Chess in Riga, from Thursday blitz to Pierīga opens
Most chess in Riga is played over a tournament table. On Thursdays the Šaha Ceturtdiena series meets on Ganību dambis, Riga Chess Club runs blitz stages at Victory pub on Tirgoņu iela, and the Šahs visiem league holds game days on Aspazijas bulvāris. Chess schools such as Rīgas Šaha skola and Kaissa teach the young, and Jūrmala, Sigulda and other Pierīga towns keep opens of their own.
Tournaments 24
Clubs 21
Chess schools 4
Groups 4
School and staff 8
Chess960 over the board in Riga
One over-the-board Chess960 event turned up in the tournament lists for the Riga area: on 6 March 2025 a Thursday blitz of the Šaha Ceturtdiena series, created by the Riga Chess Federation, was played as Freestyle chess, Chess960 or Fischer chess, as its title puts it, at Ganību dambis 21g. A juniors’ Chess960 event of November 2025 named no organiser or hall, and a Fischer chess tournament of June 2025 belonged to a summer camp at Mežezers, far from the city, so neither is listed.
In Chess960 the back-row pieces start from one of 960 shuffled positions, so prepared openings stop mattering and the thinking begins on the first move. Between Thursdays it can be played online at ch960.com.
The Chess960 event found in the Riga area, as the tournament server lists it:
How the cards are kept
The list holds 54 cards, 54 of them active or still waiting for a newer trace. Most were built from the organiser and venue fields of the chess-results tournament server and from the member register of the Latvian Chess Federation, with the own pages of schools, clubs and the University of Latvia for the rest. The pages were last read on .
Every list is ordered by the date of its newest trace, never by an opinion of a place. A question that no page answers is shown as “not stated by sources” instead of being guessed. The source marks, the two status lines and the edges of the list are set out in the editors’ notes.
Has a hall changed, or a series stopped?
Riga tournaments move between halls, hotels and school gyms from one season to the next, and new clubs join the federation every year. If a card has fallen behind, or a club, school or series is missing, send a short note with a link to a page that shows it.