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Hi, I'm Lucas. I built the social chess clock: it saves the game (who played, who won, how the rating moved) and finds you the next one. Here is what each piece does, in the order you'll meet it.
Bullet to classical. Custom time controls, fully offline. Invite the player across from you and the game logs itself.
Wins, losses, draws, all logged in a tap. Your history grows with every game, and every opponent builds a head-to-head record.
4,600+ mapped venues across 100+ countries. Cafes, clubs, parks, and the bars where people actually play.
A live map of players up for a game in your city. Filter by rating to find your level, message them, and agree on a time and a board in a few taps.
The honest version, from me: this works best where there is already density, which today means Munich and Berlin. Everywhere else it is still growing, and adding venues and players is how it gets there.
Add friends, keep a head-to-head record with each of them, and every game you log builds that history. The rivalries are the part people get hooked on.
It uses Glicko-1, the same family of math that chess.com and Lichess run on, applied to your over-the-board games. Beat a stronger player and it moves more. It is a separate, offline rating, and it has nothing to do with your online number.
Profiles, friends, messages, clubs, and one shared history of games. All of it exists to get two people to the same table.
Real-board. Checkmate IRL is built for over-the-board games you play in person. There is no online play inside it. Your phone is the clock and the scorebook, and the chess happens on the table in front of you.
Download from the App Store or Google Play, set up a profile in a minute, and log your next over-the-board game. That is it.
Yes. The chess clock and game tracking are free, and you can browse the worldwide venue map without even making an account.
No. The clock works fully offline. Your games and rating sync once you are back online.
It uses Glicko-1, the same family of math that chess.com and Lichess run on, applied to your over-the-board games. Beat a stronger player and it moves more. It is a separate, offline rating, and it has nothing to do with your online number.
The app shows players and venues in your city on a map. The honest version: this works best where there is already density, which today means Munich and Berlin. Everywhere else it is still growing, and adding venues and players is how it gets there. You can browse the venue map at checkmateirl.com/venues anywhere in the world.
Yes. Add friends, keep a head-to-head record with each of them, and every game you log builds that history. The rivalries are the part people get hooked on.
Yes. Checkmate IRL is on both the App Store and Google Play.
Yes. You can set up an event, invite players, run the pairings, and keep live standings from your phone. The For Organizers page walks through the whole setup.
Yes. Create a club in the app, share its link, and every game members log together builds the club leaderboard automatically. See the For Organizers page for the full setup walkthrough.
Two formats. Swiss tournaments pair players automatically every round, rotate byes fairly, and keep live standings. Casual events are open play: challenge anyone in the event and play as many games as you like. Results count toward your offline rating either way.
On the venue map, tap "Add a Chess Spot." It takes about 30 seconds and needs no account. You can also upvote, comment on, and report venues to keep the map accurate.
Your games and your rating are yours, and I do not sell your data. See the privacy policy for the specifics.
One person: me, Lucas. The best way to reach me is [email protected]. I read everything.
Lucas Schaubel, Founder, designer, support.
I learned chess from my dad as a kid, and I've always preferred playing in person. Whenever we meet, we sit down and play. For years we wrote the results in our phone notes, and we kept losing them.
So I built a chess clock that saves the game. I put it on TikTok, and the reply I kept getting was "I have no one to play with." That is how the rest grew, finding players and places to play near you.
Checkmate IRL is a one-person project. I design it, build it, map the venues, and answer the emails. It moves fast in some places and is rough in others, and your feedback reaches the person who can actually change something. If anything is broken or missing, tell me. [email protected]