What to expect at your first chess club night

Most club nights look much the same: a room with tables, boards set up in rows, people playing quietly, a couple of finished games being picked apart in the corner, and somebody who has definitely made too much coffee. The crowd is usually a mix you won’t find anywhere else: kids and retirees, students and engineers, people who play every day online and people who haven’t touched a board since school.

What’s on the menu depends on the club and the night:

• Casual play. The most common. You play someone, shake hands, and play someone else. No rounds, no standings, no pressure. Perfect for a first visit.
• A club tournament. Games start at set times in rounds, and there are standings at the end. Newcomers are often welcome to join in or to play casually on the side.
• A lesson or a simul. A stronger player teaches a topic, or plays everyone at once.
• Match nights. Some clubs play teams from other clubs in a league. Worth watching; not the night to expect a casual game.

If you’re not sure what’s on, the club’s page or a quick message to the organizer will tell you. For your first night, a casual one is ideal.

Almost nothing. Clubs have boards, sets and clocks, and they expect newcomers to turn up empty-handed.

• Yourself, roughly on time. Most clubs are fine with people drifting in through the evening.
• A charged phone, if the club pairs people or records results on an app.
• A pen, if you’d like to write your games down (a lovely habit, and optional).
• A set of your own, if you have one. Never required, always welcome.

Some clubs ask for a small contribution towards the room, or a membership once you’ve decided you’re staying. Their page usually says. Nobody minds you asking.

Find whoever’s running the night. They’re usually near the door, holding a clipboard, a phone, or a strong opinion about the heating. Tell them it’s your first time. That one sentence changes everything: most clubs have someone whose favorite job is looking after new people.

They’ll probably ask how much you play. They’re not judging you; they’re working out who to pair you with. Any honest answer is fine:

• “I know how the pieces move, and that’s about it.”
• “I play online a bit.”
• “I played at school, a hundred years ago.”
• “I play in tournaments, but I’m new in town.”

If nobody seems to be in charge, ask anyone who isn’t mid-game: “Who’s running tonight?” Chess players are much friendlier than their thinking faces suggest.

At a casual night, one of two things happens: the organizer pairs you with someone, or you find someone free and ask. The words are simple, and everybody knows them: “Would you like a game?”

Before you start, agree on two things:

1. 1

   The time control. “15 plus 10?” means fifteen minutes each and ten seconds added every move. If you’ve never used a clock, say so: plenty of people are happy to play without one.

2. 2

   Who’s White. The classic way: one player hides a white pawn in one fist and a black pawn in the other, and the other player picks a hand.

Many clubs number their boards, and some pair people by phone: you’re told a board, and you go and find it. It’s the table-tent version of a restaurant reservation.

Shake hands and say “good luck” or “have a good game.” If you’re using a clock, the custom is that Black starts White’s clock, and then you’re off.

A few habits make you a welcome opponent from your very first game:

• Touch-move. If you touch one of your pieces, you’re expected to move it. Want to straighten one? Say “I adjust” first.
• Press the clock with the hand you moved with, and don’t hover over it.
• Keep quiet. A little chat is fine between games; during them, other people are thinking.
• Phone away and silent. Looking at it mid-game looks like cheating, even when it isn’t.
• Not sure of a rule? Ask. Castling rights, en passant, what happens when a pawn reaches the end: everyone had to learn them once.

The unwritten rules have a whole guide of their own: chess club etiquette.

Let’s get this out of the way: you’re going to lose games, possibly all of them, possibly quickly. That’s not a sign you don’t belong. It’s the price of admission, and everyone in the room has paid it. The player who beats you tonight has lost hundreds of games, including a few embarrassing ones they will not be telling you about.

What makes losing useful rather than miserable:

• Play people near your level when you can. A close game you lose teaches more than a demolition.
• Ask one question afterwards. “Where did I go wrong?” Most club players love nothing more than explaining a game. You may have to stop them.
• Pace yourself. Three or four games is a good night. Tired players blunder, and blunders feel worse than losses.
• Count the good moves, not just the results. You’ll notice them getting more frequent long before your results change.

And if you win your first game: congratulations, and please don’t tell anyone it was your first game. It’ll ruin their evening.

Shake hands and say “good game,” whatever just happened. Then set the pieces back up for the next pair, and, if the club keeps track of results, report yours.

If you both want to go over the game (players call it the post-mortem), take it somewhere away from games still being played. Talking through your blunders right next to someone else’s time scramble is the one way to really annoy a chess club.

Clubs that record results usually want both players to agree on them. The old way is two scoresheets that should match; the new way is two phones.

If your club runs its nights on Castle Gambit, getting a game is even simpler. There’s nothing to install, and your first game doesn’t need an account: just your birth month and year (Castle Gambit is for adults, 18 and over) and a name.

Need a breather? Tap Take a break, and nobody will pair you until you’re back. Reporting a result frees you to find another game straight away.

The best thing you can do after your first club night is come to the second one. The second night is when people remember your name, and the third is when you start to recognize their openings.

• Tell the organizer you’ll be back. It makes their week.
• Ask to join the club, if it has members. On Castle Gambit, you ask to join a Castle and the organizer lets you in.
• Played as a guest? Save your games with a code we email you, and they’re yours for keeps. Guest accounts expire after 30 days.
• Bring a friend. Clubs grow one friend at a time.

Haven’t found a club yet? Look for Castles near you, see when they meet, and pick a night.