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Does anyone know if there are any sites by which I could play chess professionally and earn money similar to gambling sites or online poker sites ??

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  • 9
    Or lose money online playing chess?
    – Michael
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 2:31
  • 2
    chess gambling? bad idea
    – Lynob
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 10:40

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I highly doubt that there exist one. If it would exist, it would be full of sandbaggers or engine players. There is no way to verify who exactly plays the game. You, or your Stockfish/Houdini/Rybka/.

So even if you are GM, you most probably will lose money.

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  • I was playing MPL Chess & Playerzpot Chess. I am sure most of them use Chess engines. No spine to win it with their skill. It's funny, they say "You are fair play protected" everywhere!
    – m4n0
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 14:06
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As others have mentioned, there is no genuine site to make real money because it's so easy to cheat online by using chess engines.

The closest thing to "money" would be "ducats" as allowed on the Playchess server. Playchess has strong algorithms that can detect if you are cheating (i.e. using a program), so it is a pretty legitimate way of making "money". Ducats can be used to

  • play against grandmasters or to pay for private training.
  • buy ChessBase products.

So, if you're really good and win a lot of ducats, you can earn yourself some nice material from the Chessbase Shop, which includes chess DVDs, magazines, programs, etc.

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    Having a system similar to "ducats" is actually a good idea, since it isn't really motivating for an e.g. low rated player to use engines in order to win e.g. chess products. It is way more motivating to win cash. Perhaps one option is to have a site that awards points similar to "ducats" and then the player may "cash out" after anti-cheating algorithms have been run to analyze their games...? :)
    – user2001
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 20:07
  • @RauanSagit that sounds plausible. But I suspect that if you give people cash, smart cheaters can always cheat smart enough to fool the cheating algorithms (like someone once fooled Nigel Short into thinking he was playing Bobby Fischer).
    – NM Wesley Falcao
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 21:00
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    @RauanSagit this actually turns out as a bad idea. Chess cube tried something like this and failed desperately. No matter what you can win, people will try to win it. Right now CC is full of sandbaggers and people with 1300 rating playing like 2000. Any anti-cheating algorithm takes a lot of time to process and do not forget, that you as a verifier has limited amount of servers to run this verification, whereas there are thousands of games needed to be verified. Also you put trust in verifier and eventually someone will be able to find how to bypass it.
    – Salvador Dali
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 21:31
  • @SalvadorDali Verification should be possible, as long as every player is verified via their official FIDE card and their "real strength" is known. As well as access to their real over the board games for future comparison of strength and playing style. Some manual labor will be needed. To cover the site's expenses, the "house" should keep a certain fraction of the total pot of every game. Should be possible to organize, as long as there are enough interested and serious players. An even more advanced version would be to have a live video feed of both screen and player to verify fair play!
    – user2001
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 22:26
  • @RauanSagit and also microchips inserted in their brains, real passports information and 2 policemen with guns standing besides them ready to shoot them down on cheating. Jokes apart, what stops me from submitting FIDE card of some Indian GM? Also theoretically the way you described it is possible, in practice no one has done it and most probably there is a reason.
    – Salvador Dali
    Commented Apr 5, 2014 at 22:49
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Edit 2014-04-04:

Searched for:

chess online money

Did not find a single serious site. Too many cheaters, too strong engines!

Edit 2014-04-04:

Earlier, I mentioned finding this site:

https://www.chessmoney.com/cm/main

but after logging in and trying it out...it was empty / filled with bots.

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    yes I signed up for the site you linked to before, and was put against some CM with an ELO of 2500, and current elo 3000, I knew something is wrong, i backed off, didn't even start the match
    – Lynob
    Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 11:13
  • Site often goes down: nimb.ws/rMzm0W resulting in many abandoned games.
    – m4n0
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 14:00
  • So buggy that it is showing popups in the middle of the game to accept challenges, that stops the current game. It's in beta stage for 7 years :D I didn't get the winnings for this game as well: nimb.ws/uJNWHy Red flags everywhere!
    – m4n0
    Commented Nov 24, 2021 at 14:13
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There is this site chesscube.com which has their own currency called Crowns which can be redeemed for cash or merch .
Earning Crowns requires you to participate in their online rapid tournaments .
If you use engines then they will be able to catch you.

But its very tough if you are not a professional :/

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I am a USCF master and FIDE Master. The most legitimate place to play online chess for money is www.velocitychess.com

VelocityChess is a new professionally run chess website. One of its features allows you to wager "vChips", which you can redeem for cash or cash-equivalent gift cards.

The anti-cheating security against engine-use and sand-bagging there is WORLD CLASS.

Furthermore, you are fully refunded your vChips if your opponent is caught cheating.

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    Wow ... have you actually read the terms and conditions of that site? There's some truly special stuff in there. In fact, the only thing I've seen that's worse is the FIDE Online Arena (which requires taking total control of your hardware, at which point you can say goodbye to any confidential or private data, like, say, financial records).
    – Ben
    Commented Jul 25, 2014 at 6:37
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Not by playing. And cheating is rampant so you would be a fool to try that.

If you want to make money there are a few sites that help connect teachers to students. Both local students as well as others online. So how good are you and are you willing to work to make money or are you a gambler.

If you must gamble them william hill in UK probably takes bets on chess tournaments but they now block people in usa from even accessing what bets are available. EU access might be okay or you could move to UK.

I used to like to LOOK at the odds they had for some things like US elections.

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