Lifestyle
How L.A. Chess Club is giving nerd culture a Gen Z makeover
Picture this: It’s a Thursday night in Santa Monica, and you’re feeling good. You’re sitting across from a cute stranger, and the vibes are vibing. In a spacious warehouse-style space, which might sound a tad sketch but somehow isn’t at all, 20- and 30-somethings are seated around rows of tables with chess boards. House music is bumping, and drinks are flowing. There’s pizza being made on-site, and two tattoo artists are around if you’re feeling adventurous and looking to commemorate the experience. And if you need a buffer for maintaining conversation with someone unfamiliar, no worries.
All of this is unfolding as you play a low-stakes game of chess. This is the magic of L.A. Chess Club.
From 8 p.m. to midnight every Thursday, happy regulars and excited first-timers show up to play chess and exercise their social muscles. On this particular night in early April, 250 people show up, some opting for heels and outfits you’d see at a chic lounge, with many others going the casual route — yet neither group looks out of place. Whether you’re looking to competitively play chess, learn the game , meet new friends or mingle as a single person, all are welcome by founder Michelle Kong.
A circular chess board made by an event attendee is shown at a weekly L.A. Chess Club meetup.
Chess player Jonathan Erving waits for his opponent to make a move.
Imani Cheadle, left, and Mandy Sherma play a game of chess together with new friends.
Around the country, people are hungry for connection and eager to seek it out following the collective trauma of COVID-19 closures. In-person gatherings that lean into the preciousness of sharing space and being still with one another are on the rise, and Los Angeles is no exception. More supper clubs have emerged, while slow burns like magazine collaging are a hit. There’s more emphasis on romanticizing and reimagining everyday activities and an increased interest in speed dating. The need for more thoughtful spaces to connect with new friends or romantic prospects for a few hours of casual conversation is palpable, and L.A. residents are stepping up.
Liam Blackburn, 22, has been coming to L.A. Chess Club for the last nine months. The exciting rounds of speed chess plus the consistent young crowd initially piqued Blackburn’s interest. But the meaningful connections he’s made while attending are what quickly turned him into a regular.
“I feel like I can actually talk to people and even meet them at a deeper level instead of ‘Hey, how you doing? Wanna dance?’” Blackburn says, emphasizing the refreshing change of pace that low-key, mellow-yet-lively chess meetups offer versus the loud music and social pressure of being at L.A. bars and nightclubs.
On this night, Blackburn arrived at L.A. Chess Club with his girlfriend, Courtney Zajac, 23. After the two met and played a game of chess at a past Chess Club event, sparks flew, and they decided to spend time together again. Now the couple, both of whom were already seasoned chess players, count the Thursday event as a regular stop on their social calendar.
“Sometimes you just cross paths with someone who is an absolute breath of fresh air, and Liam is undoubtedly one of those people no matter the setting,” Zajac says of her experience connecting with Blackburn. “I didn’t attend Chess Club with the intention of finding a romantic connection but I left my first evening in attendance knowing I’d met someone whose company I couldn’t get enough of — and whose chess skills were truly humbling. It was absolutely special and memorable, and I can’t say I’ve experienced anything quite like it before.”
New friends Sofia Contreras, left, and Jen Castro play a game of chess together.
Suha Kalish, left, and couple Fred Muth and Hanz Legaspi play chess together on a multi-player board during an L.A. Chess Club night.
Founder Kong, 26, has struck gold with this formula: an event with the laid-back ease of a chill game night and all the social and romantic possibility of a night out on the town. However, what the popular weekly chess events have grown into was never Kong’s intention when she launched the club in June 2023. “I just wanted to play chess,” she says lightheartedly.
About two years ago, when Kong first started playing chess, she was “immediately hooked” and became an avid online player. “My friends didn’t play chess, and I was like, ‘I need to find people to play chess with in person,’” Kong says. “I did my own research and went to a chess club, and it was just all older men playing chess in silence in this basement.” After Kong did some additional research and checked in with friends, she noticed that chess clubs for children and adult clubs made up almost exclusively of men seemed to be the norm.
“I really needed a chess club for people my age and in my proficiency level as well, so I made one,” she says.
