About

Our club began as the Treme Chess Club in 2012, organized by Jeff Vollmer. In 2016, Jeff moved to St. Louis where he now runs a club in Old North St. Louis. Andrew Squitiro took over organizing duties after Jeff, and a year later began running  tournaments under the name Downriver Chess Club, and, after a bit of wandering, made Cafe Envie in the French Quarter our home base.

In 2018, Richard Campbell began directing tournaments alongside Andrew, and the duo directed the 2022 Louisiana State Open—one of the largest state championships in Louisiana chess history—with the help of Katie Spetter, President of the UNO Chess Club. Since then, Katie has joined our ranks and directed many Downriver Chess events herself.

Our club continues growing and we have consistently offered larger-scale tournaments with a $500+ prize fund every few months. If you are interested in tournament directing or organizing with us, please send an inquiry to info@downriverchess.com.

In 2023, we formed the club into a federally recognized non-profit organization. The current board of the 501(c)3 is comprised as follows:

President & Director — Andrew Squitiro
Treasurer & Director — Richard Campbell
Secretary & Director — Richard Scheidt

In 2024, we moved our Monday night play to Turtle Bay.