A chess club never needed a café: start yours online

Rovian Club is a space on Rovian where you set up your own chess club, gather members with an invite link and play live video chess inside the club. A lesson calendar, attendance, progress reports and a club league live under the same roof. Since 30 September, club owners and managers can also run Swiss, Arena and round robin tournaments here.

A neighbourhood club’s real asset was never the back room of a café or a rented hall. It was the handful of people who sat at the same table every Thursday. When the hall closes or someone moves away, the table breaks up and the club goes with it. But places don’t make clubs; people do.

How do you start an online chess club?

There’s no payment and no approval to wait for; a free member account is enough. Guest accounts can’t create clubs, and one person can own up to 3 clubs.

1. On the Create a club page, enter your club’s name (3 to 60 characters). Add a one-line description and a city if you like.

2. Press “Create club”. Your club’s address is generated from its name, and you become its Owner.

3. In the panel at the top of your club page, press “Invite friends”. The link it prepares is copied to your clipboard and lets up to 50 people join as members for 14 days.

4. In the Settings tab, upload a logo, pick a brand colour and tell your club’s story. Logos can be PNG, JPEG or WebP, up to 6 MB, and are cropped to 256×256.

Who can join with an invite link?

Whoever opens the link first sees your club’s name, logo, member count and the role they’ll join with. If they aren’t signed in, they sign in first and come straight back to the same invitation. Pressing “Join the club” makes them a member.

You decide how the door works. Settings offers three joining options: “Invite only” (the default), “Approval required” and “Open to all”. You can list the club in the directory or keep it visible only to people with the link. On your own invite links, you set the role, a label, the number of uses (up to 500) and how long it stays valid (up to 90 days). If a link leaks, revoke it in one click.

A club has four roles: Owner, Manager, Coach and Member. Coaches open lessons, take attendance and write reports, but they can’t remove members. One note: every Rovian member must be 18 or older, so clubs are for adult groups such as a neighbourhood club, a university team, an office league or an adult class.

What can you do inside the club?

The lobby is the heart of the club. You see who’s online, choose a time control and press “Challenge”; the game is one-on-one and on video. If the person you invite is offline, you get a room code you can share.

There’s no separate “start a club game” button. When both players are active members, a finished game counts as a club game automatically; the league table, the participation report and the coach’s record all fill up from these games. In the league, a win is worth 1 point and a draw ½.

For coaches, it all starts with the calendar. A coach opens an event such as a lesson or a training session, and can repeat it at the same time every week for up to 12 weeks. Once the private room code is saved, “Join lesson” appears in members’ calendars; after the lesson, “Take attendance” records who came. In the club arena, the coach sits on camera while members queue up and play one at a time.

Progress reports cover the last 7, 30 or 90 days. Rating, in-club results, attendance and puzzles are calculated automatically; the coach only writes a comment. Members can always see their own reports. If an email address is on the student card, the coach can send the report there too.

How do you organise a club tournament?

On 6 August we wrote that Swiss tournaments were on their way. They’re here now: since 30 September, club owners and managers can run their own tournaments; members and coaches can’t.

1. On your club page, press “Create tournament”. Enter a name, then pick a time control and a start time. The list offers six bullet and blitz controls, from 1+0 to 5+3.

2. The default setup is Swiss, 5 rounds, 5+3 and registration for club members only. To change it, open “Change format and settings”; the format, number of rounds, Arena duration and “Who can join” are there. “More settings” holds maximum players, the break between rounds and rated games.

3. Press “Create tournament” at the bottom of the form. The tournament lands in the club calendar, and members are notified that registration is open.

4. For friends outside the club, send the “Create club and tournament invite” link from the tournament page. It takes them into the club first, then straight to the tournament.

The tournament starts automatically at the scheduled time if enough players have registered, or you can start it earlier. It needs at least 2 players; if fewer than 2 have registered 30 minutes after the start time, it’s cancelled. Anyone who doesn’t enter their game within 5 minutes of a round opening forfeits. Games are played on Rovian’s usual video chess screen. Since 10 October, the tournament page also shows the time control right under the title, in its own badge with a clock icon, so you can tell “3+2 Blitz” from “5+3 Blitz” at a glance before registering.

Swiss, Arena or round robin: which suits your club?

A Swiss tournament has a fixed number of rounds (1 to 15). Each round you face someone on a similar score, and nobody is knocked out. A win scores 1 and a draw ½, and you never meet the same opponent twice. A player left without an opponent gets a 1-point bye, and late registration stays open during the first half. Made for a neighbourhood club’s end-of-month event.

Arena runs on the clock: you choose a length between 15 minutes and 3 hours. When your game ends, you return to the tournament page, get ready again and your next opponent arrives. A win scores 2 and a draw 1; there are no streak or berserk bonuses. It’s the easiest fit for an hour-long office league after work.

Round robin is for small groups: up to 32 players, the roster locks at the start and every pair meets once. With an odd number of players, the rest round scores zero. It suits a university team’s internal ranking, or any group where everyone should play everyone.

Then there’s tidying up. Since 3 October, the tournament’s creator can remove it with “Delete tournament”; a running tournament, or one with unfinished games, can’t be deleted. Registrations, round lists and the linked calendar event go, while players’ game history and ratings stay. To start over instead, the club’s owner or managers pick a new date with “Reset tournament”.

What do you need to start your club today?

A name, an invite link and a few people who’ll sit down at the same time on a Thursday evening. No café, no hall rental. There’s no payment step to create a club, invite members or run a tournament. The only paid path is booking a one-on-one lesson with a club coach who has a coaching listing, through “Book a lesson”; those lessons run on credits in coaching.

Want to look around first? The club directory is open, and public tournaments are listed on the Tournaments page. Ready? Create your club and drop the link in the group chat. Chess, face to face.