Pawnography: Hackney Chess Club turn unlikely fashion icons for Korean clothing brand CHANCECHANCE

King of fashion: detail from the CHANCECHANCE shoot with Hackney Chess Club. All photographs: Wendy Huynh

Both have a penchant for checked patterns. Both revolve around capturing pieces. In each world, the most powerful figure is a woman. Yes, chess and fashion are very similar.

However this connection isn’t something Mark Rivlin, Hackney Chess Club (HCC) secretary, normally dwells on too much. “Primark are my personal outfitters!” he admitted to the Citizen. “At my age I’m not really bothered what I look like…”

But fashion dived headlong into HCC’s world of bishops and rooks late last year, when photographer Wendy Huynh decided that the club’s regular Saturday session at Stoke Newington’s The Rochester Castle pub was the perfect backdrop for an impromptu fashion shoot, for contemporary Korean fashion house CHANCECHANCE. The resulting images have now been shared, on Instagram and beyond.

“My main interest is really documentary,” Huynh told the Citizen, “and I like to look for people who are not models.” In this sense, the CHANCECHANGE shoot was an extension of her artistic impulses – witness her magazine Arcades, a collection of photographs and interviews all about “living on the outskirts of big cities.” (The second issue tackles London’s fringes.)

So, with camera gear, coats and hoodies in tow, Huynh and her stylist Yeon You (a friend of CHANCECHANCE’s owner) set off to the popular Wetherspoons on a chilly night last December.

Hackney Chess Club play their league chess all over the country, in the London, Middlesex and 4NCL leagues, but the Saturday Stoke Newington sessions are ‘Blitz’ games – high octane, five minute affairs, where competition takes a back seat to drinking, socialising and fun.

As such, Huynh’s photos have the cosy, knockabout feel of a proper night’s boozing (Huynh confirms “we had a few pints together”.) Despite the fact that, as Rivlin ruefully admits, “most of us are getting on a bit”, the players make excellent models for the CHANCECHANCE’s casual, block colour outerwear. Plus, there was another side benefit to the evening’s fun:

“One thing I’ve noticed at The Rochester Castle, for the last few years on a Saturday night you’ve started to see a hipster crowd coming in to get cheap drinks before going out, and [this photoshoot] generated a lot of interest among the crowds.

“We’ve picked up a few people who can play a decent game!”

CHANCECHANCE can be found at chancechance.co.kr. You can find more info about photographer Wendy Huynh, her magazine and portfolio at her website, and she’s on Instagram.

Hackney Chess Club host their Beer and Blitz at The Rochester Castle (145 Stoke Newington High St, N16 0NY) every Saturday. For information on these nights, the team, and how to join, visit the club website