Challenge Board Rules

A Challenge Board match is a scheduled head-to-head chess game for cash: you post a challenge with your stake and offered times, another player accepts and picks a time, and both players check in to start. The winner takes ×1.8 — nearly double their stake.

How It Works

1.Set your stake in whole dollars — $0 for a free match, or $5 or more for a paid match — and offer 1–5 match times in 30-minute increments (Eastern Time).
2.Another player accepts your challenge and chooses one of your offered times.
3.Check-in opens 30 minutes before the scheduled time. Both players check in — check-in closes 10 minutes after the scheduled start.
4.Once both players are checked in, the match starts automatically: 3-minute time control per player, standard chess rules. Winner takes ×1.8.

Stakes & Payout

$0 / $5+

Stake

Free at $0 · paid from $5 · whole dollars

×1.8

Winner gets

Nearly double the stake

Split

Draw

Pool divided equally

10%

Platform fee

Of the pool

Example

Both players stake $10 → pool is $20. The winner collects $18 — that's ×1.8 their stake. The platform keeps $2. A draw returns each player their $10 stake, less half the platform fee — $9 each.

Check-In & No-Shows

Check-in opens 30 minutes before the scheduled time and closes 10 minutes after it.

If a player doesn't check in by the deadline, the match is cancelled as a no-show — no money moves.

Money only moves when both players have checked in — a cancelled or no-show match never charges anyone.

Time Control

All Challenge Board matches use a 3-minute time control per player — fast, decisive blitz chess.

The chess clock starts only after both players' boards are rendered and the countdown finishes — the server is the single source of truth for time.

Leaving the game page is dangerous: if your clock runs out, you lose the match and your stake.

Scheduling

Offer 1–5 future time slots in 30-minute increments (e.g., 7:00 PM, 7:30 PM ET). The accepting player picks the one that works for both.

You can post and accept as many challenges as you like — the only limit is that your match times must never overlap.

A challenge stays on the board until someone accepts or its slots pass — expired challenges are removed automatically.

Play Now challenges skip scheduling: you appear online on the board, and any player who accepts starts the match immediately. Leaving the page closes your Play Now challenge.

Fairness & Verification

Every move and the chess clock are validated server-side — your device never decides the outcome.

Elo is captured when the challenge is posted, so the rating you see on the board is the rating you play against.

Settlement is atomic and one-time: exactly one payout per match, credited to the winner's wallet right away.

Multi-layered anti-cheat monitoring follows every match in real time; suspicious games are reviewed by the fair-play team.

This is a skill-based game of chess, not gambling — the outcome depends entirely on how you play.

Skill-Based, Not Gambling

Challenge Board matches are games of pure chess skill — there is no randomness, and the outcome is decided entirely by the result of the game. The only platform cost is the fixed 10% fee taken from the prize pot, exactly as described above. Play responsibly — never stake more than you can afford to lose.

Open the Challenge Board Responsible Play