Chicago Chess Academy, 6044 W. 63rd St.

It's a good location for a chess center: an old-timey commercial strip in an otherwise residential area in Chicago's Clearing neighborhood, less than one mile west of Midway.  As you stand in front of the club, you'll see a plane take off every two minutes, but the noise wasn't noticable inside. And I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I could make it to the site from my far North Side home faster than I can make it to Midway.

The space?  Until recently, the building was a former bakery (maybe 2100 SF) on a standard-ish Chicago lot (long and narrow).  The front section is the playing area, which will hold 32 adults comfortably.  For a scholastic event, one could squeeze 48 into the front area.

The playing area

Immediately behind the playing area is a spot for a coffee counter (there was a broken water main that day, so no coffee yesterday) and two bathrooms, one of which looks to be ADA-compliant.

And this is what the skittles area looks like:

Skittles area

This is looking towards the front.  The skittles area is somewhat rawer than the rest of the space (no carpeting), but it's clean and it's more than adequate.  The loading area for the bakery trucks is not in this photo: if Mikhail renews the lease, that space will probably be converted to chess use.

The Midway Chess Club meets here on Tuesday nights at 7 p.m.: I strongly recommend that you stop by to check it out!