A scarce resource, an opportunity cost on every move and no rationality whatsoever across the board
Macroeconomists, planners, consultants, university lecturers. An evening where resources are finite and counted, and the decision is made by a living person rather than an agent in a model.
There are two ways in. Come on your own to a regular club evening, where people are already playing. Book your own tournament - a private one: for a department, for a faculty, at a forum, or as a match against a team from another organisation.
If you work at a bank, in markets or in corporate finance, you probably want the page chess for finance professionals - this one is about economics in the broad sense.
No open tournament yet · private ones on request
We have not scheduled an open tournament for economists yet, and we are not going to make up a date: the schedule lives in the app, and when one is set it will appear there. What we can put together at any time is a private tournament for your department or faculty - there is no need to wait for the general schedule. And if you just want to play, the club already runs regular chess evenings in Moscow.
Economics starts from the fact that there are fewer resources than wants. Chess takes the same idea to its limit: the resource is in full view, counted, and spent before your eyes.
Opportunity cost in its purest form: developing the knight means not developing the bishop. A game has forty such forks, and none of them can be postponed.
Time on the clock and the right to move are spent irreversibly and are worth more than a piece. A tempo lost in the opening gets paid back for the whole middlegame.
Trading pieces is rarely an even swap: what matters is not what you gave up but the position you are left with. It is the same argument people have when negotiating a price.
This is a likeness, not cause and effect. We will not promise that chess makes you a better economist - there is nothing to back that up. What we promise is exactly what happens: a few games, real people and an evening you will not want to leave after half an hour.
Macroeconomists · econometricians · think tanks · sector research
Planning and analysis teams · pricing · procurement · budgeting
Economic consultants · valuers · feasibility and business-case specialists
University departments · lecturers · PhD students · economics undergraduates
Nobody asks where you work at the door. At the board, neither a degree nor a job title will help you anyway.
Three kinds of people end up side by side on an evening: those who play every day, those who last played in their first year at university, and those who open the app over lunch. All three leave happy, and here is why.
Pairings follow the Swiss system: after the first round you are matched with people of your own level and play only them from then on. Beginners do not get crushed, and strong players do not get bored.
The only requirement is knowing how the pieces move. If you are rusty: how the pieces move, the rules of chess, tactics for beginners.
Pick your city, see what is on and sign up in two taps. No forms, no rating required.
On your own or with colleagues. We bring the boards and clocks, and you do not need to know anyone.
Several blitz games under the Swiss system. The app picks your opponent by strength, not alphabetically.
Points and tiebreaks are calculated automatically, and the results are visible straight away and to everyone.
Pairings, boards and standings are handled by the Vibe Chess app, using the bbpPairings engine under FIDE rules. How the system works - the Swiss system.
Across the board sits a person who is rushing, tired and occasionally bluffing. No textbook covers that behaviour, and the whole evening is made of it.
Resources are finite and counted: sixteen pieces, five minutes, one move at a time. A rare case where the bounds of the problem are known completely.
No need to explain why the forecast was off. The game is over, and the outcome is the same for both sides.
A factory planner, a macro analyst and a university lecturer usually only meet at a conference.
A reason to pull your department or faculty out of the work inbox that does not feel like compulsory team building.
First place, and a club rating that carries on between evenings.
No need to wait for the general schedule. We put together a private tournament for a specific department, faculty or forum: we turn up with boards and clocks, host the evening and handle the pairings and standings. You provide the people, the room and the date.
A private evening for a planning and analysis team, a research centre or the whole organisation. From eight people to a hundred.
Your team against a team from another organisation or the department next door. The score adds up from the games on every board.
A tournament for a faculty, a department or alumni: a ready-made programme for the evening that you do not have to invent or host yourselves.
A chess area at an economic forum or industry conference - instead of a stand full of handouts.
We reply the same day and tell you what we need from you and what it costs for your number of people.
A format of its own: two teams sit down opposite each other. Two organisations, two university departments, or the planning team against accounts - a match with a team score and a winner.
We balance the line-ups by strength so the match is not over by move three. Inside a university, “staff against students” works well: the score there is usually closer than either side expects.
We can help you find the other team as well - just tell us you are up for it.
Set up a match between teamsA tournament as part of a company event - corporate tournaments. Tournaments between companies in one sector - industry tournaments. The same format for other professions - for programmers, for doctors, for finance professionals, for entrepreneurs, for lawyers, for engineers, for data analysts, for dentists, for architects and designers, for academics and lecturers, for marketers.
Yes, and most people are in the same boat. You only need to know how the pieces move. The Swiss system pairs you with players of your own level from the second round onwards, so lopsided games are rare.
No. No rating, no title and no tournament experience are required. You get a club rating automatically after your first game.
Probably the neighbouring one: it covers markets, corporate finance, accounting and risk. This page is about economics in the broad sense - macro, research, business economics and teaching. The evenings themselves are shared, so you can come to any of them.
Yes, that is how most people come. Over the evening you play several people and end up talking to them just in the course of things.
Yes. The team plays inside the general tournament, and the results can be counted separately. If you want a private tournament just for your people, that is a different format: drop us a line.
Usually two to two and a half hours of play. A blitz game takes about ten minutes, and there are five to seven rounds.
Yes, it is one of the most common requests. You need a room and tables; the rest is ours: boards, clocks, a host and the scoring. The format works for anything from eight people to a hundred.
We do not claim that. The likeness between chess and economic choice is striking, but it is a likeness, not a proven cause and effect. Come because the evening is interesting, not for the benefits.
No date has been set yet. The schedule lives in the app: open it, pick a city and you will see the club's upcoming evenings, and when an industry tournament appears it will be listed there too. You can come to a regular evening right now.
Nothing. We bring the boards, clocks and score sheets. The app for pairings and standings is free, and you do not have to install it in advance.
The resource is finite, and for once you can see all of it
There is no date yet for an open tournament for economists, and we are not inventing one. Open the app: it lists the upcoming evenings, and the industry tournament will appear there too. A private one for your department or faculty we can put together at any time.
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