Chess in Bangkok you can walk in to 7

These places let you sit down to a game without membership or booking, and several are along Sukhumvit. The Bangkok Chess Club meets on Friday evenings on the mezzanine of a pub in Phrom Phong, the Red Knight Chess Cafe in Khlong Toei holds a casual blitz evening on Saturdays and a free-play morning over coffee on Wednesdays, and Big Rook Chess Academy in Watthana opens its club sessions to walk-ins on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons.

On Tuesday evenings there is a chess corner at the Foreign Correspondents' Club in Pathum Wan. CapyChess at Seacon Square in Prawet and Unisus at The Street Ratchada and Samyan Mitrtown keep free-play tables in malls, and a café in Sathon has hosted a chess social with DJs. Open does not always mean free: Big Rook charges for its sessions, and at the café and the Foreign Correspondents' Club you are expected to order. For a visitor or someone new to the city, these are the quickest way to a game.