Where to meet people in Kemerovo in the evening
Evening meetups over a wooden board, games against a range of opponents and real introductions with no formalities - in the lofts, anticafes and coffee houses of central Kemerovo.
Neither a sports section with norms nor a club you join by invitation. An ordinary evening people come to in order to play and meet each other: no forms, no regulations and no corporate rituals.
A game and an introduction fit into a single evening
We bring together adult residents of Kemerovo and people who have moved to the city to spend an evening differently: over the board, with a variety of opponents and no script. In 1958 Siberia's first regional chess club opened in Kemerovo, in 1991 Mikhail Naydov founded the Kuzbass Chess Federation, and in 2005 the Naydov city chess club appeared next to the cathedral at Sobornaya 5a. Kuzbass gave the world chess landscape grandmaster Sergey Dolmatov - the 1978 world junior champion and a coach to Vladimir Kramnik - and the region's first GM Evgeny Pigusov. The city has a chess biography - and now it is getting a format for people who came to play and meet others rather than to earn a rank. At Vibe Chess in Kemerovo five different people sit down opposite you in a single evening.
Five conversations, each starting with the opening and fairly quickly moving from chess to work, the city and plans. The networking happens by itself, with no programme and no seating by theme.
What there will not be at an evening
- Membership fees and entry on somebody's recommendation
- A dress code and rules of behaviour pinned to the wall
- Pitches and one-minute self-introductions in front of the room
- Rank norms, protocols and sporting paperwork
- An established crowd a newcomer cannot break into
What you will find
A small room in a lively part of the centre, heavy wooden pieces, soft light and music in the background. A crowd that knows how to listen and talks to the point. Games where the accurate move and an out-loud analysis of the position after the resignation are equally valuable.
When the rounds have finished there is still an hour or an hour and a half left - and that is exactly when the conversations begin that made the evening worth coming to. Nobody throws you out; the lights in the room go down gradually.
Who sits down at the board in Kemerovo
Want not a game but systematic lessons with a coach - open chess schools and lessons in Kemerovo: addresses by district, prices and coaches. If you visit other Siberian cities, the same evening format runs in Novokuznetsk and in Novosibirsk.
Where to sit down at a board in Kemerovo - from the Pritomskaya embankment to Vesennyaya
We are not about a sports hall with silence and an arbiter. Kemerovo in the evening is the Tom embankment, the lights of Pritomskaya, and the coffee houses and bars around Sovetsky and Vesennyaya. We have gathered places where a cup of raf coffee, a mug of craft beer and a game for two coexist calmly: you sit down, meet people and play. The addresses are real; check the opening hours before you visit, as venues sometimes change their schedule.
Port42
Right above the Tom, open late, with a big room. It works well for an evening that starts with a game and ends in a long conversation by the water.
Sabai Bar
Pan-Asian food, quiet music and tables where nobody hurries you. Handy for a mixed group where some came to play and some just to listen and chat.
An anticafe on Vesennyaya
The «pay for time» format was made for board games and chess: take a table, set out the pieces and stay for three hours if you like. Student Vesennyaya is two steps away, so the crowd is the right one.
The coffee houses of the Pritomskaya embankment
The daytime and early-evening option: bright, quiet and with a view of the river. Ideal for a first meeting over a board, when a loud bar would still be too much.
The venues around Sovetsky Avenue
The centre's main evening axis: bars and cafes within walking distance, easy to drift from one to another if the group grows.
The M. I. Naydov City Chess Club
For when you want classical chess rather than a bar: real clocks, a rated atmosphere and people for whom chess has long been their own thing. A spot for anyone who has outgrown kitchen-table games.
Kemerovo is a city that knows how to play a long game. Coal has been mined here since the day in 1721 when Mikhailo Volkov found the first seam at Krasnaya Gorka, and that solidity is felt in everything. Above the Tom stands Ernst Neizvestny's monument «In Memory of the Miners of Kuzbass» - the figure of a miner holding burning coal in his hands like a heart. Chess rhymes with that character oddly precisely: it too is about patience, calculation and a move prepared in advance. By day the city works - the Gorbachev Technical University on Vesennyaya turns out IT people and engineers, the technology park on Barbarash Boulevard grows startups, and Kemerovo State University keeps up the humanities and academic side. And in the evening it all flows down to the Pritomskaya embankment and Sovetsky, where after a shift or lectures you want not to scroll a feed alone but to sit opposite a real person.
