Roanoke Valley Chess Club

05/19/2026

7 Stars Lounge! ⭐️

The chess club’s new host has been very gracious and accommodating for our meetings and events!

The owners are extremely welcoming, and their food’s delicious! (They now offer smoothies!)

If you agree (why wouldn’t you?), please leave 7 Stars a 5-star review on Google and Yelp!

05/04/2026

Hi all,

Meetings at our new location (420 Church Avenue, 7 Stars Lounge) have been going great so far, and I'm glad everyone has been enjoying the new spot! Just so we are all on the same page, we are no longer meeting at Raleigh Court Public Library, nor Beth Israel Synagogue. All future club meetings will take place at 7 Stars Lounge, our new location. The owners have encouraged us to use this space however we see fit, so if you would like to meet up there to play chess, even outside of our normal club hours, the owners of the cafe will welcome you. For those that it may still be unclear, our normal club hours are:
Wednesdays - 5:30PM - 9:00PM
Sundays - 3:00PM - 7:00PM
Next, I am delighted to announce that we are bringing back our monthly USCF dual-rated (classical & rapid) tournaments! It is a bit short notice, but our next event will be on May 16th at 7 Stars Lounge. You can register here: https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/9082

Lastly, registration for the 2nd Annual Blue Ridge Open, set for June 5th - 7th at the Holiday Inn Airport (3315 Ordway Drive NW, Roanoke, VA 24017), can be found here: https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/8652

Some great things are happening for chess in Roanoke, and we are motivated to continue providing the most prestigious events and instruction in the city!

04/29/2026

Last Night @ Raleigh Court!

Tonight’s our final night at Raleigh Court Library!

It’s the end of an era! But starting next week, your local chess club begins a new chapter!

All future meetings— Sundays and Wednesdays— will take place at 7 Stars Lounge downtown!

04/20/2026

Hi all,

Last weekend a local cafe reached out to us to possibly use their space for our weekly meetings. After some deliberation, and testing out the space, we are delighted to announce that 7 Stars Lounge (420 Church Avenue, Suite 1, Roanoke, VA 24016) downtown Roanoke will be our new dedicated meeting location for all future casual meetings starting May 6th. Our last Wednesday at the Raleigh Court Public library will be the 29th of April. We have already completely moved out of the Synagogue, and will be meeting at this new location starting Sunday, April 26th.
I also wanted to note that the owners of 7 Stars Lounge are extremely welcoming to all chess players, and if you would like to meet up with friends, have lessons, or whatever else chess related at any time (within their business operating hours) on any day of the week, they will gladly welcome you into their space. We just ask that everyone please be aware that this is a place of business whose primary source of income is the sale of food and drink, so to please be respectful and not bring in any outside food or drink, unless it's your own personal refillable water bottle.
All of that said, we are excited to work with 7 Stars Lounge, and we hope that everyone else will be satisfied with the new location.

Lastly, a reminder that registration for the 2nd Annual Blue Ridge Open (June 5 - 7th) is open and you may register here:

04/05/2026

Hi all,

Our meeting today is cancelled in observance of Easter. Happy Easter everyone!

Also, next Sunday I will be out of town, so we won't have it then. We will resume our Sunday meetings on the 19th of April.

Thanks!

04/03/2026

Hi all,

The Raleigh Court Public Library has notified us that — due to city budget cuts and change of management — we will no longer be able to meet at their location on Wednesdays starting in May. We have been meeting there for almost a decade now, and we've appreciated them letting us use their community room after hours for all these years. This is an unfortunate development, but we view this as an opportunity to pursue even better locations for meetings, preferably with foot traffic enabling us to welcome new players and passerbys. If anyone knows of a new suitable location for our Wednesday casual meetings, please let us know.

Once we sort out our Wednesday meeting location, I would like to shift our Sunday meetings to being reserved only for Rated games, whether they be Quads, Swiss, 1-on-1 matches, or perhaps League Games.

Next, we are finally getting around to organizing our storage room, which will then enable us to easily catalog our books for online sale—and rental for members. A special thank you to David Wise for donating inventory scanning equipment to help streamline this process.

Lastly, our 2nd Annual Blue Ridge Open being held June 5th - June 7th is now open for registration. Registration is here: https://caissachess.net/online-registration/index/8652

Stay tuned for updates on these items, and thank you everyone who helps support our humble club in bringing more chess to the valley.

02/14/2026

Hi all,

Happy Valentine's Day!

We will be cancelling our Saturday meeting tonight (2/14). Moving forward, we will be meeting at Beth Israel Synagogue -- same place -- but on Sundays at 3pm, starting February 22nd. This is in the effort of hopefully increasing attendance, and also since most of our events are single-day events on Saturdays, we won't have to cancel chess club when we have Saturday events.
Last month we cancelled the Roanoke Winter Classic due to the weather conditions. Hopefully everyone who registered received a full refund. Let me know if you did not. The new date is set for March 14th, and registration is open. Register here:

02/07/2026

The Roanoke Winter Classic! ♟

March 14 at 2515 Grandin Rd., SW.
Register here:

02/04/2026

Chess Club Tonight! 😀♟

Chess club will meet this evening! The library will remain open. New snowfall totals are expected to be light. Come on down and see us!

01/29/2026

Hi all,

Winter months are always fickle. From last week's storm which led to a schedule conflict with an RCPS event, and more snow on its way, we are in the unfortunate position of needing to reschedule this weekend's event entirely. We are tentatively planning for March 14th as the make-up date for the Roanoke Winter Classic. Since the postponement date will be over a month from now, we are making an exception to our Refund Policy, and issuing full refunds to everyone who signed up for the event this weekend.

We apologize for any inconvenience, and we hope to see you all in March.

Also, we will not be having chess club this Saturday at Beth Israel because of the winter storm.

Lastly, we will likely be having another Quad event in February, tentatively February 21st. Stay tuned for updates.

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