From Treme to Downriver
The club traces its beginning to the Treme Chess Club, organized by Jeff Vollmer in 2012. US Chess identified Treme as an affiliate named for the New Orleans neighborhood, and a surviving 2013 club page advertised twice-weekly rated play at Cafe Fatoush.
After Vollmer moved to St. Louis in 2016, Andrew Squitiro assumed organizing duties in New Orleans.
According to the club's history, tournaments began using the Downriver Chess Club name about a year later.
Rated chess in public places
The predecessor's public-space habit included outdoor chess tables built in New Orleans for both casual and rated games. A 2013 café venue and the later move to Cafe Envie place the club's early history in shared public spaces rather than a purpose-built chess center.
Its official history says Cafe Envie became a home base because chess culture was already present there. The account specifically credits Waleed Abdul Rahman and Eric O'Neill, acknowledging that Downriver developed within an existing citywide scene.
Scaling up without losing social space
In 2023, Downriver and the Tulane Chess Club jointly hosted the first Tulane Quick Chess Tournament. Tulane reported 100 players ages 10 to 75 and described it as Louisiana's largest all-ages US Chess tournament since 2018.
The event also reserved a skittles room for pickup games, spectators and conversation between rounds. That design carried a familiar club function into a university tournament: formal competition remained paired with unstructured social play.
A network of local partners
Downriver co-organizes New Orleans Youth Chess with Strategic Thoughts NOLA and Crescent City Chess. The series uses grade-based sections and school-team scoring, and its 2025 to 2026 season used several school hosts, giving scholastic players both individual and school identities within rated competition.
At the Historic New Orleans Collection's 2025 Chess Fest, Downriver directed a five-round fast tournament as part of a program that also included local chess history. The festival screened oral-history videos with post-COVID reflections from New Orleans chess voices, connecting tournament organization to the preservation of community memory.
Sources
- 1.Downriver Chess, Downriver Chess Club of New Orleans
- 2.Downriver Chess - About, Downriver Chess Club of New Orleans
- 3.Downriver Chess - Tournaments, Downriver Chess Club of New Orleans
- 4.Downriver Chess - Youth, Downriver Chess Club of New Orleans
- 5.Take it Outside: Fresh Air Chess Around the World, US Chess
Show 5 more sources
- 6.Treme Chess Club, Treme Chess Club
- 7.A Revitalization of Chess, Tulanian, Tulane University
- 8.Chess Fest 2025 | Historic New Orleans Collection, The Historic New Orleans Collection
- 9.New Orleans Youth Chess March Meet, US Chess
- 10.Club - Louisiana Chess Association, Louisiana Chess Association
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