Mind games on Thompson Street

In troubled times when most of the world is seeking resolution to a crisis that does not involve war, we could do worse than learn a lesson from the history of chess. With its kings, queens, castles and knights, chess is an extension of war by other means; a battle of minds rather than a clash of muscle.

But on Thompson Street, a tiny strip of Greenwich Village, two rival chess shops have long dispensed with the metaphor. For the past eight years the two owners have engaged in their own "endless war" - a litany of lawsuits, spying, name-calling and price-wars, calling on their customers to take loyalty oaths and ignoring each other in the street.

At 219 there is the Chess Shop owned by George Frohlinde, a German immigrant in his 70s. At 230 is the Chess Forum, run by Imad Khachan, a Lebanese immigrant in his 30s. Between them lies less than 100 yards and a conflict so bitter it seems that no deadlines, benchmarks or resolutions can assuage it.

According to the New York Times, Forum loyalists have been known to refer to Frohlinde as "the Nazi"; those at the Chess Shop have called Khachan, who is a Muslim, "Yasser Arafat".

"If I had to give him one book, it would be King Lear," said Khachan of Frohlinde. "He is the man who divided this kingdom. This did not have to happen."

Frohlinde opened the Chess Shop in 1972. The seeds of dispute were sown when he later hired Khachan, who soon became manager. He offered Khachan a partnership in the business. Frohlinde says Khachan never came up with the money; Khachan says Frohlinde never came good on his promise.

By 1995, Khachan had left to open the Chess Forum, taking some of the Chess Shop's regulars with him. The game was on. The two have not spoken since.

Soon after, Frohlinde filed a lawsuit with the supreme court, accusing Khachan of breaking an agreement (which Khachan insists never existed) not to open a chess store within 10 blocks.

When Ernie Rosenberg, who used to work for Frohlinde, crossed over to the Chess Forum, he says he was barred from the Chess Shop. "I printed up leaflets and told the owners of the Chess Shop I would distribute them on the sidewalk during the Christmas season unless they lifted the ban," he told the New York Times. "I used to go in and stand in the shop just to annoy them. They would try and throw me out."

The shops are very similar, selling everything from chess clocks and regular sets to chess figures with themes such as The Simpsons or the wild west.

For all that, New Yorkers take their chess seriously. Head down to Washington Square Park, Brighton Beach or Central Park on a clear, bright day and you will hear them before you see them. Not for this city the hallowed hush of the international brain-game. Instead you are greeted by the whacking of clocks and the playful ridiculing of opponents when they are down.

"Where the hell you think you're gonna put that thing now?" asked one player of another as he cornered a knight to make a favourable pawn exchange. They play chess here like my grandfather played dominoes.

But none take it quite as seriously as they do in the war zone that is Thompson street. When asked what happens when he bumps into his former partner on the street, Frohlinde replies, "You don't see people you don't like."

· As the city whose trauma became the springboard for the war on terror, reaching a consensus on what stance to take on the impending invasion of Iraq was never going to be easy for New York city council. But as one of the most liberal cities in the US, the final decision was inevitable. Today the council will finally add its voice to the hundred and more cities around the country from San Francisco to Baltimore. For a city renowned for its straight talking, however, the resolution contains plenty of fudge, calling for peace but leaving open the possibility of war.

"The manner in which the US government is responding to the crisis involving Iraq has caused great concern among many New Yorkers," the resolution says. But it emphasises the need to deal with threats "in accordance with international law and, whenever possible, on a multilateral basis".

Suitably diplomatic for the home of the UN, say some. Unsuitably strident for a city that has been in the line of fire, say others. "New York City was attacked by terrorists a few blocks from where this resolution is being debated," councilman Peter Vallone Jr from Queens told the New York Times. "I can't forget that."