Guides ·
Club chess, explained.
Eight guides to everything nobody tells you about club chess, in plain words: starting a club, your first night, touch-move, ratings, clocks, notation and who plays whom.
The short version
- Eight guides, each answering its question up front
- Diagrams that move: touch-move, castling, a 15+10 clock, a Swiss round
- For players and for the people who run the room
- No gatekeeping, and nobody quizzing you on the Sicilian
Every club has unwritten rules, and every newcomer learns them the slightly embarrassing way. So we wrote them down. Eight guides, for the questions people actually ask at club night and a few they’re too polite to.
For your first night
What to expect at your first chess club night covers walking in, what to bring and how to get a game (you will lose some; everyone does). The etiquette guide explains touch-move, the handshake, and why you press the clock with the hand that moved.
For the numbers
How ratings work, including what that question mark after a new rating means; what 15+10 means and what happens when the flag falls; and how to write the game down, so Nf3 stops looking like a password. Pairings gets its own guide too: casual nights, Swiss tournaments and round robins.
For the people who run the room
How to start a chess club, from finding a room to keeping it going, and how to run a club night, from unlocking the door to settling the one argument.
Shown, not just told
Every guide answers its question in the first two sentences, then shows you with diagrams that move. If you’ve asked your device for less motion, they sit still and show the finished picture. Read the guides.