Casual Meetup Dec 18, 374 Donald St, noon-3pm

Mark Jenkins will host a casual chess meetup on Saturday December 18, 2021 from noon to 3pm Winnipeg time.

(A previous version of this post said “Saturday December 27, 2021”, we regret the typo)

We’re still waiting for the library to re-open games tables. As such, we will meet again our temporary venue: Skullspace, the 2nd floor of 374 Donald St. Skullspace is a hackerspace, a technology tinkering club where Mark Jenkins is a member.

We regret that the venue is not mobility accessible. Climbing 3 flights of stairs (1.5 stories) is necessary to reach the 2nd floor.

The outside building door will be locked. Ring the small white doorbell labeled “sksp” and wait for someone to come down.

This is a free event, but donations in support of our non-profit venue are encouraged. $10 is a good amount to recommend if you don’t face any financial barriers.

COVID-19 vaccine status of of attendees will not be verified. This policy should not be taken as expressing any kind of opposition to venue or employment mandates. The host is vaccinated and would suggest visiting a clinic would be the best use of your Saturday if you haven’t yet taken that step to protect our community. Future Rudolf Rocker casual chess meetups may very well have a vaccine status checks, potentially on a rotating on-off schedule or potentially come within the scope of Provincial mandates.

We’re mindful that the health care crisis in Manitoba continues to escalate. We hope that for those who attend, the benefits of attending this small gathering outweigh the personal and social harms.

Relevant public health orders to our event are:

  • Indoor public place masking mandate.
  • Event capacity: Only 10 attendees + the host will be permitted on a first come basis. A small number of Skullspace members may also be present for their own purposes. Generally, attendance at past meetups (pre-pandemic) has tended to be under this number anyway.
  • Distancing: Tables and boards will be set up for players to sit at far ends lengthwise, with the intention being to play casual untimed games where one player takes responsibility for moving pieces and the other calls out moves at a distance. A second board and piece set can be provided for the other end of the table on request.

Weather permitting, windows at the front of the space and the rear emergency escape will be partially opened for air flow.

The venue is 2,500 square feet, which provides lots of room to spread out. The tables described above will be in a classroom area at the entrance. Further into the space is a lounge with couches and coffee-tables that attendees can also spread out to and there’s also an area outside the classroom with a board table.

As a hackerspace, there are are also workshop areas with shelved hand tools, many with cutting ability, 3D printers with parts that are hot when operated, a drill press, an electronics area with soldering irons, and CNC milling machine. Chess club guests are asked to not interact with these things. The appropriate time for guests to come by for Skullspace member supervised access and tours of tools is during Tuesday night open house days at 6pm.

Minors are welcome, but close parental supervision is a necessity for children who are not old enough to be on their own in public. Parents should also keep in mind that many kids don’t have the attention span to play casual chess for 3 hours and should plan on a shorter visit.

In parallel, anyone looking for an online meetup can join the ##rockerchess-2021-12-18 channel on the Libera Chat IRC network. (Web interface ). This time around, there won’t be any attempt to bridge with the in-person meetup. If you’re in the chat channel, patiently wait to see if other folks in the channel are active, ask active folks for a game and exchange lichess (https://lichess.org/) usernames. Assume the other person wants to pay untimed, casual (not rated) on lichess unless you negotiate other playing conditions.

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