Closed down: site where you could play chess 4 money

[Javier]

Remember "Pawn Shark", the site where you could play chess for money? Well, it has closed down, which is not surprising, considering that they didn't have many visitors.

Personally, I just don't think a project like that was viable. Cheating would be impossible to control.

 

This is what their "about us" page used to say:

 

"PawnShark was designed and built on three continents with one goal in mind, "to create a currency enabled chess community where friends can play friends." The idea came to the founders after hours and hours of play on standard chess websites, where during a game the inevitable question was asked, "Want to play for money?" (Javier: Er... no, that's not an inevitable question!) And with that, the idea was born. There have been naysayers along the way. The most common comment being, "What about cheating?" Well, for the founders the idea of cheating was foreign because they wanted to play for money amongst each other and knew that many of their friends wanted to play other friends and so on. With that in mind it was decided to build a "Community chess" where a user could find a user, view a comprehensive history, communicate, see their picture, and make a friend. PawnShark's "chess community" concept is in direct contradiction with that of common chess sites today where random people play random people. Randomness allows shady players to have no accountability to anyone. Hence friends should play friends.

 

Quite ridiculous, really. I'm not against playing chess for money, after all, that's what the big tournaments are done for, the GMs play for the money. It's just that you'd need a pretty huge investment to guarantee that no cheating was done. And on top of that, reading things like: "Friends should play play friends... for money???" is really absurd.

 

They say the'll be back:

 

"Thank you for visiting PawnShark. We are happy to announce that we are under massive re-development and intend to offer the most advanced free chess application online. Please feel free to sign up for our newsletter and get insider information on real money tournaments and new features."

 

I doubt they'll open up again.

Wanna bet?

[pshark]

I’ll bet we will be back and we appreciate your concern and are happy you remembered the site. Version one was ambitious and a lot has been learned from that launch, many of the 500 (486) hundred users we gathered in the first two weeks dolled out constructive criticisms and ideas to improve the application. Some brought very little to the table, others said nothing. There are chess purists like yourself that are committed to a certain ideology that chess is only to be played by certain people in certain situations, but we believe that chess transcends all barriers.

 

Let’s talk about cheating in three parts.

 

You can only cheat during one chess situation, and that is standard chess. PawnShark offers bug house, ransom, and hold’em, versions of the game. Each variation offers a different method of obtaining currency. For instance, the idea of ransom is to take as many of your opponents pieces as you can before the mate. Upon mate you receive the value for those pieces. There is no known program, and from our statisticians mouth, “conceivable reliable method for analyzing such a thing.” That is not to say that someone won’t build one at some point, but for now there isn’t one.

 

Our algorithms are complex and they record several factors, we have improved the first and added two methods of rating. The first of which is of coarse the Elo, and the second, a peer ranking system that allows users to rank each game. The algorithms record every game, move, and win, in the application creating a digital map that we cant even patent in order to keep secret. The peer rank is a simple way of users assessing honesty and the Elo is self explanatory.

 

What’s wrong with playing your friends for money? I’m not going to play you if I don’t know you for money, it’s that simple. I wouldn’t play you in a pub, a bar, a coffee house, or in the park for money, and if I was to take a chance I would surly watch a few games first, some due diligence. PawnShark offers that by showing your full un-edited player history.

 

 

You have to understand chess for money is not our goal; chess for chess is our goal. The idea for PawnShark 2 is not to make money playing chess but to offer and better place to play the game than anybody else online.

 

The new PawnShark allows you to start your own tournaments between you and your friends (invite only) set the buy and pot. We allow registered GM’s to teach games via voip and charge for the sessions. We offer blitz and mini tourneys, friends and clubs. Play money that allows you to buy things and prizes.

 

In the end what’s wrong with us existing? No one is forcing you to play, why say anything, why criticize if not for a legitimate reason? PawnShark is about a chess lifestyle. For every hundred haughty chess purists there is at least one grungy underground chess for money guy, and that's our guy. He’s the 1 in 100 shot, the Vladislav Tkachiev. Maybe he played in park for cash, or hustled in a collage bookstore, maybe for loosys in the pen, That’s us, that’s the founders, too grungy a group of players for you I gather. But with 340 million of us all online I think our 1 in 100 odds are pretty good.

 

 

Cheers,

 

I love that a game can have this type of debate attached to it, it truly is loved.

 

Pm me for screenshots of the upcoming beta version and thanks for your opinion.

Edited October 7, 2009 by pshark