BERKELEY CHESS SCHOOL'S NEW HOME
Berkeley Chess School
By Jennifer Bates
Photo credit Matthew Millman and BCS
2622 San Pablo Avenue
As you drive south on San Pablo Avenue in Berkeley, just past the terraced splendor of the newish Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, you may have noticed a transformation taking place over the past few years. A small, but bold upstart is stealing some of the spotlight from its airy neighbor.
Tinted and translucent panes of glass alternate to create a 256-square-foot chessboard window, inviting passersby to literally and metaphorically step into the King’s game. Welcome to the new home of the Berkeley Chess School, BCS.
The Berkeley Chess School is a nonprofit organization dedicated to nurturing children’s social, cognitive, and academic well-being through chess. Founded in 1982 by former Irish Women’s Chess Champion Elizabeth Shaughnessy, the Berkeley Chess School now serves over 7,000 children and adults annually, at 60 locations in the greater Bay Area. BCS offers multi-level chess instruction, camps, clubs, teams, tournaments ― including all girl tournaments ― and instruction and playing opportunities for adults, from the novice to the expert player. BCS boasts five grandmaster alumni, including former United States Chess Champion Sam Shankland, now our Grandmaster-in-residence.
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“I was asked to teach a free, after school chess class at my children’s elementary school,” explains Elizabeth, sharing the CliffsNotes version of Chess School’s origin story. “I brought six chess sets, expecting ten children, including my own. Seventy-two children came. Word got around. Soon, many more schools were requesting chess. It’s an amazing tool for academic achievement.”
Fifty years of research bears this out. A 2010 landmark study by Vanderbilt University found that students who received chess instruction throughout the academic year scored significantly higher in mathematics and spatial reasoning ability, the strongest predictors of attainment in STEM subjects. To close the opportunity gap and ensure all children benefit, the Berkeley Chess School provides free chess instruction to Title I schools in underserved communities. “No child is ever turned away due to an inability to pay,” says Elizabeth.
The Chess School’s first office was Elizabeth’s living room. But strong program growth sent her on a knight-errant’s quest for a permanent home, a place where Bay Area chess players could play in perpetuity. BCS leased space at local churches, the Berkeley City Club, and surplus public school sites, including Hillside School, the beautiful Tudor revival building on Le Roy Avenue that straddles the Hayward Fault. Still, the search continued! In 2017, a Berkeley Chess School family spotted a for-sale-by-owner sign in front of 2622 San Pablo Avenue.
Originally a residence, the building was constructed in 1909 on the property of one of Berkeley’s earliest industries, the Byron Jackson Iron Works, during the East Bay housing boom that followed the 1906 earthquake. In 1971, the building was converted to religious assembly use, and later underwent a significant expansion with the addition of classroom and office space. The sanctuary was a perfect tournament hall, the nave a natural dais for programs and events. Elizabeth was thrilled to find a building with the capacity to meet the school’s current needs and the potential to fulfill all future ones for less than what they were paying in rent.
But every new homeowner has a surprise! The building predates the City of Berkeley’s water and sewer systems. A water tower can be seen in old photographs of the building as late as the 1920s. As the City’s population doubled between 1910 and 1928, the sewer system became a labyrinth of public and private development. When a lateral was put in almost one hundred years ago, the line ran downhill to 10th Street, where it lay undisturbed until excavation began on the medical center’s new parking lot. Few things are as motivating to a small nonprofit as the implicit threat of behemoth fines for construction delays. Things had to happen in a hurry!
To reroute the lateral to the water main on San Pablo Avenue, the building’s ADA ramp had to be removed. Restoring ADA access to the building was urgent and crucial. The only feasible solution was to expand the front entrance to accommodate a lift.
Fortunately, the Berkeley Chess School’s bench is deep! BCS parent Jasmit Rangr, of the award winning Rangr Studio (Architizer’s Best Small Firm of 2023!), came to the rescue with a stunning design for the new front entrance. Of equal importance to the success of the project was Jasmit’s steady hand guiding the Chess School through the City’s complex building permit process.
It was, “even more difficult when dealing with a 1909 house, converted to a church in 1970, and expanded in 1987, with fragments of permit records. But we got it done!” Jasmit posted when the permit was finally in hand.
Now the real work began. When the building was purchased, many generous donors and community partners stepped up. The Berkeley Rotary Club painted the interior, local arts organization In Dulci Jubilo, Inc. made a grant to refurbish the playground, but the front entrance renovation was a project many orders of magnitude larger.
Changing the building’s footprint triggered a cascade of requirements to improve all the building’s safety features. A fire sprinkler system with a dedicated waterline was installed. All restrooms were upgraded with ADA features, and a new restroom was added. A 256-square-foot chessboard window might seem like an extravagance in the face of this daunting fundraising task, but should glass break, replacing a small pane is far more economical than fixing a full-sized window. Thoughtful choices like this were made throughout the building.
BCS broke ground during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite soaring material costs. All the while, the school’s doors remained open to children of essential workers and BUSD students who did not have the connectivity or supervision to study at home. It was organized chaos, but the work was eventually completed.
“Well, phase one was,” says Elizabeth, who now has her sights on the building’s semi-basement. “It’s a labyrinth of small storage rooms, but it could be three large classrooms and a real kitchen for our cafe.”
The Berkeley Chess School’s new front entrance has won two design awards: the 2024 Beyond Award from the American Institute of Architects – East Bay; and the 2024 Award for Small Architecture from Architecture Masterprize. The new entrance’s 800-square-foot layout includes a lobby, an enclosed ADA platform lift, a cafe, and a new upstairs classroom. It may sound cramped, but walking into the Berkeley Chess Center is like walking into a chess cathedral! Bathed in chessboard light under a ceiling that soars, children feel as though they have stepped through the looking glass into a very magical place, confirmed by a very Harry Potteresque cupboard under one new staircase!
But don’t take our word for it. The Berkeley Chess School is open now, offering camps, classes, and tournaments for children and adults. Read peacefully in the chess library or enjoy a casual chess game in the cafe, while children play games, or in our well-equipped playground out back. The School is now a competitive venue for state, national, and even international tournaments – an economic boon for the neighborhood and more prestige for the City of Berkeley. Most importantly, ADA access is restored. Everyone is welcome!
BCS is hosting a Second Grand Opening Celebration on Saturday, October 11th, 2025, which also happens to be National Chess Day, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Join us for blitz and bughouse tournaments. Don’t worry if you don’t know what those are, we’ll teach you. There will be a silent auction, raffle, casual games, face painting, and playground fun, with a few short speeches, one toast, and light refreshments throughout the day – all underwritten by a generous grant from Commotion West Berkeley! We hope to see you there!
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