Chess room · Covent Garden, London

One board. Twenty-three moves.

On 21 June 1851 two men played a casual game in London and made it immortal. Scroll, and we will replay it on our board. Then come and play your own.

Play the game Hours & membership

Move 0 / 23

Before move one

Score sheet

The room

Come and play the next one.

Divan is a first-floor room above a tea merchant in Covent Garden. Fourteen tables, a kettle that never goes cold, and one house rule: touch a piece, move it.

The name is borrowed from the chess-and-coffee houses of 1850s London that called themselves divans. We kept the coffee, added the tea, and left out the clocks unless you ask for one.

Every Thursday at 19:30 we put a famous game on the big board and walk through it the way you just did: a move at a time, with someone arguing about the tenth.

Tariff

A table, three hours, tea included: £7
Monthly membership: £30
Annual membership (saves £80): £280
Replay Thursday, 19:30: Members free · guests £5
Beginners’ hour, Saturdays 11:00: Free
Clock and score-sheet hire: Free

Up the green door.

First floor, Covent Garden, London WC2. Ring the bell marked Divan and come up. If the board by the window is mid-game, it is.

020 7946 0158 play@divan.example

Hours