Chess in Copenhagen: clubs, tournaments and a chess café
Copenhagen chess runs on club nights. Clubs in Amager, Nørrebro, Østerbro, Valby and Brønshøj, and in suburbs from Ballerup to Gentofte, meet on fixed weekday evenings and play rated club series through the season. For a game without joining, the chess café in Sølvgade and the open chess salon at Falkoner Allé on Frederiksberg take anyone in; juniors train in most clubs.
Clubs 24
Tournaments 44
Lessons 27
Where to play 68
Members, schools 5
Chess960 in Copenhagen
Chess960 has a small, real place on the boards around Copenhagen. BMS Skak in Ballerup plays a yearly Fischer Random championship for its members, Amager Skakforening has sent out an invitation to a Chess960 evening of short games, and Herlev Skakklub publishes house rules for Free Style chess, though no dated Free Style event of its own was found.
In Chess960 the pieces behind the pawns begin on one of 960 shuffled arrangements, so memorised openings lose their value from the first move. Between club evenings, the variant can be played online at ch960.com.
Chess960 on physical boards around Copenhagen, in the organisers' own words:
- BMS Skak Chess960 championship, a club evening — 2025 edition reported 21 January 2026; 2026 edition on the club calendar for 24 November 2026
- Amager Chess960 Fischer Random evening, five rounds of 15 minutes — Tuesday 24 November 2026 (invitation)
Reading an entry
The directory holds 77 entries, 77 of them current, and the whole list is read again about every 6 months.
Within a list, the entries with the freshest evidence come first; the order says nothing about the quality of a club or an event. A question no page answers is marked "not stated by sources". What the status lines mean, how sources are marked and where the directory stops is set out under how the entries are sourced.
Has a club night moved?
Copenhagen clubs change rooms and weekdays with a new season, and junior groups move with the school year. If an entry here has fallen behind, or a club, a chess evening or a tournament series is missing, send a short note and a link to the page that shows it.