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Castle Gambit
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A boxwood-and-ebony chess set on its starting squares, on a club table beside an analogue chess clock and a table tent for Board 4.

Castle Gambit scoresheet

Event
Tuesday club night
White
You
Black
Someone new

Board4

The game so far, Board 4: 1. e4 e5 2. f4 exf4 3. Nf3 g5 4. Bc4 Bg7 5. O-O
No.WhiteBlack
1e4e5
2f4!?exf4
3Nf3g5
4Bc4Bg7
5O-O!
6

Notes

  1. 2. f4!? A gambit. Give something up early to get something better.
  2. 2… exf4 Accepted. Somebody takes you up on the offer.
  3. 5. O-O! Castled. The safest move there is: the king tucked behind a wall.

Learn on your own. Play at a club near you.

Chess for the room you’re actually sitting in.

Solve free puzzles and learn your openings on your own. Then get paired at your level at a club near you, and watch your Social Elo rise.

Try a puzzleFind a club near you

Puzzles are free, no account needed.Got a code?

Start on your own

Start with a puzzle. No club required.

You don’t need a club, a partner or an account to begin. Solve a puzzle on the bus, learn an opening before bed, and read up on what actually happens at a club night.

Puzzles

Free puzzles from real games.

Picked at about your level: a little harder as you solve, a little easier when one gets away. No account needed to start.

Try a puzzle
White to play. There’s a way through.

Opening trainer

58 openings, a few moves at a time.

Pick one for White or Black and learn its lines on the board. Each line comes back after a day, then three, then a week, until it sticks.

  • Italian Game1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4
  • London System1.d4 d5 2.Bf4
  • Ruy Lopez1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5
  • Queen's Gambit1.d4 d5 2.c4
Open the trainer

A puzzle rating only you see, and a day streak with a day off built in.

Everything in Prep

Then test it at a club

Walk in. Tap once. Sit down.

At most club nights you ask around and hope. At a club on Castle Gambit, you scan the code, tap Find me a game, and your phone tells you where to sit. Sign up with Google in a tap, and every game counts from the first one.

Made-up players, the real screens.

Find a club near you

Inside the app, a club is called a Castle.Why?

Then watch yourself get better

A Social Elo for the games you play in person.

Online, your rating moves after every game. At the club, casual games never counted. Here they can: casual games at a club on Castle Gambit build a Social Elo of your own, separate from US Chess and FIDE.

  • Nothing to see for five games.

    Your first games are tally marks. A number shows up once there’s enough chess behind it to mean something, so nobody is judged on their first night.

  • Then it moves with your games.

    After each game you and your opponent confirm, you see what changed. Your page charts it over time, game by game, for whoever you let see your Social Elo.

  • Your Prep level rises too.

    Puzzles solved and opening lines learned add to it as you study. It never goes down for a missed week, and nobody sees it but you. Puzzles also keep a puzzle rating, separate from your Social Elo, that only you see.

  • You choose who sees your Social Elo.

    Anyone who opens your profile by default, people in your clubs, or just you. Never on the club TV, in the lobby, or next to your name when you’re paired.

Played online? Linking an online account is up to you. Linked before your first rated game, it can set where your Social Elo starts, and it shows on your profile only to the people who can see your Social Elo.

Sam T. · Riverside

After tonight’s games

5 more games to your Social Elo.

No games yet tonight.

What you see after a game. Only you: nobody else gets the tally.

Your Social Elo over time

Use the arrow keys to read each game.
Show as a table
Your Social Elo after each rated game, newest first
GameDateSocial Elo
16Tue, Sep 221512
15Tue, Sep 151503
14Tue, Sep 81491
13Tue, Sep 11466
12Tue, Aug 251480
11Tue, Aug 181472
10Tue, Aug 111448?, provisional
9Tue, Aug 41455?, provisional
8Tue, Jul 281431?, provisional
7Tue, Jul 211406?, provisional
6Tue, Jul 141418?, provisional
5Tue, Jul 71392?, provisional
An example, with made-up games. Your own page draws yours.

Between club nights

Find your people.

Chess is better with someone across the board who knows your name. Clubs meet in all sorts of rooms, most of them closer than you’d think.

  • A library community room on club night: folding tables with wooden chess sets and numbered table tents, players seen from behind, bookshelves along the wall.
    A library’s community room
  • A café table close up: a hand moving a piece on a wooden board beside a chess clock and a mug of coffee.
    The back room of a café
  • A bright community hall with tall windows and rows of tables set with chess boards, clocks and numbered table tents, a few players at the far end.
    A community hall
  • A pub back room under low lamps: wooden boards mid-game on dark tables, a pint and a chess clock beside them.
    A pub’s back room

  • Clubs near you

    Chess clubs on Castle Gambit, with where and when they meet, so you know which night to turn up.

    Find a club near you

  • Open games and meetups

    Casual games, meetups and tournaments that anyone can join. Say you’re coming, then come.

    See what’s on

  • Follow a club

    With an account, follow a club and its public nights show up on your home page, soonest first. Only you see who you follow. A weekly email of your clubs’ week comes only if you switch it on.

Running a club?

Give the clipboard the night off.

The lobby, the poster, the club TV, pairing, rosters and results are free for every club, and the room runs itself, so you get to play a few games too.

See what organizers getRunning a college club?

  • Open the night in one tap: a join code, a QR poster for the door and a link for the club TV.

  • Pair everyone at once, or let Castle Gambit pair people as they arrive.

  • Results settle themselves. Both players tap, and only the disagreements come to you.

  • A roster for the regulars without a phone, and fixing a result later fixes every rating it touched.

The story

What’s the Castle Gambit?

There’s no such thing as the Castle Gambit. Look it up. A gambit is when you give something up early to get something better. Castling is when you tuck your king behind a wall of pawns and a rook so nothing can reach it. One is a risk. The other is the opposite of a risk. In four hundred years of chess, nobody put them together.

The opening doesn’t exist. You have to play it yourself.

Read the whole story

Index of openings

Caro–Kann Defence
112
Castle Gambit
no page
Catalan Opening
131
Centre Game
140
Colle System
152
Look it up. It’s not there.

Safety

Built for a room of strangers.

Castle Gambit is for adults, 18 and over. Club night means sitting down across from someone you’ve never met, so the app keeps as little about you as it can and shows even less.

  • 18 and over.Everyone answers one neutral question before their first game. Younger? The guides are free; the app isn’t for you yet.

  • No direct messages.No chat, no DMs, no comments. You talk across the board, like always.

  • Your Social Elo, your call.Anyone who opens your profile by default, people in your clubs, or just you. Never in the lobby, on the club TV or in pairings.

  • Clubs choose their members.Anyone can follow a club for free, but only the club adds members, so a stranger can’t join one just to look around.

  • Club nights end.Lobbies close on their own after the night. Organizers can remove someone from the night and put up a fresh join code.

  • The TV link stays in the room.Only the organizer has it, and search engines are told to ignore it.

For parents

What 18+ means if there’s a young player in your house.

Give up a night. Gain a castle.

Start with a puzzle tonight. When you’re ready, there’s a club near you with the boards set up and a chair with your name on it. Well, your first name and last initial.

Try a puzzleFind a club near youGot a code?