How the evening goes, from the announcement to the embankment
A typical scenario for an evening in Kemerovo. The exact timings and the number of rounds depend on the venue and the format, but the structure is always much the same.
You pick an evening
You look at the announcement: the date, the place - usually the Pritomskaya embankment, Sovetsky Avenue or an anticafe on Vesennyaya - and the format. You register so that we hold a table for you.
You come with no preparation
The boards, pieces and clocks are down to us. All you need is yourself and the mood to play. Half an hour late is no problem; the evening is a long one.
You get a drink and sit down
A raf coffee, craft beer or tea, as you prefer. You sit down opposite someone you do not know - and a minute later you are already arguing about who sacrificed a piece more successfully.
You play and meet people
You change opponents every couple of games. Over the evening you get to talk to five or six people - IT people, entrepreneurs and students from the city's universities.
You stay afterwards
When the boards are packed away nobody leaves straight off: the Tom embankment is nearby, and the conversation carries on - no longer about openings but about life, projects and Kuzbass.
You come back as one of the crowd
After a couple of evenings you recognise faces, «your» opponents appear and shared chats start. The Kemerovo board becomes a reason not to sit at home on a Friday.
How the Kemerovo board differs from a tournament
The evening is put together so that a newcomer does not feel out of place and a ranked player does not get bored. Combining the two is harder than it sounds, but that is exactly what the format rests on.
Coffee matters more than a crown
Nobody presses you with the silence of a tournament hall. A cup in your hand, quiet music, and a loss is simply an excuse to order another raf and play a rematch.
The city is small - the faces repeat
Kemerovo is more compact than the capitals, and that is a plus: by the third evening you know half the room by name. The networking happens by itself here.
An evening by the Tom
The season when the lights of the Pritomskaya embankment and the river are outside the window gives the games a mood of their own. Playing and then stepping out for air by the water is a ritual in itself.
IT-minded but human
An audience from the technology park and the Technical University is good at logic, but they do not come to discuss code. Over the board the work mask comes off faster than at a business dinner.
Only the centre, all on foot
Pritomskaya, Sovetsky, Vesennyaya - all close by. There is no need to travel to the outskirts: after work or lectures you walk over in ten minutes and are already playing.
No swagger and no hierarchy
It makes no difference whether you are a ranked player from the Naydov club or last played at school. At the table everyone is equal, and any teasing here is good-natured, the Kuzbass way.
Choose your format for the evening
Four scenarios to choose from: calm classical chess on the Swiss system, a free evening with no tournament bracket, fast blitz, and games in teams with colleagues.
How we answer the question «so what actually goes on there»
What we do differently from the city's other meetups
Kuzbass's IT and entrepreneurial community in one room
Residents of the Kuzbass Technology Park, developers from the ETO_ IT office, engineers from the coal companies, graduates of the city's universities, marketers, lawyers and small business owners come to us. No invitation-only entry - it is an open evening for everyone.
The tournament part is taken seriously
The pairs are separated by professional pairing software, the opponent is matched to your current score and the table is open all evening. The first tournament of your life will not turn into three routs in a row.
People come back, and that is the main measure
We look not at reach but at whether a guest comes a second and a third time. Usually they do: after one or two meetups a person already knows half the room by name.
Contact only through Telegram
Registration goes through the bot, which answers straight away and reminds you of the date. The channel posts announcements and photos from the evenings. There will be no calls, email mailings or texts from us.
All the organising of the evenings goes through Telegram
There are no email mailings and no calls from us. The dates of Kemerovo's evenings, new formats and one-off special projects appear in the channel and the bot. Signing up and checking details is quickest there too.
The bot will tell you the free dates, hold a place for you and remind you about the meetup the day before. The channel has announcements, shots from past evenings and short updates every few days.
Where the chess community in Kemerovo is heading
The main evening already gathers regularly. The next step is new venues around the city and extra layers on top of the familiar format.
Evenings with an extra layer
Something else is added to the games: a set by a local musician, signature drinks from the bar, a film screening or a book discussion. The boards do not go anywhere; the evening simply gains a second reason to stay.
