Method and source notes

What the directory covers

The area is Greater Cairo: the Cairo governorate with New Cairo and Madinaty, Giza on the west bank, and Sheikh Zayed beyond it. Branches of one academy get entries of their own when a page names each branch separately; branches outside Greater Cairo are left out.

An entry is made when a page anyone can open names the place or series and shows chess there. Nothing is ranked, scored or paid for. Inside each list the newest dated trace comes first, and entries that have moved or closed stay at the end of the full list so that an old link still finds an explanation.

Where the entries come from

Cairo chess is visible above all through its academies and through the chess-results tournament server. The Egyptian Chess Federation publishes no register of clubs and no website of its own could be found, so there was no member list to start from. Egypt’s events dated 2025 to 2027 on the tournament server, and the FIDE list of rated events with Cairo or Giza as the city, were read for organiser, venue and title.

The academies’ own sites, the pages of universities and schools, and FIDE’s list of endorsed academies add addresses, branches and coaches where they print them. Each fact ends in a small number that leads to its page, with a short quotation in that page’s language and the day the page was read.

When two pages disagree, on a city or the spelling of a club, the entry follows the newer one and names the other in its notes. Older tournament pages hide the organiser and the hall, so many entries carry a name and dates but no address.

What the source marks mean

A page is marked official when the academy, club, school or federation published it itself; secondary when someone else reports it, as the tournament server, FIDE or a news site does; unverified when it rests on users or on one passing remark.

A mark says who is speaking, not whether they are right. A tournament page shows that an event was entered for a date, not that it was played as planned; a date ahead is shown as the page gives it, and once that day has passed the page marks it as past.

What the pages leave open

Few Cairo academies print a fee, a timetable or an age range, and the tournament server rarely names a street. Whether a non-member may play at a sporting club is stated for none of them. Where no page answers, the entry reads “not stated by sources”, and a blank never means no.

A page that answers one of these questions can be sent through the form; it is weighed at the next revision and added with its date.

What this directory does not judge

• No academy, club, coach or tournament is graded, scored or ranked against another.
• Entries rest on published pages; nobody visits the halls for this directory.
• Fees are copied as the page showed them on the day it was read.
• The quality of teaching is not judged, and a coach’s title is only what the academy states.
• A tournament listing shows that an event was entered, not how many players came.
• Access for wheelchairs, parking and the rules of a sporting club’s gate are not checked.
• Phone numbers are shown as printed; nobody tests whether they are answered.

If an entry concerns you

Academy directors, club officials, organisers, coaches, parents and players can correct an entry through the report form. A link to a page that shows the right information makes the change faster.

Every accepted correction is dated under what changed and noted on the entry itself. An academy, club or person that prefers not to be listed can say so through the same form, and the entry is removed at the next revision.

Dates and revisions

The oldest page behind the current entries was read on 15 October 2026 and the newest on 15 October 2026. The date beside each source shows how old that piece of evidence is.

The whole directory is read again about every 6 months. In between, an academy may open a branch or a series move to another hall before the entry follows; what the organiser itself publishes comes first.

Who runs the directory

Chess in Cairo is an independent editorial project. It takes no money from academies, clubs, organisers or halls, carries no advertising, and has no tie to the Egyptian Chess Federation or to any place it lists.

It exists because Cairo chess is spread over hundreds of tournament listings, a few academy sites and the odd news item, each showing one corner of it. The form lets players, parents and coaches keep it accurate between revisions.

Reusing the data

The whole directory can be downloaded as a JSON dataset, one record per entry with every source, mark and date. It is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0: reuse is free as long as Chess in Cairo is named.

An outline of the site in plain text, for programs and language models, is at llms.txt.

Considered and left out

Candidates considered and not listed: 14. Most are halls that hosted a single event of another organiser, clubs and series outside Greater Cairo, and names that appear once with no page to check them against.

Map markers

An entry gets a marker only when its address matched a building in the OpenStreetMap address search, or when an organiser’s own map link gives the point, and every marker is labelled approximate. Few Cairo addresses resolve that way, so most entries carry no marker.

No marker is placed by hand and the site draws no map of its own: the map link opens openstreetmap.org. The map belongs to the OpenStreetMap contributors and is shared under the ODbL.