Home › Blog › Chess Bars & Chess Cafés: Where to Play, City by City
A chess bar is a bar where the boards are already on the tables. The idea is more than 300 years old, the grand old chess cafés closed about a century ago, and since 2018 new ones have opened in Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Bangkok and Madrid. This is a list of the chess bars and chess cafés we could confirm are open, what they cost, and what to do in a city that doesn't have one.
I run Checkmate IRL, and our map has 4,600+ places to play chess, hundreds of them bars and cafés. Most of those are ordinary places that host a chess night. This guide is about the smaller group where chess is the reason the place exists.
Each chess bar and café below was checked against its own website or a current map listing before publication. Bars change their hours without telling anyone, so look before you travel.
| Place | City | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| The Good Knight | Oslo | About 30 chess tables, closed Sundays |
| Blitz Society | Paris | 2 bars, tournament on Wednesdays |
| Svarta Hästen | Stockholm, Gothenburg | Wine and chess, closed Monday and Tuesday |
| Bar 64 | Barcelona | Cocktail bar with boards |
| Gambit Café | Madrid | €3 entry at opening, closed Mondays |
| Gambit | Prague | Evenings only, check hours first |
| Café en passant | Berlin | Club nights on Tuesday and Friday |
| Barmbeker Schachcafé | Hamburg | Chess on Wednesday and Friday, €5 |
| Café de Laurierboom | Amsterdam | Brown café, home of a chess club |
| Panellinion | Athens | Kafeneio with chess and backgammon |
| Red Knight Chess Cafe | Bangkok | Free blitz on Saturdays |
| Chess Club Coffee | Chicago | Closes mid-afternoon, shut Tuesday and Wednesday |
| Chess Forum | New York | $5 an hour, noon to midnight |
| House of Chess | Copenhagen | Free, no bar, limited hours |
The Café de la Régence opened in Paris in 1681 and was the centre of European chess by the 18th century. Diderot and Rousseau met there in 1742, and Marx met Engels there on 28 August 1844. It became a restaurant in 1910, and the chess players moved out in 1916.
London's version was the Grand Cigar Divan on the Strand, opened in 1828, which became Simpson's. The Immortal Game of 1851 is traditionally said to have been played there. By the time it reopened as Simpson's-in-the-Strand in 1904, chess was no longer the main event.
In Vienna, the upstairs room of the Café Central, opened in 1876, was nicknamed Die Schachhochschule, the chess university. The guides to Paris, London and Vienna tell those stories in full.
Then the coffee houses changed and the players went to clubs, and later online. The comeback started in a bar. The Good Knight opened in Oslo in 2018, and a few months later Time Out London ran the headline "City envy: we want a chess bar like Oslo".
Paris got one in 2021, Stockholm and Prague in 2023, Bangkok in 2024, Gothenburg in 2025 and Madrid in January 2026.
The grand chess cafés closed a century ago. The idea came back with a drinks menu.
The Good Knight at Badstugata 9 is a café by day and a bar at night, with about 30 chess tables. Boards and pieces are free to borrow, clocks cost extra, and you can bring your own food as long as the drinks come from the bar.
It opens at 15:00 on weekdays and 13:00 on Saturdays, stays open until 02:00 on Friday and Saturday, and is closed on Sundays. After 18:00 the age limit is 20. The calendar has a Tuesday rapid, after-work blitz and an informal team league.
Blitz Society opened at 4 rue du Sabot in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in autumn 2021, billed as the capital's first chess bar. It now has a second site upstairs from a restaurant at 58 rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau, near the Louvre, which stays open until 02:00.
The Wednesday tournament at rue du Sabot runs from 19:00 to 22:00. It costs €22 to enter. Table prices for casual play aren't on the bar's site, so ask. More Paris venues are in the Paris guide.
Svarta Hästen is a wine and chess bar in a basement at Biblioteksgatan 21, by Stureplan, opened in 2023. It's open from 17:00 to 02:00 Wednesday to Saturday and from 20:00 on Sundays.
A second bar opened in Gothenburg in November 2025, in converted stables at Parkgatan 2, Wednesday to Saturday from 17:00.
Bar 64 on Passeig de Sant Joan 23 calls itself a chess-inspired cocktail bar, and visitors report boards at every table. Check its site or its map listing for hours.
Gambit Café opened at Calle del Barco 26 in Malasaña in January 2026, and Time Out Madrid called it the city's first chess bar. Entry was €3 for as many games as you like, at tables built so you can eat and play at once.
Its site lists opening from 16:30 Tuesday to Friday and from 11:00 at weekends, closed on Mondays, with no reservations. It's the newest place on this list, so confirm it's open before you cross town. The Madrid guide has the rest of the city.
Prague's Gambit, at Urxova 10 in Karlín, is a chess café-bar opened in December 2023 by a former competitive player from Warsaw. It opens in the evening and its hours have varied, so check its channels first. The Prague guide has the rest of the city.
Café en passant at Schönhauser Allee 58 in Prenzlauer Berg is a chess pub that's been going for about 20 years. It opens on weekday evenings from 18:00, and boards and clocks are lent for free.
Two clubs hold their nights there, on Tuesdays from 18:30 and Fridays from 18:00, and those are the evenings to come for a game. Hours can be irregular. The Berlin guide covers the rest.
