Somewhere to go in the evening in Perm: chess in a bar
Perm is a city with a strong IT cluster and student energy, but there are almost no evening places where adults play and meet over the board. Vibe Chess puts on exactly that kind of evening in the lofts, anticafes and coffee houses of the centre.
Sections ask for a rank and business clubs ask for a recommendation. Here nothing is asked: you arrive at seven, sit down at a board, and by ten you know half the room.
An evening of playing and meeting people at the same time
We bring together adult residents of Perm and people who have recently moved to the city to spend an evening differently: over the board, with a variety of opponents and no script. Perm has both a sporting chess tradition and a large IT community - but between serious tournaments and work chats there was no format for a free evening. That is the gap Vibe Chess fills. Over Vibe Chess in Perm three hours some five people get to sit opposite you.
Every game turns into a conversation, and almost always it drifts away from chess within the first few minutes. There is no programme for the evening at all; the whole thing rests on the change of opponents.
What there will not be at an evening
- Fees, application forms and invitation-only guest lists
- Dress codes and rules of etiquette in a frame on the wall
- One-minute self-introductions and handing out business cards
- Sporting norms and the chase after a rank
- A crowd a newcomer cannot break into
What you will find
A small room, wooden boards, warm light and music quiet enough to stop noticing. At the tables are people who know how to listen. Games where the move you found and what gets said after the resignation are equally interesting.
When the last round has been played there is still an hour left, sometimes two. That is usually when the best part begins, and people head off at closing time.
Who sits down at the board in Perm
Want lessons with a coach and a clear programme? Then open the guide to Perm's chess schools. We run the same evening format further east too: chess evenings in Kazan, and across the mountains from us the same meetups in Yekaterinburg.
Where to sit down at a board in Perm
Central Perm is compact - it is a twenty-minute walk from the Esplanade to the Kama embankment, and almost everything of interest is strung along Komsomolsky Avenue and Sibirskaya. We picked places you would not be embarrassed to invite five strangers to for an evening of chess: where nobody rushes your order, there are sockets, decent light, and you can talk without shouting over the music. The addresses are verifiable; the atmosphere is a matter of taste.
Hitry Yozh
A board-game club and shop - people here are already used to visitors coming to play rather than just drink coffee. Boards are available, the neighbours at your table will not be surprised by chess pieces, and it is easy to add something besides chess to the evening.
Tsekh
A specialty coffee house right on the main axis of the centre. Light, with room to spread out, open until late - handy for gathering after lectures or after work, while your brain is still fresh enough for a game.
Shmel
A small coffee house for people who brew filter five different ways. Intimate, quiet, nobody hurries you - perfect for two or three boards and a long conversation between moves.
Burundi
Coffee cocktails and a calm vibe a step from the Esplanade. A good meeting point: walk over from any university or central office, take a corner and set out the pieces.
Kavinsky
A cocktail bar for anyone who wants to end the evening a little louder. Chess here is the excuse to meet at the start, and after that it goes where it goes; the «played and stayed» format.
Respublika anticafe
You pay for time rather than for a cup - an honest format for a long evening of play. Board games at hand, nobody eyeing the clock, and you can turn up as a large group and settle in.
Perm is a long river city: everything stretches along the Kama, while life pulls in towards the Esplanade and Komsomolsky Avenue. In summer the evenings are long and people drift down to the embankment - to the famous «Happiness is not over the hills» letters, past PERMM and the «Salty Ears of Perm» sculpture. Our audience is a particular one: students from PSU, PNRPU and HSE-Perm, IT people from local product teams, people from business - those aged 22-40 who want real conversation away from the feed. Chess lands with them in exactly that way: not as elite sport but as an excuse to sit opposite a stranger in a coffee house on Sibirskaya, play a couple of games and realise that in a city of half a million it is easy to find your people.
How the evening goes
A typical scenario for an evening in Perm. 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 check the next date and place - usually a coffee house or bar in central Perm, within walking distance of the Esplanade.
Book a place
Sign up in advance so we know how many boards to set out and which table to hold. One click and you are on the list.
You come with nothing
The boards, pieces and clocks are already there. All you bring is the wish to play and a decent mood.
Sit down at the board
You are matched with an opponent of similar level and mood. The first game usually breaks the ice better than any small talk.
Play and talk
Between games there is coffee, conversation and new faces. You change tables and meet people you would hardly have crossed paths with otherwise.