After the success of L.A. Chess Club’s singles event for Valentine’s Day in February, Kong better understood how many people came to the events in search of deeper, meaningful connections. The club has relocated to a permanent location in the downtown Arts District to accommodate its growing roster of regulars.
Actor and event producer DeShawn Cavanaugh says L.A. Chess Club is helping to meet the growing need for fresh social spaces beyond the typical nightlife scene.
Cavanaugh, who produces comedy events around L.A. such as Curson n’ Screamin’ and A Tribe Called Melanin through his company 3mpower Media, enjoyed himself during his first Chess Club experience.
“I think people are looking for activities and something stimulating that’s not just drinking or listening to music,” he says. “All of those things are great, but especially in L.A., we have so many artists, they need something to chew on. These types of social events have been a really great way for people to reconnect with others and themselves.”
Janet Akisanmi, left, from Dallas, plays a game against Kabir Kang, of Los Angeles. Akisanmi and her friend Grace Feyisetan were visiting L.A. for a month from Dallas and saw the event on TikTok, so they decided to check it out.
Tiger Ji, left, and Imani Cheadle play chess together during a recent L.A. Chess Club night. It was Ji and Cheadle’s first time at the event. “It’s really fun,” Ji says. “I got really into chess during COVID, but most of it was playing online. It’s rarely social. This is less so about playing chess and much more about getting to know people. I just moved to L.A., and this is great.”
Bijan Sanchez, 30, has been in quite a few chess communities in L.A., but none were a great fit. “I stopped playing chess for the longest time, and I just joined Catan clubs. I feel like the community is more friendly,” Sanchez says.
After friends recommended he visit L.A. Chess Club, Sanchez has finally found a chess environment that resonates. “I loved it a lot. I think it was one of my favorite nights out in L.A.,” he says. “I like that there was a good diversity of different people. I feel like everyone is kinda like cool nerds, and I think I identify as that, as someone that’s an outgoing nerdy guy. I vibe with the culture and people.”
Sofia Contreras felt compelled to visit L.A. Chess Club after seeing the event highlighted on TikTok by Taylor Morgan McPherson, a.k.a. the Sparkle Queen. McPherson featured the event in her “Where to Meet Men” series, which has grown increasingly popular among L.A. singles, and helped boost awareness of Chess Club. “She motivated me to come out. The [turnout] was a lot better than what I expected it to be,” Contreras says with a smile, standing next to Jen Castro, a friend she made earlier in the evening. “I’m here now and I’m having fun.”
“I’m always checking out what’s new in L.A. to meet people in person because I don’t have the best luck on dating apps,” says McPherson. “You know, being a Black woman, dating apps aren’t really skewed for us.” On McPherson’s first visit to Chess Club, she arrived solo and had a pleasant experience. “I was a little nervous. I was a little timid,” she says.
“Men approached me immediately. It was really nice,” McPherson says, recounting a positive experience at the bar and that more seasoned male players patiently walking her through the game. “Everyone was so open and willing to teach, which was so refreshing.” By the end of the night, McPherson had made a connection and exchanged numbers with someone. Now, McPherson is another attendee-turned-vendor who offers a range of glittery body, face and hair embellishments to Chess Club members each week through her Kourtney Kardashian-approved biodegradable Sparkle Bar.
Kamarya Singh makes a move against her opponent at L.A. Chess Club.
Tattoo artist Clover Fields gives Eliana Pandian a small heart tattoo behind her ear during L.A. Chess Club. Other highlights included a DJ, glitter tattoos, hair tinsel and tarot readings.
Dennis Neymit, a.k.a. DJ Dill, plays music during the second half of L.A. Chess Club on a recent April night.
Attending the event cost $60 for men, with free admission for women. Regulars can access a discounted rate through a recently launched loyalty program.
The price structure is a move that aims to boost the low number of women in chess while eliminating barriers to entry, says Kong, adding that many of the club’s long-term male members were supportive and willing to pay double in support of the mission.
“Women making up only 10% of chess players is crazy,” Kong says. “The statistics do not look great. Our ratio is almost 2 to 1 now, women to men, and it’s proven that it works. A lot of people are very supportive. It’s really great to see.”
