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Castle Gambit
Theme

System follows your phone or computer.

Theme

For college chess clubs

Every campus has a castle.

Castle Gambit helps college chess clubs run their weekly meetings: students 18 and over scan in, get paired with someone near their level, and confirm results on their phones.

A game at the club-fair table, a board for everyone who walks in, results both players confirm, and a club that doesn’t reset every May.

Start your club’s CastleGet campus early access

For students 18 and over. More on that below.

A college chess club meeting in a student union room on a weeknight: students in hoodies, seen from behind, playing at long tables with wooden sets and chess clocks, the campus paths lit outside the tall windows at dusk.

The club fair

Sign-ups who’ve already played a game.

You know the sign-up sheet: forty emails at the fair, a handful at the first meeting. So put a board on the table and open a lobby instead.

A chess game at a club-fair table on a canary-yellow tablecloth under a white canopy: two students in hoodies leaning over a wooden board and a chess clock, a blank table tent, a stack of cards and a blue pen, autumn leaves and students walking by behind.
Club fair · Wednesday, noon

Made-up club, made-up players

Step 1

Open a lobby at the booth

Tape tonight’s poster to the table and put the TV view on a laptop. Anyone who stops by scans the code, answers one age question, says their name and gets a game at your table, as a guest, in under a minute.

Your club already lives on Discord or GroupMe? Keep it. Share your Castle’s link there. Castle Gambit doesn’t do chat, on purpose.

One question comes first. Everyone who scans in gives their birth month and year before their first game, because Castle Gambit is for adults, 18 and over. A note on age.

Every week

The 2000 and the first-timer both get a game.

Castle Gambit pairs people as they arrive, close to their level, so your strongest player isn’t farming beginners all night and nobody’s first game is a massacre.

  • Late from lab? Still a game.Walk in whenever and tap Find me a game. Nobody waits for round two.

  • Problem set due?Take a break, and you won’t be paired until you’re back.

  • Put it on the projector.The TV view has a projector setting, readable from the back of the room.

  • A rating that’s low-stakes on purpose.Hidden for the first five games and never on the TV. Your club sees it by default, and each player can make theirs public or keep it to themselves.

  • Crowns and stamps.Every game that counts earns crowns, and three club nights at your Castle makes someone a Regular. Only they see their card: no leaderboards.

Here’s a meeting night, step by step.

Made-up players, the real screens.

Officer handover

Officers graduate. The club doesn’t.

Every spring, some club somewhere loses its mailing list, its sign-in and its history with one graduation. Not yours.

  • Share the load.Make your VP and treasurer organizers: they can open the room, let members in and settle results while you’re stuck in a midterm.

  • Hand the Castle over.One tap makes next year’s president the owner. You stay on as an organizer until you’re ready to step away.

  • Everything stays.Members, the Castle page, recent club nights and everyone’s games go with the Castle, not with you.

  • No passwords to pass down.Every officer signs in as themselves. Nobody inherits a login.

One hand passing a canvas tote bag of wooden chess sets, with a ring of keys, to another hand across a table with a clipboard, a blue pen, a canary sticky note and a single wooden rook.
Maya hands the Castle to Priya: Priya becomes the owner and Maya stays on as an organizer. The members, the Castle page and the recent club nights stay with the Castle. Made-up club, made-up officers.

Campus knockouts Early access

Dorm Cup. Rivalry night. The Castle Cup.

Knockout nights are in early access: a bracket on the projector, a second chance for anyone who has one bad game, and a trophy moment for the end of the night.

  • Single or double elimination.Byes for the top seeds, and a second-chance bracket so one bad game isn’t the end of the night.

  • Fair when it’s level.A pair of blitz tiebreaks, then armageddon.

  • Two clubs, one bracket.Invite the club across town and put both on the same chart.

Heading to the Pan-Ams or a rated weekend? Those run on scoresheets, with phones switched off. Castle Gambit is for the weeks in between.

Early access · made-up players. A knockout night mid-evening, on the projector.

Ideas for your semester

A few nights worth stealing.

Everything tagged Today works tonight. Early access means a preview we’re building with a few clubs first.

