Chess for members, pupils and staff 4

Some chess in Rome sits behind a membership card, a staff badge or a school register. Lazio Scacchi plays its Thursday evenings at the Circolo Canottieri Lazio on the Lungotevere, where entry is reserved to its own members and adults are asked to wear a jacket; its tournaments, held elsewhere, are a separate card. The chess section of the Bank of Italy’s staff club is for employees, pensioners and their families, although the rapid tournament it organises takes outside entries.

School chess belongs here too. The provincial and regional rounds of the school championships are played by teams of pupils entered through their schools, and a comprehensive school in Rome has run a chess workshop for its own pupils with a fixed number of places. These entries matter to people already inside: members, employees, parents choosing an after-school activity.