparse redeveloped units that pop-up bar Rainy Heart, run by local legends Ruf Dug and Dan Hope, found a cheap and cheerful temporary home. The opportunity allowed Rainy Heart to use their make-shift space to host everything from film screenings and puzzle nights to all-nighter parties that brought in hundreds of punters over its short-lived run. Rainy Heart has come to a close for now, but it birthed the Dub Techno Chess Club, which if I do say so myself, is just getting started.
The old ways of socialising are morphing and changing. It is increasingly rare for people to come across third places – comfortable and convenient spaces that sit outside of work and home. The financial pressures on cafés, bars and venues to stay afloat are surging, leading to price increases and tightening opening hours across Manchester and the UK. The ability to mooch around in a bar without spending most of your paypacket feels like it’s slowly becoming a thing of the past.
“It was a perfect opportunity to risk this weird idea,” says Tommy Cross, a DJ, pizza chef and my Dub Techno Chess Club co-conspirator. Tommy and I had discussed putting on a chess club for a while, but as he says: “It all clicked into place after a few long chess games with dub techno records playing.” When we heard Rainy Heart was offering up their space in Stretford Mall for weird gigs, we knew exactly where our daft chess club should be released unto the world.
Each club night centred around an evening of casual chess games scored by everything dub techno, from the iconic records of the late 90s to all the weird and wonderful contemporary offshoots. These soirees are typically candle-lit, with the smell of incense percolating between games soundtracked to pulsating, dubby sub notes. Our chessboards are handmade by us, featuring our screenprinted mascots, drawn-up by the incredible artist and resident DJ Madeleine Parford.
It is special to see electronic dance fans meeting together on a calm weekday – as opposed to the usual hedonistic settings of nightclub smoking areas – and interacting together in a much more slow, sensitive way. Our chessboards have seen all sorts of players, of all ages and backgrounds, who happen to take an interest in either chess or dub techno, or just want a relaxed space to unwind.
Members that were introduced to the genre through this club have reported that it softens the typical intensity of a chess game, catalysing the mind with serene chords and mellow bass notes instead of the typical piercing silence. It is a genre that has been quietly growing since the 1990s, but it struggles to find a place outside of daytime DJ sets in alternative electronic music festivals. There isn’t much chance to experience mellow electronic music in the bustling, loud and stimulating venues of Manchester. An echoed sentiment from our chess club selectors. When DJing at bars, it’s a struggle to keep up with ever-shortening attention spans that are mirrored in electronic music. There has been a resurgence in the world of downtempo, dub techno and trip-hop music as a conscious pulling back of the pendulum of Gen-Z’s listening habits.
Naeem Desai, a committed attendee of our chess club says his joy for the game “reignited” through attending the events. “It expanded my horizons, socially, as a way to meet new people and spend ages just chatting shit.” Many people usually stick about for the full five hours of our events, hanging around to discuss chess, tunes or plans.
The grounding which a game of chess provides pulls us out of the dopamine-chasing, digital world, forcing an awareness of how chess pieces interact with each other. In this time of overwhelming and superficial connections, chess can be an intimate interaction with a stranger, through the humble expressions of nothing but chess moves. We’ve witnessed that connectivity at work – with a number of couples having their first date at our club.
But of course, not all good things last forever. The loss of Rainy Heart’s space in Stretford Mall comes with the loss of the chess club’s original home, too. We couldn’t have done it without the support of Rainy Heart, Ruf Dug continues to support our different nights as the club traverses around Manchester and beyond. As sad as it is to leave our home, Desai suggests its brevity was part of the charm: “The temporary nature of the chess club’s residency at Rainy Heart made it feel like a special opportunity worth investing in.”
And invest we have. This won’t be the last you hear of our little chess group. Long live the Dub Techno Chess Club!
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