Stay for the evening
Some leave after two games, some stay until closing and then walk down to the Kama. Nobody is hurried along.
Why people come back
A newcomer should not feel embarrassed here, and a stronger player should not be bored. Those two things sit together better than you might think.
Your kind of people
At the boards are Perm students, IT people and entrepreneurs aged 22-40. Conversation starts by itself, with no awkward pauses.
Coffee instead of a protocol
None of the hush of a tournament hall. Specialty coffee in the cup, the quiet hum of the cafe, move - remark - move. The game as a background to talking.
The heart of the city
Everything is central, along Komsomolsky and Sibirskaya. You come from lectures or the office, and afterwards it is a couple of steps to the Kama embankment.
A low bar to entry
If you remember how the pieces move, that is enough. Nobody here compares ratings; people play for the pleasure of it.
An evening format
Long Perm evenings were made for long games. We gather when the city slows down and you want something real.
Meeting people without apps
The board opposite is more honest than swiping. You get to know a person by how they play and how they take a loss.
Choose your format for the evening
Four scenarios to choose from: a calm Swiss, free play, fast blitz and a private evening for your own group.
Four lines we use to invite our friends
What we do differently from everyone else
Perm's IT and entrepreneurial community in one room
Engineers from local IT and product teams come to us, along with marketers, lawyers, designers and small business owners. No invitation-only entry - it is an open evening for everyone.
Pairings are made by software, not by who likes whom
Opponents for each round are chosen by tournament software according to the points scored. That is why the very first game turns out to be manageable and the table at the end of the evening makes sense to everyone.
People come back
We watch one number: how many guests return for a second and a third evening. It stays high, and that is more honest than anything we could say about atmosphere.
No calls, no mailings
Registration lives in the bot and answers in a second. The channel carries only dates, addresses and photos from past meetups, roughly two messages a week.
The whole programme lives in Telegram
There will be no emails and no calls from us. The dates of Perm evenings, the venue addresses and new formats appear in the channel and in the bot, and that is also the easiest place to sign up and ask something.
The bot answers straight away, finds you a date and reminds you the day before. The channel carries announcements and photos from meetups, a couple of messages a week.
Where the chess community in Perm is heading
The ordinary evening over the board is already running smoothly. What is more interesting now is what can be built on top of it, and in which parts of the city.
Themed evenings
Something else is added to the boards: vinyl, signature drinks, a short film screening or a book discussion. Chess remains the frame of the evening; the rest changes from meetup to meetup.
Routes around Perm
A series of meetups in different spaces around the city, from the centre to the Kama embankment. A new place each time and a circle of acquaintances that gradually widens.
Joint evenings with Perm communities
We are trying to dock the format with local IT meetups, book circles and board-game clubs. The audiences are all different, and the evening turns out noticeably livelier than usual.
Run a bar or a coffee house and want an evening like this at your place? A useful page here is the one about chess events at your venue. And for a work team there is a tournament in a corporate format.
Where people play and learn chess in Perm
Our evenings sit alongside the city's larger chess life, not in place of it. Perm has a regional federation, an Olympic-reserve sports school, a coach-founded school with thirty years behind it and a network of private branches in two districts. A world champion and an international grandmaster came out of here. Below are verifiable addresses in case an evening in a coffee house leaves you wanting a rating, a coach or lessons for your child.
- The Chess Federation of the Perm TerritorySibirskaya St. 1 · a regional public organisation, the tournament calendar and entries; president Igor Viktorovich Kirillov
- The Olympic-reserve sports school for core and Olympic disciplinesKomsomolsky Avenue 37 · a state sports school; the Kama region chess federation is based in the same building
- Anatoly Teryokhin chess school (Chess Perm)Kuybysheva St. 54 · they take children from 4 and work with adults; grandmaster Ildar Khairullin grew up among their pupils
- The Favorit centreRepina St. 69 · a municipal institution of supplementary education with a chess track
- The Fenomen network1st Krasnoarmeyskaya St. 3 · Yursha St. 86 · 9 Maya St. 21 · three private branches in the Sverdlovsky and Motovilikhinsky districts, with groups for adults
- Alexandra Kosteniuk, the 12th women's world chess champion (2008-2010), was born in Perm on 23 April 1984.
