Calling Checkmate While Sipping Caramel Macchiato

They certainly have no illusions of approaching the likes of Bobby Fischer, nor will you catch them playing marathon games into the wee hours of the morning.    

“We’re not geniuses, we’re just regular players,” said Dr. Lowell Taubman, a founder and co-president of the Long Beach Chess Club. “We all have a little ADD, so we can’t play for three hours.”

Taubman and other club members set up their rooks, pawns and other chess pieces and boards at Starbucks every Thursday evening at 7:30. Last Thursday Taubman, an internist with a practice on Riverside Boulevard, and Ron Fried, one of his patients, arrived at the coffee shop on West Park Avenue a minute before their scheduled meeting time, so eager are they to order their barista-made drinks and get started.

Both men took up the board game about five years ago, in their early-50s. While they want to improve and win each week, their other motives for playing are just as important. 

“I like the mental stimulation it gives me,” said Fried, who also does crossword puzzles daily.

“It gets us away from our computers and televisions — and our wives,” Taubman said half jokingly.

Although he, too, noted that he plays in part to keep mentally active. “It’s a real challenge for me because I’m still new at it and I’m a slow, steady learner,” he added. 

As Taubman and Fried started to play, other club members trickled in and dragged their tables together in the middle of the coffee shop. They chat occasionally and briefly between long, contemplative stares at their chessboards.

Among them is Andy Strasser, a long-time chess player whom Taubman credits with giving him the confidence to play; club co-president James Treufhaft, who was 10 when his father taught him the game; and Nelson Vinokur and his 20-something son, Justin, who play on a board with pieces in the shape of ancient Asian warriors and emperors.

When asked to describe the game and the skills needed to play effectively, the players offer varying nouns and adjectives: a science, strategy, forward-thinking, an art, seeing patterns and combinations.

A backgammon player, Nelson Vinokur started to play chess about three years ago and finds it far more intellectually challenging.

“Backgammon is more reflective of life: you never know which way the dice are going to fall,” he said. “You can be skilled but then all of a sudden someone pulls the rug out from under you and you roll with the punches. With chess, if you’re playing a better player, chances are you’re going to lose.”

Strasser was a student at Stony Brook in 1967 when he learned chess, and soon found it was educationally detrimental.  

“When someone showed me how to play I couldn’t stop,” Strasser said. “And I used to play bridge, too, so I was always playing bridge and chess and I didn’t last long at Stony Brook.”

Now, each Thursday, he and his fellow club members, 10 in all, switch off competing against one another. While they all want to win, each agreed that the club is more about gathering for a good time.

“The camaraderie is nice and it’s good mental stimulation,” said Treuhaft, who ritually sips a caramel macchiato during games. 

He got the idea to start the club and play in a public place after he, Taubman and their friends played regularly in the basement of his Long Beach home. They decided on a centrally located, spacious place in Starbucks, with the hope of getting the community more involved.  

Some Starbucks patrons occasionally jumped in on their games, and a few have joined the club, including two Long Beach High School students. 

Said Taubman: “The customers usually say ‘I haven’t played in 20 years.’”