The Barmbeker Schachcafé is a restaurant in the old S-Bahn station building at Rübenkamp 227, with a gallery kept for chess players. Organised chess runs on Wednesdays from 18:00 to 23:00 and Fridays from 17:00, for €5 an evening.
In March 2026 ChessBase reported that a year of those evenings, 104 of them, had brought the restaurant more than 700 extra guests. The article's headline was "The revival of chess cafés". More in the Hamburg guide.
Café de Laurierboom at Laurierstraat 76 is a brown café and the home of the chess club Laurierboom-Gambiet. It's open into the small hours and hosts blitz tournaments. The Amsterdam guide has the details.
The Skakistiko Panellinion at Mavromichali 16 is a kafeneio, an old-style Greek coffee house, where chess is the whole point and backgammon is the side game. The Panellinion name goes back to a café of 1885. This one opened in 1991, and in 2024 it got its own documentary.
Red Knight Chess Cafe opened in August 2024 on the ground floor of Bambini Villa on Sukhumvit Soi 26, run by a chess club founded in 2019. The boards are built into the tables and there's a chess library.
Saturday is the Casual Chess Evening, 19:00 to 22:00, with a free 7-round blitz at 20:00 that's capped at 26 players. The winner gets a 300-baht voucher. A minimum spend of 100 baht is expected.
Chess Club Coffee at 3144 W Irving Park Road is a neighbourhood coffee shop that runs its own chess club. It closes mid-afternoon and is shut on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.
The events include a monthly Sunday tournament, usually $10, and a free one on Fridays at 7:00 in the morning. First place wins 5 free drinks.
Chess Forum at 219 Thompson Street in Greenwich Village is a chess shop with tables, and calls itself "the last old style New York City chess parlor". It's open from noon to midnight every day. Playing costs $5 an hour, $1 for seniors, and children play free. There's no bar. The New York guide covers the bar nights.
Skakkens Hus at Sølvgade 19 is a free public chess house with a shop, teaching rooms and a drop-in skakcafé on Monday and Wednesday afternoons and Friday mornings. The hosts pair you with someone of your strength. It has no bar. The Copenhagen guide lists the places that do.
Some cafés aren't chess venues but keep sets on the tables: Bishop Cafe on Wilcza in Warsaw, Szach Cafe in Gdańsk, and Chess Café Kigali in Rwanda's capital. Go for the coffee and a game with whoever you brought.
Most cities work this way: one bar, one evening a week, and the organisers bring the boards.
The guides to Budapest, Prague and Warsaw each have a day-by-day table of nights like these.
Three well-known names are listed as permanently closed on Google Maps: Café Pi in Montreal, Queenside in Sydney and Schaakcafé Het Hok in Amsterdam. The Montreal guide covers where to play there now.
For everywhere else, the social chess clubs directory lists clubs that meet in bars, and chess events shows the nights coming up.
Where the bar charges for a clock or has run out, Checkmate IRL works as the chess clock on your phone and logs the result when the game ends.
If you've never played a stranger over the board, start with How to Start Playing Chess in Real Life. If you're thinking about a traditional club, read Joining a Chess Club as an Adult.
What is a chess bar? A chess bar is a bar where chess is the main activity: boards are set up on the tables whenever it's open, and you can walk in and play a stranger. A chess café is the daytime version. Both are different from a regular bar that hosts a chess night once a week, and from a board-game café that keeps a chess set on a shelf.
Where is the nearest chess bar or chess café? Dedicated chess bars and cafés exist in a small number of cities, among them Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, Gothenburg, Barcelona, Madrid, Prague, Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Athens, Bangkok, Chicago and New York. Most other cities have a weekly chess night in a regular bar. The Checkmate IRL venue map lists both kinds.
Is there a chess bar in London? We found no dedicated chess bar in London. Its chess nights run in bars and pubs, and the best documented is Knight Club, which Reuters reported drawing more than 100 players on Tuesdays in 2025. Simpson's-in-the-Strand, the city's historic chess room, reopened as a restaurant in March 2026.
Is there a chess bar in New York? The closest thing is Chess Forum at 219 Thompson Street in Greenwich Village, a chess shop with tables that's open from noon to midnight every day and charges $5 an hour to play. It has no bar. The New York guide lists the chess nights in bars.
How much does it cost to play at a chess bar or chess café? Often nothing beyond a drink. Where there's a charge, it's small: Gambit Café in Madrid opened with a €3 entry for unlimited games, the chess evenings at the Barmbeker Schachcafé in Hamburg cost €5, and Chess Forum in New York charges $5 an hour.
Do I need to bring my own chess set? No. A chess bar or chess café supplies boards and pieces, usually for free. Clocks are sometimes extra, as at The Good Knight in Oslo. For a chess night in a regular bar, the organisers bring the sets.
What was the first chess café? The best-known early one is the Café de la Régence in Paris, which opened in 1681 and was the centre of European chess in the 18th century. It became a restaurant in 1910, and the chess players moved out in 1916. London's equivalent was the Grand Cigar Divan on the Strand, opened in 1828, which became Simpson's.
The Checkmate IRL map shows chess bars, cafés, clubs and park tables in the city you're in. Open the venue map.
Track your games. Find opponents. Discover venues. The companion app for over-the-board chess players.