I wonder if you’re familiar with the sociological concept of the Third Place.

If you’re not, let me explain.

Your first place is your home. Your second place is the place you have an obligation to attend: your place of work or study: school, college or university.

Your third place is where you go because it’s where you want to be. The place that makes you whole. It might be, for example, your local pub or your place of worship. It might involve playing in a sports team, singing in a choir, playing in an orchestra or a band. It might be any sort of hobby club, for example a chess club. We have phrases which might describe this. It’s your happy place. It’s the place you go to find your tribe.

These days most of us are very concerned about the subject of mental health, especially children’s mental health. My view is that having a Third Place is vital in maintaining or improving anyone’s mental health.

School chess clubs, although they’ll have elements of the Third Place for many of their members, are, by their nature, Second Place organisations. Professionally run Centres of Chess Excellence might been seen as Third Places, but, for some children, who are being forced into attending by their parents (eat up your greens because it’s good for you) they’re more like Second Places. The formal structure of the club also makes it more like a Second Place.

When Mike Fox and I (Richard) started Richmond Junior Chess Club in 1975, it was designed – although we weren’t aware of the concept at the time – as a Third Place, not just for our members but for us as well. It gradually became more and more of a second place – because it was what our members and their parents wanted.

But times have changed again, and perhaps there’s, once again, a demand for a Third Space chess club for children. Come along and join us, and prove me right!