Chess was my second love, after baseball. The two games are often compared for their complex strategies, and they’re also similarly criticized for their commonly glacial pace of play. But the moves one sees are merely the tips of the iceberg. Beneath, there are untold tactical layers: myriad moving parts and sacrifices to consider.

In Paris, as a prelude to EthCC (Ethereum Community Conference), I was intrigued by a "web3 chess club" event at the Blitz Society, a chess and card lounge near the Latin Quarter. The club was inspired by Washington Square Park, a cornerstone of New York’s Greenwich Village where – amongst a great many characters – diverse cadres of chess enthusiasts challenge passersby to a match.

Sponsored by Fluid Protocol, the native decentralized stablecoin for Fuel Network, and Raremind, a game where you can learn and play chess on any platform and earn rewards, the digital flier promised a unique combination of casual chess and crypto – and the presence of a grandmaster to boot.

I arrived a few minutes late and walked into a space that felt as old as the game itself. Blitz is composed of exposed wooden beams and old stones from the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, an 11th century reconstruction of an even earlier monastery. Black and white photos lined the walls, depicting in-progress chess matches and players of all makes and molds, strewn across familiar settings the whole world round.

A neon sign hung from a back rafter that read "Only a Pawn in their Game,” and it glowed down upon the 27 chess boards that dotted the space. I ordered a tea and sat across from one of the few that wasn’t already hosting a game. Someone soon joined me. He – a crypto-focused venture capitalist – was initially hesitant because he wasn’t ranked very high on chess.com. I’d never even heard of chess.com so I assured him he was probably fine.

I hadn’t played anywhere, online or off, for the better part of a decade, and I’d forgotten the immense brainpower required to measure contingencies, imagine potentialities, spot gaps, peer into the future. I hadn’t done myself any favors by watching the sunrise at Sacré-Cœur the night before, but as we played, Coltrane’s My Favorite Things filtered into the room and I settled into a groove. As we played, other games finished nearby, new ones began. Players came and went, inquiring about the other’s work and engaging in standard blockchain banter that slowly gave way to focused silence. 

“What’s your ranking?” was another common question as people sat down, a reference to the Elo rating system – named after its creator, Arpad Elo – which estimates the skill level of a given player. There are variations in the system, but typically novices start around 1200 and 2500 is the benchmark rating for a grandmaster.

Well into our first match, one of the Raremind folk made an announcement that a tournament was about to begin. The barkeeps cleared some space and ten challengers took their chairs, preparing to battle Robert Fontaine – who first achieved the grandmaster designation back in 2002 – all at the same time. 

Soon thereafter I succumbed to a hard fought 90-minute back-and-forth, joining the peanut gallery to watch Fontaine. The grandmaster, wearing a white Raremind tee, maintained a blithe smile as he walked from board to board, casually destroying everyone. In short order he summarily wrecked the entire field, demonstrating the truth of the neon sign that hung above him, and I recognized in that moment the wonder of chess – this simple protocol that has persisted for some 1500 years. What is it that’s made it so resonant? 

I first fell for the blockchain when I realized that any group of people could rally behind a vision, seek consensus, develop a protocol and then venture forth. It felt infinitely programmable, possible to redirect incentive structures toward the creation of public good. Hopefully, in time, we could demonstrate models alternative to the centralized institutions to which we are indeed only pawns “in their game.”

What lessons can we learn from chess, a game that’s endured immense shifts in culture and technology to maintain a prominent role amongst even our most bleeding-edge technologists? Any builder would love to establish a game that can so resoundingly prevail. Likely there were some in that room, developing projects that reimagine the world we live in, emulating the rare minds that came before, seeking resistance even to sea change.

After Fontaine mated his last opponent, he looked up from the middle of the room still donning that same blithe smile. "Ok," he said, "You can all go back to your games."