St. Pete Chess Club, located at 540 4th Ave N. next to St. Pete Shuffle, is the oldest chess club in America that hasn’t relocated. Run by Timotey Gaspodinov, the club offers 10-week 2-hour group classes from 2pm-4pm every Sunday. Memberships are $60. Almost every Saturday is a chess tournament, and individual lessons are available for $50 an hour. To learn more about additional offerings and schedules, visit St. Pete Chess Club here.
Established in 1931, the small, unassuming Florida cottage that is St. Pete Chess Club contains nearly a century of chess history. Plaques and trophies, pictures and article cutouts cover the walls, telling stories of victory and defeat. Timotey’s sons, Antony and Lyubomir Gospodinov, have their names embossed on some of the plaques. Their faces look out of black and white newspaper pictures. Both Antony and Lyubomir are national chess champions and Florida State champions.
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St. Pete Chess Club is all about the endgame
Timotey focuses instruction on the endgame. There are certain patterns to the endgame, he explains. And if you can recognize those patterns, you can follow certain rules to ensure victory. “I know most chess players don’t like studying endgames,” says Timotey. “They spend all their dedicated chess time memorizing 10th and 11th moves…then are disappointed and say, ‘Why do I lose?’…if only they spent 25% of the time they spend studying openings to understand simple endgames.”
St. Pete Chess Club welcomes all ages and levels
Of course, practice makes perfect. I studiously watch Timotey set up an example situation on the chess board, then he instructs his students how to approach the situation. He hints at how and why certain pieces must move to certain squares to ensure victory.
Timotey invites me to play a game against this student. The student’s name is Harry. He is 8 years old—one of the youngest players in the club—and he’s been studying chess for two years. And Harry is a formidable and worthy opponent. “Chess is a game where you think,” says Harry. “And it’s competitive. That’s what I like about it.”
The St. Pete Chess Club has grown to over 40 members. Most of them are adults, but youth players have taken notice. There are 12 younger players. The youngest is only 6, and, like Harry, can confidently approach this 1500-year-old game of logic and strategy.
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