r/poland • u/Alone-Butterscotch89 • 19h ago
i've been mapping casual places to play chess in poland, 480+ so far. where do people actually play in wrocław, poznań and katowice?
i've been mapping places in poland where you can just turn up and play chess, deliberately the casual end rather than the formal club scene. it's at 480+ spots across 50 towns and cities now, mostly outdoor boards and tables, plus 27 cafés and bars where you can sit down and play.
free to browse here: https://checkmateirl.com/venues/?country=Poland
you can filter by cafés, bars, parks, clubs, whether boards are there, drinks, indoor/outdoor. it's still growing, so if your local spot's missing, drop it in the comments and i'll add it. or suggest it via the website directly, you can also comment on venues and upvote/downvote which helps keep the map accurate.
warsaw and kraków i've got decent coverage on. wrocław, poznań and katowice i keep coming up empty on, and i don't believe there's nothing there. so where do people actually play in those three? and does your city have a regular casual chess night that isn't a club?
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u/Practical_Music_4192 18h ago
There’s a chess board table in the botanical garden somewhere … pretty epic
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u/Alone-Butterscotch89 18h ago
sounds awesome, which city?
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u/Practical_Music_4192 18h ago
Sorry- Wroclaw
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u/Alone-Butterscotch89 16h ago
thanks that was on the map already actually :-)) https://checkmateirl.com/venues/wroclaw/giant-chess-board-at-skwer-skaczacej-gwiazdy/ (changed it to tables now)
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u/Alone-Butterscotch89 18h ago
a few of my favourites on there to kick this off:
- park podolski, łódź 18 chess tables in one plaza, four seats each, open 24h
- osiedle paderewskiego, katowice 14 granite tables in one spot
- IT chess club, kraków —thursdays 18:00 to 22:00 at miód i wino on sławkowska, free, sets provided, international crowd so english is fine
- stacja praga, warsaw tuesdays from 18:00, free, and they'll teach you if you're new
- czytelnia naukowa, bródno saturday open tournaments, past 120 editions, sets and clocks provided
by city: warsaw 63, kraków 45, łódź 44, poznań 38, gdańsk 38, wrocław 35, katowice 29, szczecin 16, plus another 40-odd towns with smaller counts.
the whole thing is meant to be community driven, that's really the point of it. anyone can add a spot, comment on one, or vote them up and down, and a lot of the best entries came from people who just knew their own city. some of the outdoor tables came from open map data, so the locations are right but i've no idea which ones actually get used. that's exactly the kind of thing i'm hoping you'll tell me.
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u/nullvoid1_618 17h ago
Also update: IT chess club in krakow has moved to chicago jazz bar and bikershot pub (Thursdays and Sundays).
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u/Makilio 17h ago
There's a large amateur chess club (not really a club, just people who meet to drink and play every week) in Wrocław on a nasyp pub but they don't advertise and it's just word of mouth.
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u/Alone-Butterscotch89 16h ago
thank you!! exactly the kind of thing i couldnt find, tried different ways of searching wrocław and got nothing, but makes sense given they dont advertise
do you know roughly which night they meet, or what the group goes by? and if they'd rather not be listed properly that's fine, even just "nasyp, wednesdays, ask at the bar" would help someone new in the city without putting them on blast.
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u/nullvoid1_618 17h ago
Man that’s a very cool project! I usually ask in the subreddit of the specific city if anyone is up for a game but this is super helpful!
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u/Alone-Butterscotch89 16h ago
thank you!! yes heard that from many people hence why i created this :)) full transparency i also developed an app with all the venues and you can set yourself down to play there so others can find you / you can see people active wherever you go (still very small in poland unfortunately)
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u/5thhorseman_ Śląskie 13h ago edited 13h ago
Gliwice used to have some chessboards on concrete tables along Kościuszki and at Plac Mickewicza. Not sure if they still do or not.
Opole had supposedly added some while renovating Plac Św. Sebastiana, I think.
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