This weekend the Wyndham Hotel (1400 M St, near Thomas Circle) is hosting the 38th Annual Atlantic Open. Hundreds of professional and amateur chess players will gather in the hotel’s convention hall for hours on end of intense play. It’s free to enter and walk around the playing area and I can guarantee visitors will experience some great and often amusing people watching. It runs until late tonight and until about 8:00 PM tomorrow.

Of course any other weekend the place for local chess junkies to be is Dupont Circle —

Photo courtesy of René Morgan.

Anyone who has never watched some games there should drop by most any afternoon to witness some of the best speed chess around. Don’t be intimidated to stand nearby and watch, as scruffy as some of them look the chessplayers there love an audience.