8 min read
What to expect at your first chess club night
Nobody is going to quiz you on the Sicilian. Here’s what actually happens when you walk into a chess club for the first time, and how to get a game.
Learn
Get better between club nights.
Plain-words guides to club chess, an opening trainer for the lines you’ll actually meet, and puzzles from real games. One Learn level keeps track of the studying, and nobody sees it but you.
Your Learn level
Only you see it.
Guides
Club chess, explained: walking in for the first time, the clock, the handshake, keeping score, and what that number next to your name means.
8 min read
Chess club etiquette: the rules nobody tells you
Touch-move, handshakes, draw offers, and why you don’t analyze next to a game that’s still going. The written rules and the unwritten ones.
9 min read
How do chess ratings work? Elo, Glicko and your club rating
Why beating a stronger player is worth more, what the question mark after a new rating means, and why your online number and your club number disagree.
8 min read
How does a chess clock work? Time controls explained
What 15+10 means, why you press with the same hand, what happens when the flag falls, and which time control suits a club night.
8 min read
How to write chess notation on a scoresheet
Every square has a name, every piece has a letter, and a whole game fits on one sheet of paper. Algebraic notation in ten minutes.
8 min read
How do chess pairings work? Casual, Swiss and round robin
Who plays whom, and why: how a casual club night matches people as they arrive, how a Swiss tournament pairs by score, and when a round robin or a knockout makes more sense.
Opening trainer
40 openings, a few lines a day, and each line comes back just before you’d forget it. Learn it on the bus, play it on Board 4.
Pick an opening for White or Black and learn its lines one move at a time on the board. Reps in the two days before your club night count as prep, and your book stays in this browser.
Open the trainerHow it works
- Learn a line: the moves, and the plan that goes with them.
- Play it back from memory. A slip just means it comes back sooner.
- Each clean run adds a mark. The fifth books the line: it’s yours.
Puzzles
Free puzzles from real games, picked at about your level: a little harder as you solve, a little easier when one gets away.
Solve one clean and it’s worth XP, more for the tough ones; take a hint and it’s worth half. No clock and no account needed. Or work through a collection, easiest first:
Find the move