Ultimately, the event is what you make of it, Kong says, noting that people who’ve attended L.A. Chess Club have made all sorts of connections: finding roommates, meeting romantic partners (straight and queer) and making new friends.
For Nyne Nelson, 33, an intuitive and attendee-turned-vendor at L.A. Chess Club, getting to know people within the chess community has been rewarding, especially after enduring the intense isolation of the COVID-19 shutdown. “I’m a very introverted person, so coming to a place where I can play a game and talk to people works out very well for me — and also reading people and giving guidance,” says Nelson, who offers tarot readings on a sliding scale at the weekly event. “Sometimes people just need guidance, and that’s what I’m here to do. I don’t tell the future. I just give a direction on where to go.”
Nyne Nelson, a.k.a. Haus of 9 Tarot, gives a reading during L.A. Chess Club.
Jonathan Erving, center left, and Kamarya Singh play chess against each other as friends Jared Washington and Brandon Walker cheer them on.
Kong left her finance job and focused on L.A. Chess Club full time. “I think betting on yourself when you’re young yields good returns,” she says. “I invested everything I had to keep Chess Club running every week for nine months before I monetized [it]. It’s not easy. I’m just very determined.”
Despite the club still being in its infancy, the growth has been rapid, with weekly events averaging about 200 people.
“When you’re waking up at 5 a.m. and listening to Bloomberg in the morning and looking at stocks, it’s a very different start of the day than when you get to wake up and work on something you’re passionate about,” she says. “There’s so much opportunity here, especially compared to the environments that I was exposed to when I first went to chess clubs. I’m so happy that I’m able to bring this type of positive experience to people for the first time they interact with chess.”
In central London’s Waterloo Place, a life-size statue that emerged overnight in late April has been creating a stir. When I visited a few weeks after it was erected, local authorities had already set up protective barriers around it.
The installation — signed by the famed street artist Banksy — depicts a man in a suit hoisting a flag as he strides over a precipice. As he marches on, the flag blows backward to cover his face, leaving him unaware he’s only a step away from a perilous fall.
Set among grand monuments celebrating Britain’s past, the “flag man” takes on a particular visual irony at a time when the country — and much of the world — is debating its path forward.
Like many viewers there, I found myself wondering whether this statue is Banksy’s warning about the consequences of uncritical nationalism, or simply a reflection on human shortsightedness. Or, perhaps, it is just prompting us to ponder a broader question: What happens when devotion to a symbol prevents us from seeing what lies ahead?
Whatever the message, the work feels remarkably attuned to the current moment.
For more Far-Flung Postcards, click here.
Lifestyle
Wait, it’s a candle? Her beeswax fruit and veggie ones look so real, you’ll want to take a bite
Jessica Gonzalez hustles behind her booth at the recent Renegade Craft Fair, frantically ringing up sales, answering questions and packaging her beeswax candles.
It’s hot on the grounds of the Los Angeles State Historic Park in April, but 35-year-old Gonzalez and her fiancé, Jordan Colindres, keep their cool as a crowd gathers to admire her Happy Organics candle collection, a homage to her family’s produce company in the Central Valley that looks like real fruits and vegetables.
“I love doing in-person events because it’s so fun to see people’s reactions,” she said a few months later. “It makes me feel good to see other people finding joy in my candles. They often say, ‘Oh, that’s really funny.’ And it is funny to have a cherry candle on top of your birthday cake.”
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1. A staff member pulls a beeswax corn candle, $26, out of its mold at Happy Organics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles. 2. Each Beeswax Mixed Berry Birthday Candles set is cast from real mixed berries — strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and cherries. A set of 10 is $30. 3. Bartlett green pears and heirloom tomatoes, $24 to $40.
Judging by the smiles and charmed looks on shoppers’ faces, her produce-inspired candles are less about illuminating rooms and more about sharing the joy she sought when she first started the company in 2018.
In this series, we highlight independent makers and artists, from glassblowers to fiber artists, who are creating original products in and around Los Angeles.
