During the pandemic, Larry “LJ” Moody would meet up with a couple of friends to play chess at home. His wife was pregnant with their first child at the time, and she urged him to find somewhere else to play so she could have some peace and quiet.
The Inglewood resident looked for an established chess club nearby where he and others could play, but he couldn’t find one — so he decided to create the Inglewood Chess Club.
“There were other chess clubs further away from me, and when I saw how people would show up to those events and the type of environment it was, I thought that that experience should be in Inglewood,” Moody said.
Two years later, that idea has grown into a community that brings together players of all ages and skill levels for tournaments, chess movie nights, tutoring sessions and regular meet-ups.
The club hosted its fourth tournament on Aug. 31 at LA Ale Works in Hawthorne, where 30 people signed up to compete.
The tournament ended in an unexpected draw between Michael Sciner and Ron Turner, who faced each other across a wooden picnic table as other players and attendees gathered around them.
The two players split the $100 cash prize, while Sciner took home the trophy and Turner left with the certificate.
But for Moody, the tournaments are less about the competition than they are about bringing people together. Initially, the club was simply Moody and a few friends playing chess at a park. They didn’t have trouble finding others looking to play. Moody credits the Netflix miniseries “The Queen’s Gambit,” released in 2020 during the pandemic, with helping ignite a new interest in chess at a time when people were stuck at home. Chess.com saw a surge in popularity following the show’s release — but as Moody points out, playing online isn’t the same as sitting across from another person.
“There’s just a big difference in the experience that you have on your phone than from in-person — it’s a different nuance,” Moody said.
As the club grew, they added community events and eventually established an ongoing collaboration with the Crenshaw-Imperial Branch Library, then the Morningside Park Branch.
But the club stays true to its informal beginnings. Rather than creating a rigid or highly structured environment centered solely on competition, Moody wanted to create a space where people could come as they are, learn and connect through the game.
At library meet-ups, Moody and fellow chess club member Jeff Pauls teach children and adults how to play while creating opportunities for people to experience the game face-to-face.
Pauls met Moody at the Inglewood Black History Month Family Festival in February 2025.
“I was excited by the opportunity, not just to play, but to come to in-person chess events and have a group of people to play,” Pauls said.
For him and Moody, getting people back to the board is a way of building community. The club collaborates with local businesses and community organizations, and the tournaments are the culmination of the effort.
What started as a few friends playing chess in a park has become a place where people travel across the region — and sometimes across the world — to sit down at a board and play.
For Moody, that was the idea all along: bringing the experience of chess, and the people who love it, closer to home.
If you are interested in joining the Inglewood Chess Club, you can fill out the club’s membership form, join its chess tutoring sessions, follow the club on Instagram and look out for chess workshops hosted at Morningside Park Branch Library.
