Are you passionate about opportunities to showcase your skills in competitive tournaments? Like you, there are many students in Nevada looking for tournaments they can join and enjoy.
Here is a list of chess tournaments that take place in Nevada weekly/monthly/yearly. We highly recommend our students participate in these tournaments (not just our free monthly one) to practice what they’ve learned. As they say, practice makes perfect.
The first part of this post covers tournaments in Northern Nevada, and the second part covers them in Southern Nevada. If you’d like to improve your skills before attending any of the tournaments, remember that you can learn from any of our Masters.
Are these chess tournaments for kids?
Of course! Many of the tournaments listed below are PERFECT for beginner and intermediate children looking to put their skills to the test (and maybe make some friends!) .
Remember we also offer free online tournaments each month for all of our students! If you’re not one of our students you are also welcome to join for only $5.
Chess Tournaments in Northern Nevada
Quick note: There are many clubs and institutions that are not listed here due to their inactivity on social media and websites, so the most likely scenario is that they’re not longer operating.
The Reno Chess Club is a non-profit organization that promotes chess in the Reno area since 1952. They offer several chess tournaments throughout the year, and almost every Thursdays. Here are some of the more relevant tournaments they offer:
Reno Chess Club Monthly Tournament: This tournament is held on the second Saturday of every month. It is a 4-round Swiss system tournament with a time control of G/60;d5. The entry fee is $10 and it is held at the Reno Chess Club.
Reno Chess Club Blitz Tournament: This tournament is held on the fourth Saturday of every month. It is a 5-round Swiss system tournament with a time control of G/5;d0. The entry fee is $5 and it is held at the Reno Chess Club.
Open Rated Games: A friendly competition held every Thursday at their facility, no entry fee, open to players of all ages and skill levels.
There are plenty of tournaments offered by this institution, so I invite you to check out their event calendar.
If scholastic tournaments and more serious events is what you’re looking for, then ChessKidz is the right place for you. They host most of the Scholastics Championships in Nevada, which are USCF-rated and supervised.
There are many sections in the competitions, but the focus is on grades 1 through 12. Each grade section has a champion, who is determined by the top 10 players in that section. The top players will be invited to challenge neighboring areas in state championships, and everyone is invited to join our team to compete nationally. Sadly, you can only join their tournaments by buying a subscription to their club, and they don’t offer a consistent event calendar, so I can only tell you about the institution and how they organized their events.
Click on the following links if you’re interested in visiting their facility or having a look at their website for more information
Chess Tournaments in Southern Nevada
This is a GREAT opportunity to join a vibrant community of chess players in Las Vegas. Bridgeopolis is the “new kid on the block”, but that should be the opposite of discouraging! They offer a roomie and comfortable facility to play chess and meet with other players.
Bridgeopolis started as a Duplicate Bridge Club, hence the name, and added chess at the urging of a few chess players in the area. They currently have a dedicated club space with 20 tables, sets, and clocks in their 1337 sq. ft facility conveniently located in the Southwest section of Las Vegas.
They run a variety of tournaments. Their monthly, and sometimes bi-monthly tournaments include scholastic tournaments (5 rounds of g15+15) for students in grades 2-8 as well as U1250 tournaments (four rounds of G25+5) which have many of the same kids playing against beginner adults on other weekends. Registration fees include pizza and soft drinks for these events and small trophies for the scholastic tournament.
Tuesday Night Series: The Series sees one game of G75+15 each Tuesday night and runs for four Tuesday nights each month. This attracts some of the higher-rated players in the City.
We also run periodic one-day and two-day tournaments on weekend days for adult players as well as occasional casual chess nights.
They they hold Team v. Team tournaments as well as some tournaments for High School and College students.
The right place for people looking to have casual chess games every now and then.
I know this post is called “Chess tournaments in” and Casual Chess Club doesn’t offer many but don't get discouraged! Every Tuesday they hold a meeting at Mike's Subs, and for nearly a year they've been meeting at Pizzeria Tona every Thursday.
Another dedicated place to chess where you can go in and play with friends and chess enthusiasts. A membership will get you access to a venue for tournaments and events, as well as casual games.
This is also a very new institution that not long ago opened the doors to their new facility or “Castle” as they might call it.
There’s no relation between their slogan and our website headline 😂
Where to Play Chess is a resource for finding chess clubs and tournaments in every state. They have a list of clubs and organizations that offer other minor chess tournaments that we didn’t include in this list.
Conclusion
The best places to find chess tournaments in Nevada are Bridgeopolis and the Reno Chess Club since they offer a variety of tournaments for different ages and skill levels. They are also very consistent and friendly.
Talking about the right places. Are you looking for the right place to improve your skills? Learn from our Masters online either in private lessons or group lessons
We'd love to hear your ideas on how to make this better! Share them with us and we'll update this post ASAP! And remember to subscribe to our Newsletter so that you will get all of our awesome online monthly tournaments!