Key handover in the capital chess shop
Last Saturday, the official reopening of the “Schachladen Lasker’s – Chess Tigers Store” took place in Berlin. Previous owner Arno Nickel had the pleasure of giving the first speech and addressed his words in particular to the team of new owners Marina and Sven Noppes as well as Jonathan Carlstedt.
At this point, the chess friends present already had a delicious glass of sparkling wine, a cold drink or a small snack in their hands. Nickel reviewed the past few months and expressed his enthusiasm for the successor team. As a gift, a tiger playing chess can be seen on the card, fitting for the occasion, throwing a horseshoe into the air, which lands on the head of the opposing player at the end of its trajectory. Sven Noppes then took the floor and told the numerous people present how fate took its course in a Bremen café on March 4, 2022, when he actually only wanted to meet Jonathan Carlstedt for a friendly coffee. The idea of setting up something together was born that day. A few days later, the team took over the SchachDepot from Stuttgart. At that time, it was just an internet address with a few hundred books. Since then, the three have been expanding the business. At the end of 2022, on the initiative of Hans-Walter Schmitt, Chess Tigers GmbH from Bad Soden joined the group and now, on September 16, the chess shop on Sophie-Charlotten-Straße officially opened. After this quite emotional section, the guests, who were constantly joined by new chess friends, toured the completely renovated and newly designed premises and took advantage of the numerous chess utensils.
The shop has well over 1,000 different books and dozens of chessboards in every shape, color and for every budget. The shopping enthusiasm was spurred on by the promotion of being able to buy a DGT 1002 for just 11 euros instead of 24.95 euros on the opening day for a purchase value of 25 euros or more! After the first large group of willing buyers happily held the newly acquired books, boards and watches in their hands and were supplied with new drinks, Jonathan Carlstedt, international master and trainer of international masters and grandmasters, began his keynote speech on the path to a higher Elo rating.
Jonathan, only 32 years old, can now look back on 15 years of coaching experience and has already coached students of all skill levels and age groups. During the lecture, everything that is central to self-training and the associated improvement in the rating was collected and passed on to the audience. After the impulses on the training design and content, there was time to play a game of chess in the best summer weather on the beer benches and tables set up in front of the shop or to discuss the latest developments in the chess scene.
In the shop, the range of products was still being examined diligently and the conversations became more detailed and intense. When do you ever get the chance to get advice on chess books from an international master? And so the hours flew by for the team of happy new chess shop owners. When the borrowed beer tables and benches had already been taken back to the drinks store, the kitchen no longer looked like a battlefield and the tension slowly gave way to satisfaction, one last chess enthusiast came into the shop an hour and a half after the official end of the opening celebrations. He would have liked to have come earlier, but had to work and was very grateful that he could now shop for another round of chess. If at any point during the strenuous weeks of renovation the question of why we put ourselves through all this was answered at that moment.
Out of joy and gratitude for the opening day, we have decided to extend the offer of purchasing a DGT 1002 for 11 instead of 24.95 euros for a purchase value of 25 euros or more! You will also receive 25% off the entire Chessbase range all week, also for an additional purchase value of 25 euros or more. The Chess Tigers Shop & Stores team looks forward to welcoming all chess fans to the store from Wednesday to Friday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. We are there for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at www.shop.chess-tigers.de.
