Ryan Daly, of Newport, center, sets up one of four concrete tables and eight stools with his friends, Teak Ackman and Orlando Gomez, both of Newport, and his brother in-law, Juan Cano, left. Daly raised the money for the outdoor playing area in a nearly yearlong effort. The Providence Journal / Frieda Squires

NEWPORT

Ryan Daly stood in one of four freshly dug rectangular holes in a small grassy park, reaching down with his thickly tattooed arms to scoop out dirt with a trowel.

Nearby, four friends nailed boards together and assembled a mechanical lift to hoist a group of heavy cement objects sitting on the ground nearby.

Seemingly hard work, it was all just a game — or at least for a game.

Ready to be placed in the holes were chess tables and stools to create an outdoor place where anyone will be able to play one of mankind’s oldest games. The quiet shady spot — beneath a canopy of mature trees and across Edward Street from the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center — was Daly’s top choice for a chess site. It’s away from noisier and tourist-inundated parks elsewhere in the city, he said.

The installation of the tables this week is the endgame of a nearly yearlong scrappy effort by Daly, 32, whose love for the game blossomed in recent years. His first move was to start a chess night at a local café, Empire Tea and Coffee, to get people excited about the game. Once that was accomplished, he figured he could begin rallying support for an outdoor chess site and asking for donations for the tables.

“That’s chess thinking,” he said, poking fun at his strategy.

Daly went before the City Council and received its blessing for his plans. Soon after, people and businesses began pledging anywhere from $25 to several hundred dollars to purchase the two tables and pairs of stools Daly desired, each set costing about $1,500. Then relatives of his wife, Jennifer, who wanted to do something in the memory of a late son, offered to donate enough to buy an additional two tables and stools.

“It’s been a long process,” Jennifer Daly said. “He’s been really determined and motivated.”

Daly, who works with his father at their family-owned metal fabricating business, Specialties Unlimited, learned to play chess in his youth. But he didn’t get passionate about the game until about five years ago, when he broke his ankle and couldn’t play basketball. It was from playing on the courts at the Martin Luther King Center that Daly was familiar with the leafy park across the street, the one next to the fenced-in playground equipment and behind the 309-year-old Great Friends Meeting House

With the community center offering pre-school classes, after-school activities and year-round recreational programs, Daly figured “the kids will probably play.” He plans to buy sets of chess pieces for the center with the little money he’ll have left over.

Daly purchased the concrete chess tables, with inlaid green and white terrazzo tiles, from Concrete Classics, makers of “Classic New York City chess tables.” But it would cost $800 to have them shipped from Connecticut.

Instead, Daly made a deal with a friend in the car-hauling business. Daly would trade a few old vehicles donated by supporters — worth hundreds of dollars in reusable parts — in exchange for his friend using his trailer to pick up the 500-pound chess tables and 400-pound stools.

Since Saturday, Daly has been preparing to place the tables and stools in the ground and to pour cement around them. City workers helped with the excavation of the four holes for a few hours on Monday. But it was Daly’s ability to rely on the help of his friends, many of them native Newporters with construction and marine skills, that was even more remarkable.

Among them was Douglas Ernest, Teak Ackman, Orlando Gomez and Daniel Vincent. On Monday, they began nailing together boards that would be used to steady the tables and stools during the cement pouring. And they used a small hand-operated crane to hoist the heavy cement pieces and drop them into place atop metal bases Daly made at his shop. (One table will have just one stool so that someone in a wheelchair can play at it).

Yesterday, city workers returned to help with the pouring of the cement.

“It feels good,” Daly said afterward. “They even look a lot nicer than I thought they would. They are kind of staggered on a diagonal.”

The tables will remain covered with tarps and supported by the wooden jigs for several days, until the cement cures and during the pouring of a final layer of cement. Daly hopes they will be ready for play next Wednesday, when chess night is typically held at Empire. From that point onward, whenever a warm dry evening arrives, the group can gather at the outdoor chess tables.

Daly hopes, however, that the tables get used all the time — during the day when children are looking for something fun to do or perhaps during tournaments he would like to host. He’s already been in touch with a group of competitive chess players based in Cranston.

Just as public chess tables have spread around urban areas across the country, Daly hopes that his Newport project will inspire similar projects in places such as Providence and Woonsocket. He already envisions chess tables at Kennedy Plaza, Providence’s busing hub, and at other locations along RIPTA bus lines. Chess, he said, shouldn’t be thought of as a game only for the nerdy and brilliant. In other countries, it’s enjoyed by the masses.

“It’s strategic and it’s fun,” he said. “Newport is kind of drinking-and-party town. This is another thing they can do.”

rsalit@projo.com