What is Zwart op Wit about?
At Zwart op Wit, we enjoy all formats of chess
Who are we?
Zwart op Wit is a chess club founded in 2021 by a group of students. The idea behind the club is making chess accessible for everyone and encouraging players who play primarily online to try over the board (OTB) chess. Playing OTB chess at a club can be a great way to connect with other people with similar interests.
What does an evening at Zwart op Wit look like?
At Zwart op Wit you will encounter a wide range of playing strengths, from beginners to serious amateur players. While we like competition, we also want chess to be a fun and accessible experience which can be enjoyed casually, which is why our evenings are structured differently from other, more established clubs found in Amsterdam. Almost every week, we will play our internal competition at 20:00h in a Rapid format of 25 minutes per side + 10 seconds increment per move, or 25+10 in short. This makes it so that the serious part of the evening takes around one hour, after which you can enjoy chess in any other way you want: analyse your game with your opponent, play blitz against different players, or play other chess variants like hand and brain, bughouse or even duck chess.
Do we also play competitively?
While most of our evenings are about a mixture of serious and casual enjoyment of chess, we do like to compete as a club in classical chess as well. Zwart op Wit currently has 4 teams participating in the regional leagues of the Schaakbond Groot-Amsterdam (SGA), as well as 1 team participating in the national league of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Schaakbond (KNSB). In these competitions, we compete as teams of 8 against other clubs, each year trying to win as many matches and trophies as possible!
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Besides competing in teams, many individuals at Zwart op Wit like to compete in tournaments as well. Internally, we host a knock-out format classical cup competition which runs throughout the season. Beyond the club, you will find many of our members at a variety of individual tournaments hosted in Amsterdam. Even to tournaments hosted elsewhere, many of us will travel to compete and have fun!
In what other ways is Zwart op Wit involved in the chess community?
Quite some members of Zwart op Wit are active contributors to the chess community. Some of our members are founders and organisers of the yearly Amsterdam Chess Open weekend tournament. As a club, we have hosted Chess on the Ring at the Ring festival of the Amsterdam 750 festivities. Zwart op Wit will also be organising the NK speed chess for teams in early 2026.