The Manhattan Chess Club will move on May 1 to new quarters on the 15th floor of the Hotel New Yorker, which is located on the corner of 34th Street and 8th Avenue in New York City, opposite Penn Station and the General Post Office.
Thanks by all chess players should be extended Jeffrey Kossak, club president, who negotiated the deal with the Hotel New Yorker and without whose efforts the club might not have survived.
The chess book store at the front of the club will not survive, however. The store will close. Starting today, the store is conducting a clearance sale, with 30% off on all items.
The Manhattan Chess Club is presently located at 353 West 46th Street, on "Restaurant Row". The phone number of the club is (212) 333-5888. The number of the book store is (212) 757-5603.
Traditionally, the club was supported by the patronage of famous Wall Street securities traders, who were also chess players. However, they have all died. Fan Adams, a retired oil executive and treasurer of the club, died last year. The American Chess Foundation, which owns the building, fell into the hands of non-chess players, who ordered the Manhattan Chess Club to move out when it's lease expires on April 30.
In view of rising real estate prices, it seemed that the club had no chance to survive, but that has been proven wrong.
The Manhattan Chess Club has been in existence since the 1878. It's claim to being the oldest chess club in America is disputed by the Mechanics Institute in San Francisco, which was in existence earlier but was destroyed by the Great San Francisco Earthquake and later re-built in another location.
The Mechanics Institute Chess Club began about 1858. It was destroyed by earthquake and fire in 1906. It was rebuilt at its current location in 1909. The Manhattan began in 1878 and has been in continuous existence since then.
Sam Sloan
PS This is not an April Fool's Joke. I just beat the deadline by ten minutes.