  • A chess game on a long library table at night, between stacks of textbooks, a coffee and a pair of headphones, under white reading lamps.
    Today

    Finals-week drop-in

    Open a lobby in the library lounge for two hours. People drop in for one game between chapters, and pairing keeps up.

  • Students on a couch and floor cushions around a coffee table with two chess games, a chess clock and a bowl of popcorn in a residence common room.
    Today

    Blitz on the big screen

    Pair people as they arrive and put the TV view on the lounge projector. Games turn over fast, and the wall keeps up.

  • A long table in a meeting room at night, set for a chess club: wooden sets on their starting squares, chess clocks, blank table tents, a tote bag of spare pieces and a blue pen on a canary sheet, students arriving with backpacks.
    Today

    New players’ night

    Post a gambit that says new players welcome. Ratings stay hidden for everyone’s first five games, so nobody is scared off by a number.

  • TodayTwo campuses

    Visiting night

    Invite the club across town. Post a public gambit, open your lobby, and their players scan in like anyone else. Their games count, and their rating goes home with them.

  • Early access

    Dorm Cup

    One knockout night, one bracket on the projector, one Castle Cup for whoever survives it.

  • Early accessTwo campuses

    Rivalry night

    Two Castles, one bracket. Bring the club across town and settle it across the board.

Not on the roadmap: bughouse and team scores. Castle Gambit pairs one-on-one games.

18 and over

A note on age.

Castle Gambit is for adults, 18 and over. Most of your members will be, but some first-years arrive on campus at 17. Until their 18th birthday they can’t make an account, play as a guest or go on your roster, and there’s no setting that changes that for a Castle.

It’s the same rule at every Castle, and it keeps a room of strangers simple. They’re still welcome at your club, just not on Castle Gambit yet, and the guides are free for everyone, whatever their age.

How to run a chess club night

Questions

Questions from club officers.

Is Castle Gambit free for student clubs?

Yes, for players, and it stays that way: finding a game at club night, your rating, Castles, gambits, crowns and stamps are all free. Organizers get everything they use today for free too: the lobby, the poster, the club TV, pairing, rosters and results.

Later we’ll add paid extras for clubs that want more, like tournament tools and paid event registration. Club night itself stays free.

The same answer, on the FAQ
Does it replace our Discord or GroupMe?

No. Castle Gambit has no chat or direct messages, on purpose. Share your Castle’s link wherever your club already talks.

Can we use it for the Collegiate Chess League or the Pan-Ams?

No. The Collegiate Chess League is played online, and the Pan-Ams are a rated tournament with scoresheets and phones switched off. Castle Gambit is for your in-person club nights: the weeks in between.

Do we need a TV?

No. Everyone’s phone shows their board and their opponent. A TV, a projector or a laptop just lets the whole room see who’s playing where, and there’s a projector setting for lecture-hall screens.

Does it do bughouse?

No. Castle Gambit pairs one-on-one games, and bughouse isn’t on the roadmap. Your bughouse table keeps its own score.

What happens when I graduate?

Hand the Castle to next year’s president. Members, the Castle page, recent club nights and everyone’s games stay with the club, and you stay on as an organizer until you’re ready to step away.

Can students under 18 use it?

No. Castle Gambit is for adults, 18 and over, with no exceptions for clubs. The guides are free for everyone, whatever their age.

Read the guides

Your club, every week.

Start your Castle tonight and it’s ready for Thursday’s meeting. Want knockout nights for your campus first? Get on the list.

Start your club’s CastleFor organizers

Early access list

Bring Castle Gambit to your campus.

Tell us about your club and we’ll be in touch when knockout nights open up. Club nights don’t need a list: you can start a Castle today.

First name and last initial is plenty.

Where we’ll write to you.

You are…

Optional.

Where your campus is.

Optional.

Optional.

What would you use first?

Pick any. Each one says whether it’s ready today.

Optional. Your nights, your room, what you’d want first.

We’ll only use this to talk with you about bringing Castle Gambit to your club. What we keep, and for how long. Ask and we’ll delete it: castlegambit.support@avevue.com.