Find Someone to play chess with in London
otbchess.org
otbchess.org
If there just was a visualization of the chess boards in the individual threads.
Edit: So now that I've looked at TFA, this is a neat idea, but I'm not sold on the format. Is the idea to just say "I'll be at location X at Y:00 with my board, see you there!" and hope someone (or more than one) show up? Sort of a pop-up chess match? Otherwise I fear these topics will just become crowded with negotiations on parter, place, and time.
OTB chess is just more satisfying than online. Sometimes I'll follow an online correspondence game on my board, rather than staring at the screen doing analysis.
Edit 2: what if lichess added an OTB mode? Pairs people up based primarily on location (probably with just the option "here is you opponent and their rating, accept?"), gives them a chat room to decide on a place and time, then has them report the result. Some issues like how to deal with disputes, but I think most people willing to go through the work of playing OTB would be generally honest. Maybe have them submit a photo of the final board?
1. If Chess.com or LiChess were to do something like that I would immediately stop this project, as the main idea here is quantity and those guys can't be beat when it comes to that. - The problem is that it might be technically complicated for them to do any time soon, at least in a format that you have mentioned. Additionally, they'll have to worry about the legality and the security of users.
2. The idea is that a person from London, for example, says that he can be at some location at some time and if someone with similar rating replies then they can meet. Additionally I ask people to recommend general chess gathering locations in relevant chanels. I will keep adding them to the main message in the topic, so that if someone is uncomfortable they can just visit that location and with great likelihood find a partner.
I meant it as a rhetorical question, but that's kind of my point - instead of a new project, maybe see if lichess would be interested, and then work on adding it (it's at least open source, although if you don't get lichess.org buy-in then it's kinda moot - I know they get a lot of new mode requests and have pretty much said "no new modes!").
With that though you get a huge player base, many (most?) of whom have never played OTB, some of whom would be interested in trying out OTB chess, but are intimidated by hustlers at the park, dusty old chess clubs, etc.
In any case I applaud the effort to get more players away from their screens, and have signed up and am watching my local thread.