But then, it’s hard not to smile at the playfully elegant Bosc pears, puckered mandarins and green-and-purple asparagus taper candles which range in price from $12 to $40. Some are molded into corn on the cob, celery and rhubarb shapes. Others are made to look like mushrooms, figs, tomatoes and snap peas. The most popular are the small birthday candles shaped like raspberries, cherries and blackberries, packed in molded-pulp baskets just like you’d find at the grocery store or farmers market.
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Gonzalez didn’t start out as a designer. The youngest of nine children, she was born in 1991 in Salinas and later moved to Merced, where she grew up on a 10-acre farm. She studied computer science at Mills College, then worked in tech consulting in the Bay Area and eventually became the CTO of an ag-tech company. When her mother, Angela, became ill in 2016, she returned to Merced to be with her family.
When her mom died suddenly soon after she moved home, Gonzalez left the tech industry. “I wasn’t connected with what I was doing,” she said. “I wanted to find something more meaningful; something I loved. I didn’t want my ego to keep me stuck in what I studied in college. I decided to let myself try new hobbies and passions and look for joy again.”
After her mother’s death, she began working with her father, Salvador, and her uncles at the family’s apiary, where they managed more than 30 hives. (Her grandfather was also a beekeeper in Michoacán, Mexico.) Soon, she began selling their raw honey at local farmers markets. In a heartbreaking turn, her father was diagnosed with cancer a year later, so she started making cannabis-infused honey, balms and chocolates to help ease his pain.
When she saw that the beeswax candles, which last significantly longer than paraffin candles, were selling faster than the honey, she decided to focus on making candles from the leftovers from her uncles’ hives.
She was only 25, but it was a turning point. “It was one of those moments where I felt like I needed to change my path,” she said. “I needed to change everything in my life.”
Jessica Gonzalez and her father Salvador on their family farm in Merced. (Gonzalez family)
Gonzalez at Happy Organics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
When her father died in 2018, she inherited his bees and started Happy Organics, although she hadn’t planned on starting a business. After experiencing so much loss, making candles became a kind of therapy. “It felt great to work with my hands again, something I thought I’d never have time for,” she said.
Her oldest sister, Sonia Gonzalez, said Gonzalez reminds her a lot of their father, who reinvented himself many times over the years.
The nopal cactus is cast from a real nopal and hand-poured in 100% pure beeswax in the Los Angeles studio.
“He grew up as a village boy in the rural mountains of Michoacán, Mexico, and went on to work in restaurants, cut down Christmas trees and pick strawberries and broccoli in the fields of Salinas,” she wrote in an email. “From there, he started selling produce door-to-door, then at flea markets and eventually built his own produce distribution business from the ground up. As the youngest of nine kids from a working-class family, Jessica’s always been incredibly resourceful, responsible, and amazing at reinventing herself.”
Like a lot of millennials, Gonzalez taught herself how to make candles by watching YouTube videos. She started with hand-dipped tapers, working in the garage on the farm that helped her feel safe and connected to her parents. “It was a really nice environment to try something new and creative,” she said.
Inspired by her family’s produce, she cast real corn, strawberries and cherries in plaster, then made a silicone mold to create copies. Even when using the same mold, color can vary from batch to batch, and how it cools also affects the result. “That’s just how handmade things are,” she said. “There’s always some variation.”
Cherry molds make cherry candles at Happy Organics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles.
A variety of fruit and veggie candles.
When she moved to Los Angeles in 2023 to be with Colindres, her business took off. “L.A. is a great place to grow,” she said. “There’s so much opportunity here. When I go to a farmers market, I never know who I’ll meet.”
She sold her candles in person at craft shows, the Hollywood Farmers’ Market and most recently, during a residency at the P.F. Candle Co. showroom in Echo Park.
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1. A staff member trims the wicks on a pair of carrot birthday candles, $22. 2. Gonzalez passes by shelves of candles at Happy Organics’ studio in downtown Los Angeles. 3. Asparagus taper candles, $30.
