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Charlotte Chess Club History The Charlotte Chess Club (originally the Metrolina Chess Club) was founded in 1975 by Leland Fuerstman. The club initially met at Central Piedmont Community College and soon moved to the Athens Restaurant near the school. In 1980, the club met at the Divan on Central Ave, a short lived pub and game parlor built and operated by partners Leland Fuerstman and David Griffin. Through the years, because of available tables, chairs, lighting, heat and/or air and food, various restaurants have served as the venue for our meetings including the Old Smokehouse Dining Room, two Shoney's locations, and even a McDonald's! The club currently meets at Wendy's Restaurant, 434 S. Independence Blvd (Across the street from Midtown Square) on Wednesday evenings at 7:00 pm. Though others have filled in as club Director through the years, the job always seems to end up back in Fuerstman's lap. The Charlotte Chess Club remains proud to have promoted simultaneous exhibitions featuring Grandmasters such as Joel Benjamin, Leonid Shamkovich, Sammy Reshevsky, Lev Alburt, Yasser Seirawan, Gregory Kaidanov, and in 1980, World Champion Contender Viktor Korchnoi. And, in 1982 Fuerstman was actually negotiating to bring World Champion Bobby Fischer to Charlotte for a 50 board simultaneous exhibition. (The event was to be sponsored by the "Charlotte Observer" and Fischer was to have received $100,000). Over the past 25 years the Charlotte Chess Club has conducted literally hundreds of tournaments including many North Carolina State Championships (which in 1985 had a prize fund four times greater than last years event!), the North Carolina Invitational Championship, the North Carolina Team Championship (which many have expressed an interest in seeing revived) and the Southern Class Championships.  Currently, the Charlotte Chess Club promotes an occasional Saturday or Sunday 3 rounder.  (See Upcoming events for the next event scheduled).  Through the years, the Charlotte Chess Club with it's friendly atmosphere, gamut of players from every walk of life, and reputation for fierce weekly tournament competition (one rated game per Wednesday evening) has produced several Masters to include, IM Miles Ardaman (2500), NM Dr. Luigi Vacca (2300), NM John Kirby (2300), NM John Lane, NM Rich Jackson, NM Robbie Cunningham, NM Leland Fuerstman, NM Garrick Wells, NM Mike Klein (2300), NM Matthew Hoekstra (2300), NM Frankie Newton, NM Justin Daniel, NM Harold Mouzon III and NM Daniel Tapia. With 48 different members playing in the last club 5 rounder, the Charlotte Chess Club continues to flourish as the most active chess club in the Southeast.