- Ildar Khairullin is a Perm man too: under his mentor Anatoly Teryokhin he grew into an international grandmaster by the age of 16, in 2007.
- Anatoly Nikolayevich Teryokhin has over thirty years in chess teaching, headed the regional federation and today runs a school of his own on Kuybysheva.
- Regional rated tournaments run under the auspices of the Chess Federation of the Perm Territory, region 81 in the Russian federation's system; the contacts are public, telephone +7 (342) 212-95-40.
- The Favorit centre on Repina opened in December 2000 and remains the most accessible municipal way into chess for Perm schoolchildren.
Frequently asked questions about evenings in Perm
I have not played in ages - the last time was at school. Will people laugh at me?›
No. The evening is not made up of ranked players but of people just like you, 22-40, who remember how a knight moves and want real conversation. Level is secondary here: half the room comes for the company and the atmosphere rather than for a rating. We will suggest an opening if you ask.
Which part of the city do we usually gather in?›
In the centre - along Komsomolsky Avenue and Sibirskaya, within walking distance of the Esplanade and the Kama embankment. Any venue is an easy walk from the universities and most offices, and after the game you can stroll down to the Kama or see out the evening in a bar nearby.
How is this different from the chess federation and the sports sections?›
Serious tournaments and ranks are the business of the Kama region chess federation and clubs like chessperm. Ours is something else: an informal evening over the board in a cafe, where the point is to meet people rather than to earn a norm. People come here to unwind, not to compete.
Where in Perm can an adult actually play chess in person?›
There are exactly two options, and they do not compete. The sporting one: the regional Olympic-reserve school on Komsomolsky Avenue 37, in the same building as the Kama region chess federation; the Chess Federation of the Perm Territory on Sibirskaya 1; Anatoly Teryokhin's school on Kuybysheva 54; and the Fenomen network with venues on 1st Krasnoarmeyskaya 3, Yursha 86 and 9 Maya 21. The city one: our evenings in the coffee houses and bars along Komsomolsky Avenue and Sibirskaya, where people come with no rank and no enrolment in a section.
Do I actually need to know how to play?›
It is enough that you remember the moves. Pairings are calculated by tournament software from the points scored, so by the second round the person opposite is roughly at your level. Anyone who has forgotten it all will be reminded by the host in five minutes before the start.
Can I come on my own, without company?›
That is how most people come. The round schedule will seat you with four to six different people over the evening, and the excuse to start talking is ready every time. By the end of the evening it usually turns out you are not walking home alone.
What does «chess networking» actually mean?›
About half the evening goes on games and the rest on conversation between rounds and after the last one. The game works as both an excuse and a filter: over the board you quickly see who is interesting.
How are you different from a section or a sports club?›
A section has a coach, a schedule, a rating and calculated results. We have a bar or a coffee house, fifteen-minute games and an evening that ends in conversation. One does not rule out the other; plenty of people do both.
What does it cost?›
The price depends on the venue and the format of the particular meetup. We give the exact figure in the announcement of the evening and repeat it in the bot at the sign-up step.
How often do you meet?›
The meetups run to a regular rhythm. The easiest way to see the next date is in the bot, which will also remind you the day before.
Is it not much like a pub quiz?›
At a quiz you sit as one team and leave with the same circle of people you arrived with. Here it is one against one and a new opponent after every round, so an evening adds up to several conversations rather than one.
Who usually sits at the boards?›
The core is 25 to 40: developers, marketers, lawyers, designers, people with businesses of their own, and final-year students from PSU and PNRPU. There is no formal age limit; the evening is simply designed for adults.
I want to study seriously, not play in the evenings›
Then you want the separate write-up: chess tuition in Perm, which gathers the schools, coaches and sections for children and adults with addresses and contacts.
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.
Three event formats in one app
The Vibe Chess app is built for an evening over the board, not for online play: it keeps the sign-up list, the pairings and the table while you deal with people and the venue. All of it free.
score groups, no rematches, no two byes in a row
everyone plays everyone, the app works out the number of rounds
who is free and who is already at a board is shown under Now
- 1Create the event and save the venue for next time
- 2Open sign-up, players arrive through the link
- 3Start the tournament and the app announces the pairings
- 4Keep entering results, then take the final table and the TRF file
Come to play and meet people
Chess networking in Perm - 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 bot. Tell it which day suits you and what you would like to start with: a calm Swiss, blitz or free play.