Routes around Kemerovo
A series of meetups in different spaces around the city - Sovetsky Avenue, the Tom embankment, Vesennyaya Street, the centre on Sobornaya. A new place each time and a circle of acquaintances that gradually widens.
Joint evenings with local communities
Joint formats with the IT community of the Kuzbass Technology Park, the ETO_ IT office, the Kuzbass IT Centre and the city's educational clubs - for anyone who finds a chess theme alone not quite enough.
Run a bar, a coffee house or a space in Kemerovo and want an evening like this at your place - there is a separate page about chess evenings at your venue. If it is about a company and its employees - see tournaments for teams.
Where people play and learn chess in Kemerovo
Our evenings are just one part of Kuzbass's chess life, and far from the oldest. Kemerovo has a state sports school, a free municipal club with a grandmaster coach, district clubs and private centres, while the regional federation has kept the calendar since 1991. If after our meetups you find yourself drawn to a rank, a rating or lessons for your child, here are the real addresses and a little local context.
- The M. I. Naydov City Chess ClubSobornaya St. 5a · opened on 10 August 2005, coached by grandmaster Vladimir Nevostruev, with free admission
- The Kuzbass Olympic-reserve chess schoolTukhachevskogo St. 19 · a state sports school; grandmasters Maxim Chigaev and Valery Filippov both came through it
- The Triumf chess clubStroiteley Boulevard 16 · the Leninsky district, next to the FPK area
- The Evrika chess clubStroiteley Boulevard 25G · another venue on Stroiteley, handy for residents of Leninsky
- The Voskhod chess clubSvobody St. 6B · the Zavodsky district, working with adult amateurs
- The Olimp chess clubShakhtyorov Ave. 59 · the Central district, closer to the Pritomsky side
- The Kuzbass Chess Federation was created in 1991, and its first chair was Mikhail Ivanovich Naydov (1932-2022) - the city club at Sobornaya 5a bears his name.
- The region's first grandmaster was Evgeny Pigusov, who received the title in 1987; in 1999 the Kemerovo team, with him and Valery Filippov, won the world team championship for cities.
- Maxim Chigaev grew up at the Kemerovo school: victory at the U16 junior Olympiad in Istanbul in 2012 and the grandmaster title in 2016.
- Siberia's first regional chess club opened in Kemerovo, in 1958 - five years after the region had held its first chess championship.
- Since 1995 the city has hosted a chess festival for Miners' Day, and the regional calendar and the federation's contacts are published at kuzbass-chess.ucoz.ru.
Frequently asked questions about evenings in Kemerovo
Kemerovo is a mining city - who here plays chess at all?›
Precisely the people moving the city forward. The Technical University and the technology park provide a dense IT and engineering audience of 22-40, Kemerovo State University the humanities and academic crowd, and Kuzbass business likes formats where you can think and meet people without alcohol in the leading role. Chess here is not about nostalgia but about real networking.
Where in the centre should we go for an evening like this?›
The Pritomskaya embankment and Sovetsky Avenue are the city's two evening axes. On the embankment there is Port42 (Embankment 7), on Sovetsky there is Sabai Bar, and on Vesennyaya near the student quarter there is an anticafe charging by the hour that suits board games. We confirm the exact addresses and opening hours before each event.
I have not played for a long time and am afraid of embarrassing myself. Is that all right?›
Absolutely. Our evenings are not a Naydov club tournament full of ranked players. Here blitz sits alongside game analysis and simple conversation, the levels vary, and most people come for the company rather than for a rating. We will remind you of the rules in a minute.
Where in Kemerovo can an adult actually play chess in person?›
The free and most obvious spot is the M. I. Naydov City Chess Club at Sobornaya 5a: it has worked since 2005, the coach is grandmaster Vladimir Nevostruev and entry is open to everyone. Elsewhere in the city there are the clubs Triumf (Stroiteley Boulevard 16), Evrika (Stroiteley Boulevard 25G), Voskhod (Svobody St. 6B), Olimp (Shakhtyorov Ave. 59) and Kirovets (Ushakova St. 2), where adult amateurs play too. The sporting line is the Kuzbass Olympic-reserve school at Tukhachevskogo 19 and the Kuzbass Chess Federation at the same address. And if you want an evening with no sporting regulations, with a bar and a conversation after the game, that is our format on the Pritomskaya embankment and Sovetsky.