“I have a lot of respect for her as a fellow candle maker (making molds is not easy), but getting to know her story more and how her choice of foods and wax is reflective of her family’s history gave it so much meaning,” P.F. Candle Co. founder and creative director Kristen Pumphrey said in an email. “It’s been a tough couple of years for L.A. businesses, so we gotta stick together — there’s this wonderful sense of community hosting a local brand that’s so passionate about their work.”
As her business has expanded, her products are now available at Terrain, Joan’s on Third and the MoMA Design Store in addition to her website. She has also had to source beeswax from other vendors across the country to keep up with demand.
Kimberly Curtis, owner of Hide & Seek Vintage in Studio City, said Gonzalez’s strawberry and cherry birthday candles “flew off the shelves last year” during the holidays. “Our customers love them,” she added.
Gonzalez holds a cabbage candle.
Still, Gonzalez stays connected to her Central Valley roots. Everything she and her small team make in downtown Los Angeles is handmade and “takes time,” she said, describing the steps involved in crafting quality candles. Right now, her favorite is the Nopal Cactus candle, which she made using a clipping from an employee’s yard. While others help her with production, wholesale management and packaging, she focuses on sales, content and all-new product development.
When asked if she has advice for others who want to start their own business, Gonzalez admits she sometimes feels overwhelmed.
In 2013, Gonzalez and her family gathered at their Merced ranch to celebrate her parents’ anniversary.
(Gonzalez family)
“The biggest thing that has gotten me through the toughest spots is my why or my reason for starting,” she said. “I think that has to be really strong. That’s what brought me a lot of comfort when I felt like quitting: going back to the beginning and remembering why I started this.”
For Gonzalez, her reason is always close to her heart. “I wanted to feel connected to my parents in some way,” she said. “This was a good representation of my upbringing.”
The Kennedy Center, the facade of which remains covered with a tarp, is seen in Washington, DC, on June 28, 2026. A US federal judge asked on June 24 for an explanation for why a tarpaulin continues to cover the facade of the Kennedy Center where President Donald Trump’s name was recently removed. District Judge Christopher Cooper gave the board of trustees of the performing arts venue until the end of July to explain “the purpose for and status of the tarp and scaffolding that Defendants have erected on the front portico of the Center.”
ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
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ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images
More than two weeks ago, President Trump’s name was removed from the Kennedy Center facade though it is still covered by a tarp and the legal battle continues.
On Monday, a U.S. Department of Justice filing on behalf of the Kennedy Center included some surprises. The document was submitted in response to issues raised by lawyers for ex-officio board member Rep. Joyce Beatty of Ohio who is suing to remove President Trump’s name from the center and stop its closure for renovations.
Among the revelations, the Kennedy Center admitted that, during a board meeting on December 18, 2025, Beatty had been “muted and prevented from speaking.” It was at that meeting that the board voted to add President Trump’s name to the center. The filing later acknowledges the congresswoman was “prevented from voicing her opposition.”
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is a living memorial to its namesake. The guidelines for how the theatre complex spends federal dollars are very specific. Among other rules, it states that “no additional memorials or plaques shall be designated or installed.” Beatty argues adding Trump’s name runs afoul of those rules and that any change requires approval from Congress.
According to one of Beatty’s filings, “There was no advance notice in the agenda that the Board would be considering a name change,” a statement the Kennedy Center now does not deny. The center admits that, prior to voting, there was “no discussion about potential risks or downsides of the vote to adopt a secondary name for the Center.” Nor was there a board discussion “about any potential conflict of interest that might result from the vote.”
The center’s lawyers previously contended that if Trump’s name were to be removed, it would “lose money from donors who support” him and “impede the Center’s fundraising efforts.”
Closing for renovations
Earlier this year, Trump announced on social media that the Kennedy Center would close for two years for renovations. He wrote that he made the decision after “a one year review” with “Contractors, Musical Experts, Art Institutions, and other Advisors and Consultants.”
But, according to the center’s lawyers, Trump’s announcement “was made without presenting any plans, analyses, timelines, or funding information to his cotrustees and without any Board vote.”
The Kennedy Center has long denied reporting by The Washington Post that ticket sales plummeted after President Trump became the Center’s board chair. In Monday’s legal filing, the Center admits that, by October 2025, “nearly half of the Center’s tickets were going unsold.”
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