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It's five in the evening. The din below the busy 570-metre-long Gariahat flyover in south Kolkata is deafening. The peak-hour rush has impatient motorists, including taxi and bus drivers, honking ceaseless. If not the cacophony, then the toxic fumes emitted by the vehicles are sure to make you want to get out of this space as soon as possible.
But nothing seems to disturb the 40-odd people, many of whom are perched on iron railings under the flyover, oblivious to the chaos around them, their heads bent over chessboards, their brows creased in concentration. They are members of the unique Gariahat Chess Club (GCC) - Kolkata's first open-air street chess club. It's a passion for chess, almost an obsession, which brings them to this spot every evening. The 80-member club includes small-time businessmen, hawkers, shop-owners, executives, government officials, doctors and students. Some of them are attired in formals, some in tees and jeans, while some others appear a trifle scruffy. It's a curious mix.
"Despite our different backgrounds, we are all united in our passion for this game," says Dipankar Majumdar, an avid player who is at the moment standing in rapt attention watching a game of chess. The area turned into a chess hotspot soon after the flyover was inaugurated in 2002, though GCC was formally launched only in 2006, says Majumdar.
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30 boards. In the crowd of male bystanders is a lone woman. Like the others, she too is engrossed in the game. The players seem to have their respective sets of supporters in the crowd who either nod vigorously or frown at every move.
"It is very relaxing to play after a hard day's work. See, I have 22 missed calls on my mobile. We can hear and see nothing apart from the chessboard," says Biswajit, briefly looking up from the game and not too pleased with the questions that are drawing his attention away from the chessmen. He has no time to give his last name. Pestered further, all that he mumbles is that he works in the "education sector" and promptly goes back to the game, blocking out everything and everybody around him.
Pratap Rana, the treasurer of GCC, is more forthcoming. The idea behind bringing the cerebral game out of a quiet room to the noisy street was to make it accessible to one and all, he says. While most of the players are members of the club, even outsiders often come and play.
The greater visibility has helped the chess fraternity at Gariahat grow. Many onlookers have turned into players. "I have learnt the game mainly by watching these people play," says 63-year-old Basu, a retired employee of the Central government. He, too, doesn't give his full name. A resident of nearby Rash Behari Avenue, he now spends about three hours playing chess every day. "Playing here, under this flyover, is therapeutic and de-stressing. I always go back home refreshed," says a businessman who deals in jewellery.
Twenty-year-old Tuhin Datta, a student of English honours, is the youngest player today. Every evening he travels from Garia, some 8 km away, to play chess under the flyover. He's new here. But there are several seasoned ones too - the rating players, as they say. Over the years, Gariahat has produced a few notable players, some of whom today play at the state level.
Three-time West Bengal champion Kunal Chatterjee is among them. The other rating players include Dyutimoy Mukherjee, Sarbajit Adhikary, Himadri Biswas, Sanjib Burman and Subir Ghosh. Some of them still come here in the evenings for sessions of rapid rounds of chess.
Catching rating player Burman whose opponent today is Shubhi Gosh, a teacher, is pure luck. Dressed in a green T-shirt and Kolhapuri slippers, he plays his moves with a degree of nonchalance.
While the club holds at least two tournaments a year for all age groups, with prize money ranging from ~3,000 to ~5,000, the daily games under the flyover for the aficionados are for pure enjoyment. However, some winners do treat their co-players and supporters to steaming cups of tea. To become a member, one has to pay one-time registration fee of ~100, plus a monthly fee of ~20.
By now, it's nearly 7.30 pm. Halogen lamps have come alive at Gariahat boulevard. The players don't seem to have noticed the hours fly by. Some of them will be here playing till midnight. This is their routine, 365 days a year.
