While many take full advantage of sleeping in on the weekend, mine starts by crossing state lines to clash plastic chess pieces across a green-and-buff rollup vinyl board. Every Saturday from noon to 3 I settle in with a recurring cast for a game of chess at any one of the six boards that line the front of Antilles Cafe, a Haitian-Dominican hangout in Flatbush, Brooklyn that doubles as the home of OurChess. As the day lengthens, and between moves, a little grease imprints each of my pieces—the residue of crackly griot, pikliz, and tostones.
Everyone’s bent on chasing the bag, and plans making it out of the group chat is nothing short of a miracle. The second half of my 20s unveiled a new loneliness born from ending a 10-year relationship, an impromptu interstate move that took me from Brooklyn across the water to become the first in my bloodline to settle in New Jersey, and the existential weight of it all. Chess, a game I first learned from my mother, saved my life during a season of immense transformation, calling for me to be someone I’ve never been.
I found OurChess during the budding early days of summer. I’d met the founder Z over a fish fry plate I’d served them during my chef residency at Commune. We befriended each other on Instagram, where I took notice of a chess club they’d started at Antilles Cafe.
After reigniting their own love for the game, spending hours on end at Chess Forum, one of the oldest chess clubs in New York, Z began imagining how to cultivate their own space that celebrated learning and teaching the game in a way emphasizing communing and knowing one's neighbors. Driven by these values, Z launched the weekly club back in early summer 2025, promoting it on IG with Notes app screenshots.
In such a heavily saturated digital era, it is easy to curate your reach, but Z believes in the value of bridging community with our neighbors. “This is our game,” Z says. “This is the game of life and we’re all in this together.” OurChess is a gathering rooted in inclusivity and accessibility, hosting other events in Harlem and Lower Manhattan, too. It is always free-to-the-public and celebrates learning—"each one, teach one.” It had been years since I tried my hand at chess, but enthusiasm roped me in, compelled by my longtime admiration and the opportunity to tread uncharted waters.
Antilles Cafe, which OurChess calls home, is as much a part of the club’s DNA as the players who come weekly. Chefs Erick Nicoleau and Dru Goicochea opened the café back in 2024, quickly becoming a neighborhood fixture and community-driven third space. The two friends have dedicated their lives to service and commemorating the African diaspora, marrying their Haitian and Dominican heritages with countless references to music, culture, and dynamic flavors. Their inventive menu bridges all of these worlds, vibrant dishes served alongside recurring community events, that preserve and celebrate Afro-Caribbean traditions. Everyone who steps foot through their doors is seen, served, and heard.
My Saturday routine means regular communing and camaraderie with my newfound chess family over plates of food. At Antilles, the flock of us feast on everything from griot, a classic Haitian dish of marinated-and-fried pork, to the pair’s take on the classic Vietnamese banh mi, which embraces salt fish, a staple in the Caribbean diaspora. A quintessential accompaniment is a generous heap of housemade pikliz, a Haitian condiment of pickled shredded cabbage, carrots, sweet, and hot peppers, plus plenty of crispy, golden tostones.
Antilles reimagines café classics with an inventive menu that nods to their Caribbean culture. Most notable is the Plantain Brulee latte, a velvety coffee drink featuring the caramelized sweetness of ripe plantains, accompanied by floral vanilla, warm spices, and a torched sugar topping. Citrusy Morir Soñandos, a creamy, Dominican refresher which literally translates to “to die dreaming,” is often likened to a creamsicle. I opt for the house-brewed sorrel iced tea that chef Erick sweetens for me with housemade lime syrup.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve leaned on maladaptive mechanisms to soothe my blues. I never imagined that chess, an intimate dance of shifting rhythm between adversaries, would become my solace. The presence it demands and discipline it’s instilled, has brought me closer to a world that only ever existed in my imagination.
OurChess serves as an exercise of commitment, making sure that rain or shine, I make my way to Brooklyn to show up, to be impeccable with my word. I’ve developed beautiful friendships that remind me love is an action and we all need each other. Chess has humbly transformed me for the better, on the board and in the reignited tenderness I feel so deeply from this group of former strangers, who I now see as family. At OurChess, I’m held, well-accounted for, and loved with no bounds.
