19th-century coffeehouses, like Slaughter's Coffee-House and the Café de la Régence, were hotbeds of chess; even today, a fair amount of chess activity still takes place at independent coffeehouses. At one, Richard Griffith and William Gunston played the Giuoco Pianissimo.
Richard Griffith was the British Chess Champion in 1912 and the editor of the British Chess Magazine. William Gunston was the British Correspondence Champion in 1924 and 1928.
