Chess in Kermanshah
Six Olympiads for one player from this city - and a format where a team of four is enough
Vibe Chess is an evening over a board in an ordinary room: a cafe, an office, a club room. Four or five short games, a different opponent each round, and a standings table at the end. A free app handles the pairings, the colours and the tie-breaks.
There is no Vibe Chess meetup in Kermanshah yet. The app works here and the city is in the system - the first evening belongs to whoever creates it.
Small enough to start with friends, structured enough to be a real tournament
A city with an Olympiad player and no weeknight chess
Shayesteh Ghaderpour, born in Kermanshah in 1984, played six Chess Olympiads for Iran and finished runner-up in the national women's championship. Representing a country six times is a career most players never approach - and it began in a provincial city, not the capital.
That is the usual shape of chess in Iran: talent comes out of the provinces, and then the competitive calendar takes it elsewhere. What stays behind is a wide base of people who play, and no regular occasion to do it together.
An evening event is the cheapest way to fix that. Eight players and a room, four rounds, a table at the end - it needs no federation approval and no budget, only somebody to name a date.
The room this format tends to attract
You have three or four friends who play
Then you are most of a tournament already. Eight is a four-round Swiss with a genuine winner at the end.
You played seriously as a teenager
Provincial junior chess is competitive here, and most people leave it behind at eighteen. This is the version with no training schedule attached.
You want your workplace to mix
Four rounds after hours puts departments at the same table, which no organized team activity manages half as reliably.
You play online and never in person
The transfer is instant, apart from one thing: across a table you can see the moment your opponent realises.
You run a cafe with slow nights
A recurring tournament fills tables on exactly the evenings that never fill, and people stay for hours.
How an evening gets built, step by step
Everything that once required a rule book - colours, floats, who meets whom - is decided by the engine. What is left for the organizer is a room and a start time.
- 1
Pick the room
A cafe, an office floor, a co-working space, a university club room. Tables for eight to forty people and two free hours is the whole requirement.
- 2
Create the tournament
Name, date, time control, number of rounds - about a minute in the app. No club affiliation, no licence, no arbiter status.
- 3
Send one link
Players sign themselves up, and the entry list tells you how many boards you need before the day arrives.
- 4
Play the rounds
Each round is paired for you. Results go in as games end; points and Buchholz recalculate immediately.
- 5
Publish the table
The crosstable is finished the moment the last game is, and exports as a report if the event needs a formal record.
What people worry about beforehand
We are too few to make a tournament
Eight is enough for four rounds. Six works for a round-robin, which the app also runs.
I have no idea how to pair rounds
Neither do most organizers. Pairings, colours and tie-breaks are decided by the program - it is the entire reason this is possible without an arbiter.
The good players will not be interested
They usually are: a short, well-run evening with a real table is more attractive than a training session, and it costs them nothing.
Our internet is not reliable
The clock and the puzzle sprint run on the phone itself, so a dropped connection cannot stop a round.
It will run late
Four rounds of blitz is about ninety minutes. Rapid takes three hours if you want a longer evening.
There will be a fee
There will not - no paid tier, no player limit and no advertising in the app.
The tools, and what each one saves you
Swiss pairings
The Dutch system through bbpPairings, the open-source engine used at rated events - colours, floats and repeat pairings are its problem. How many rounds to play.
Standings and tie-breaks
Points and Buchholz recalculate after every round, so second place is never a debate.
A chess clock
A clock in the browser on any two phones. It runs offline, so the venue's connection cannot stop a round.
Common questions
Where can I play chess in Kermanshah?
The provincial chess association runs competition under the national federation, with provincial championships feeding into national events. For a casual game, an evening event in a cafe or a club room is the practical option - which is what this page describes.
Are there Vibe Chess evenings in Kermanshah already?
Not yet. The city is in the system and the app works here, but nobody has run a meetup so far.
Which players come from Kermanshah?
Shayesteh Ghaderpour, born here in 1984, is a woman international master who represented Iran at six Chess Olympiads and was runner-up in the national women's championship.
How many players do I need?
Eight for a four-round Swiss; six is enough for a round-robin, which the app also supports.
How long does an evening take?
Ninety minutes to two hours for blitz, about three hours for rapid.
Is the app free?
Yes - no subscriptions, no paid tiers, no limit on tournaments or players, and no advertising.
Does it work in Persian or Kurdish?
Neither yet - the interface currently speaks eleven languages. English and Arabic are the nearest options; the board and standings need no translation.
What do I need to bring?
Boards and pieces, and phones for the clock. Nothing has to be installed.
Are the pairings official?
They follow the Dutch system through bbpPairings, the engine used at rated events, with Buchholz as the tie-break. The program has no FIDE approval of its own.
Can I run a women's or a junior event?
Yes. The pairing rules are the same for any field, and no licence or club status is needed to create a tournament.
Where people play and learn chess in Kermanshah
Kermanshah's best-known player is Shayesteh Ghaderpour, born in the city in 1984: a woman international master who represented Iran at six Chess Olympiads and took silver in the Iranian women's championship. Competitive chess in the province runs through its association under the Chess Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- Kermanshah Province Chess AssociationKermanshah · provincial championships and the qualifying route into national competition
- Chess Federation of the Islamic Republic of Irannational body, Tehran · national championships, titles and the international calendar (ircf.ir)
- Premier League club teamsacross the provinces · the ten-club national team championship, played over weekends in different cities
- Shayesteh Ghaderpour, born in Kermanshah in 1984, played six Chess Olympiads for Iran and is a woman international master.
- She finished as runner-up in the Iranian women's chess championship.
- Provincial championships are the qualifying route into Iran's national championship.
- Chess was banned in Iran after the 1979 revolution and permitted again in 1988.
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.
How to run a tournament without being an arbiter
No arbiter skills required. The app takes over the part that usually stops people from running tournaments at all: who plays whom in each round and who finishes first.
works for ten players and for fifty
for a small group that wants to play everyone
for those who do not need a bracket at all
- 1Creating the event takes a minute
- 2Open registration and drop the link into the chat
- 3Pairings follow FIDE rules (Dutch system, the bbpPairings engine)
- 4Results go in with two taps and the table recalculates instantly