Chess as a social activity

This post linked below interests me most in how chess used to serve as a kind of gateway to friendship. It did for me in college but not afterward. I wonder if for others it still is a social activity. I don't play chess anymore, nor bridge. I wouldn't want to know people just for that, but I would be interested in meeting people otherwise where those games were among the outlets.

NYRblog - Playing Chess With Kubrick - The New York Review of Books via kwout