Checkmate in Luxembourg Garden
August 5, 2022
After a long stroll on the Champs Élysées Avenue and a visit to the Louvre and Panthéon, you can enjoy a game or two of chess in the Luxembourg Garden.
The Luxembourg Garden is located in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France. Marie de Medici, the widow of King Henry IV, created the Garden when she constructed the Luxembourg Palace as her residence. The Garden is famous for its beautiful lawns, tree-lined promenades, flowerbeds, model sailboats on its octagonal Grand Bassin, the picturesque Medici Fountain, and more importantly, for its twelve tables of chess covered with lava stone checkerboards extracted from the volcanoes of Auvergne.
People of all ages and nationalities, from beginners to grand masters, indulge in timed games under the gaze of peaceful walkers and students from the neighboring Sorbonne faculty of Law. Located between the entrances of rue Guynemer and rue de Vaugirard, the Luxembourg Garden's chess games have seen the greatest masters fight, from François-André Danican Philidor to the brilliant Alexander Alekhin, without forgetting Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The specialty of the place? Ultra-fast games, where opponents must make all their moves in less than five minutes.
The Luxembourg Garden has been featured in famous novels, including Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables where the main love characters Marius Pontmercy and Cosette first meet; André Gide's novel The Counterfeiters; Henry James' The Ambassadors; and William Faulkner's Sanctuary. In addition, the Garden was a setting for prominent films, musical lyrics, and video games such as the comedy series French in Action, Joe Dassin's 1976 studio album Le Jardin du Luxembourg, and the Assassin's Creed Unity video game.
So if you are up for a chess game, French style, then stop by the Luxembourg Garden! And if you are up for even more challenge, join the kings and queens of chess at the weekly chess tournament that the Canal Saint-Martin club organize every Friday evening from 8 p.m. at Café East Bunker. After your game, if you're feeling inspired, take the five-minute stroll over to Variantes, one of the best chess shops in Paris. It is the perfect spot if you are searching for an authentic, one-of-a-kind souvenir. The shop also offers a variety of board games. For the beginners and amateurs (7 to 77 years old) looking to upscale their chess game skills, Nomad' Échecs Club and Le Grand Échiquier d'Asnières are here for that.
