Chess in Shiraz
The city that gave Fars province its first grandmaster - and still has no casual board to sit at
Vibe Chess is an evening over a board in an ordinary room: a cafe, a garden pavilion, an office. Four or five short games, a new opponent each round, and a standings table at the end. A free app takes care of the pairings, the colours and the tie-breaks.
There is no Vibe Chess meetup in Shiraz yet. The app works here and the city is in the system - the first evening belongs to whoever creates it.
An evening with a plot, in a city that already stays out late
A first grandmaster, and a long wait for the second
Hasan Abbasifar, born in Shiraz in 1972, became the first international grandmaster of the city and of Fars province when he earned the title in 2013. For a province of several million people, that is one name - and it says something about how narrow the competitive pipeline has been outside Tehran.
The narrowness is not a shortage of players. Shiraz has the same proportion of people who know the moves as anywhere else in Iran, and the same evening habits: gardens, tea, sitting out until late.
What it lacks is the middle step between playing at home and joining a club - a public evening where anybody can turn up, play four games and leave. That step costs nothing to create, which is what this page is about.
The room this format tends to attract
You play at home and nowhere else
Family chess builds a strange kind of strength: you know one opponent perfectly. Four unfamiliar ones in an evening is an education.
You want an evening with a shape
Gardens and tea are the city's default. Add rounds and a standings table and the same evening acquires a plot.
You are studying here
A campus tournament fills up faster than almost any other student event and costs nothing to run.
You have played rated chess before
Then you know how much of an arbiter's evening goes on pairings. All of that is now the program's work.
You only play online
Online blitz teaches speed. A board across the table teaches the part where somebody is watching your face.
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
Start with the tables
Not a hall, not a federation venue: a room where eight to forty people can sit down for two hours is the real requirement.
- 2
Create the event
Four fields and the tournament exists - no affiliation, no licence, nobody to ask.
- 3
Share the link, once
The entry list fills itself. By the morning of the event you know exactly how many boards to carry.
- 4
Run it round by round
Pairings appear, results go in, and everyone watches the same standings update on their own phone.
- 5
Finish with the table done
Tie-breaks included. Nothing to compute, nothing to argue about, and a report to export if the event needs one.
What people worry about beforehand
There is no venue for this
Any cafe with eight tables qualifies. The format was built for rooms that were not designed for chess.
I am out of practice
Two games and the openings return. The Swiss system meanwhile keeps you among players on your own score.
Organizing needs an arbiter
It used to. Pairings, colours, floats and tie-breaks are now handled by the program - the organizer starts rounds and enters results.
We do not have clocks
The clock runs in a browser on any two phones and needs no connection at all.
People will not commit a whole evening
Four rounds of blitz is ninety minutes. It fits between dinner and going home.
Somebody has to fund it
Nobody does - the app is free, with no paid tier, no player limit and no advertising.
The tools, and what each one saves you
Swiss pairings
Who meets whom is decided by bbpPairings - the engine behind rated Swiss tournaments - including the awkward cases: colours, floats and avoiding rematches. How long a Swiss should be.
Standings and tie-breaks
Scores and Buchholz are recomputed live, so nobody spends the last round arguing about who is second.
A chess clock
The clock runs in a browser on any pair of phones, offline included - so a dead connection costs you nothing.
Common questions
Where can I play chess in Shiraz?
The Fars province chess association runs rated competition under the national federation, and provincial championships lead into the national calendar. For a casual game, an evening event in a cafe is the practical option - that is what this page describes.
Are there Vibe Chess evenings in Shiraz already?
Not yet. The city is in the system and the app works here, but nobody has run a meetup so far.
Who is the strongest player from Shiraz?
Hasan Abbasifar, born here in 1972, became a grandmaster in 2013 - the first from the city and from Fars province.
How many players do I need?
Eight for a four-round Swiss, sixteen for five rounds. There is no upper limit in the app.
How long does an evening take?
Ninety minutes to two hours for blitz; about three 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?
Not yet: eleven languages so far, and Persian is not among them. English and Arabic are the nearest options.
What do I need to bring?
Boards and pieces, and phones for the clock. Nothing to install.
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 itself has no FIDE approval.
Can I run one at a school?
Yes. No licence or club status is required; for juniors the account belongs to a coach or a parent.
Where people play and learn chess in Shiraz
Shiraz produced the first grandmaster of Fars province: Hasan Abbasifar, born in the city in 1972, earned the title in 2013. Competitive chess in the province runs through its association under the Chess Federation of the Islamic Republic of Iran, with provincial championships as the qualifying route into national events.
- Fars Province Chess AssociationShiraz · provincial championships and the qualifying route into Iran's 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
- Hasan Abbasifar, born in Shiraz in 1972, became a grandmaster in 2013 - the first from the city and from Fars province.
- 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.
- Iran's youngest grandmaster earned the title at 14, in 2024 - an indication of how quickly the national school has grown since then.
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 today and run it this weekend.
- Swisswhen there are more than ten players and nobody should be knocked out
- Round robinwhen the field is small and fairness matters most
- Free meetupwhen you simply want to get together and play