Do you need to be good at chess in Kemerovo?›
Understanding how the pieces move is enough. The Swiss pairing seats an opponent of roughly your level opposite you, so the evening does not end in a run of routs. If you have forgotten the rules, the host will remind you in a minute before the first round.
Where can you meet people over chess in Kemerovo?›
At our evenings - you can safely come alone. The tournament bracket introduces you to a range of people by itself: over an evening you will play 4-6 opponents, which is a natural excuse to talk with nobody in between.
What is chess networking in Kemerovo?›
A meetup where the game and meeting people run as one stream. About half the time goes on the rounds and the rest on the breaks between games and the conversation after the last move. Some guests come precisely for the people, and the board works as a common language that makes it easier to start.
How is this different from the Naydov club and the Kuzbass Olympic-reserve school?›
The M. I. Naydov club at Sobornaya 5a, the Kuzbass Olympic-reserve school at Tukhachevskogo 19 and the Kuzbass Chess Federation deal with sporting tasks: ratings, ranks and the calendar of official tournaments. Vibe Chess occupies the niche next door - an evening of adult amateurs in a bar or an anticafe, where the game is short and the conversation long. The formats do not compete: plenty of people go to both.
Which Kuzbass chess players are well known?›
The region's main name is Sergey Viktorovich Dolmatov: born on 20 February 1959 in Kiselyovsk in the Kemerovo Region, world junior champion in 1978, a grandmaster from 1982, a world championship candidate in 1990-91, an Olympiad winner in Manila with the Russian team (1992) and later a coach to Vladimir Kramnik and the Russian team. The first grandmaster of Kuzbass was Evgeny Pigusov (title received in 1987). The city club is named after Mikhail Ivanovich Naydov - a master of sport, the first chair of the Kuzbass Chess Federation and a Hero of Kuzbass.
What does entry cost?›
The price is put together from the venue and the format of the particular meetup, so there is no fixed price list. The sum for the next evening is visible in the Telegram channel announcement, and the bot gives it too when you sign up.
How often do you meet in Kemerovo?›
The evenings run on a permanent basis, with no seasonal breaks. We publish the date of the next meetup in the Telegram channel, where registration through the bot also opens.
How is this different from a pub quiz?›
At a quiz you spend the whole evening with one team at one table, and your circle of acquaintances is limited to them. Here the opponent changes every round, and ten minutes at a board is enough to learn more about a person than an hour at a shared table.
Who comes to the evenings, and at what age?›
The core is people aged 25-40: developers from the technology park and the ETO_ IT office, engineers, entrepreneurs, lawyers, marketers and final-year students from the city's universities. There is no upper or lower limit, but the evening is designed for adults.
What should I wear to the evening?›
Ordinary city clothes, the sort you wear around the centre. A suit and an evening dress would be out of place: three hours at a board is easier in something that does not get in the way of sitting and thinking.
And what if I want to learn chess rather than play in a networking format?›
Then you want another section: the page on chess tuition in Kemerovo gathers the schools, clubs, coaches and sections for children and adults with addresses by district.
Will you put on a chess evening in our office or at our venue?›
Yes, both work. For companies and teams there is a page about tournaments for employees. Bars, coffee houses and restaurants will want the format with chess evenings at your venue.
Solve a chess puzzle
Mate in one - a real position from a chess database. Solve it and see if you're a fit for us.
Anyone can be the organizer
There are no club or arbiter roles in the app: the create button is available to everyone. You can announce a tournament in Kemerovo today and run it this weekend.
when there are more than ten players and nobody should be knocked out
when the field is small and fairness matters most
when you simply want to get together and play
- 1Create the event, open sign-up, share the link
- 2Start the tournament - the app announces the pairing
- 3Record results as the evening goes
- 4Show the final standings and export the TRF report
Come to play and meet people
Chess networking in Kemerovo - about real meetups, regular evenings and a community that is easy to join. Signing up for the next meetup takes a minute: open the bot and say hello.
The button opens the Telegram bot. Tell it which day suits you and what you want to start with: classical, blitz or a free evening with no bracket.