Verified prize chess
Every move changes the table.
Competitive online chess tournaments with real prizes. Played on Lichess, verified and paid out here.
The board above is this table. Each of its eight ranks is one standings row.
| Pos | Player | Band | Score | Rating | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | silent_bish | Gold | 5 and a half points | 2179 | Waiting for pairing |
| 2 | delta_open | Gold | 5 points | 2127 | Waiting for pairing |
| 3 | zugzwanger | Gold | 5 points | 2069 | Result verified |
| 4 | kasparovfan | Gold | 4 and a half points | 2036 | Waiting for pairing |
| 5 | adagio_77 | Silver | 4 and a half points | 1984 | Game in progress |
| 6 | marek_va | Silver | 4 points | 1969 | Waiting for pairing |
| 7 | en_passante | Silver | 4 points | 1918 | Result verified |
| 8 | petrosian_c | Silver | 3 and a half points | 1860 | Eliminated |
Positions 1 to 3 are inside the prize allocation.
02Getting in
From watching to the standings in four moves.
- 01
Connect
Create an account and link your Lichess profile. We verify the link belongs to you before it counts for anything.
- 02
Enter
Your Lichess account is measured against the tournament’s own limits — rating, rated games, account age — before you can pay for a seat.
- 03
Play
The tournament runs on Lichess, where you already play. Results are read back from the board — nothing is retyped.
- 04
Get paid
Winners come from the final standings, are checked for fair play, reviewed by a person, and only then paid.
04The record
Every payout leaves a paper trail.
Prize money is the part that has to be boring. Here is the chain a result passes through before it becomes a payment — and what the prize split is before a single seat is sold.
- Account
Your Lichess account is verified as yours
- Result
Standings are read from the board
- Integrity
The fair-play check runs at review, not at play
Lichess marks accounts after the fact — sometimes days later. The snapshot is taken when the prize is reviewed, so it sees that.
- Block
A flagged account cannot be approved
- Payout
A person approves before anything is paid
The default split
| Champion | 50% | |
|---|---|---|
| Runner-up | 30% | |
| Third place | 20% |
- Published before sale
- The split is created with the tournament, not decided once the results are in.
- Never more than the entries
- A prize pool larger than entry fee × capacity is rejected at creation. The pot cannot promise what the seats cannot cover.
- Returned without asking
- If a tournament is cancelled or never runs, the entry fee goes back to the original payment method.
05The field
Who you’re up against.
A paid tournament is only worth entering if you know who is in it. Every tournament sets its own limits, and your Lichess account is measured against them before you are given a seat.
Example: a tournament with a rating band from 1600 to 1999 admits only accounts whose rating in the category being played falls inside it.
- Rating band
A floor, a ceiling, both or neither
Whatever a tournament sets is on its page before you can pay. The rating measured is your rating in the category being played — your blitz rating for a blitz arena, not your best one.
- Rated games
A minimum number of rated games
So a fresh account cannot be spun up inside a banded field. Counted from your Lichess account, not from anything you tell us.
- Account age
A minimum account age
For the same reason, measured against the day your Lichess account was created.
- Settled rating
An established rating, where there is prize money
Lichess marks a rating provisional until it has settled. A provisional rating can sit anywhere, so it cannot be used to enter a banded tournament that pays out. Free arenas are unaffected — a new player is welcome there.
- Checked twice
- Once when you register, and again when the payment confirms — because a rating can move in between.
- No quiet admissions
- If the second check fails, the payment is held for refund rather than letting you into a field you do not belong in.
- You are told which rule
- A refusal names the rule that failed and by how much. Never just “not eligible”.
06Before you pay
The awkward questions.
LichessWhere do the games actually happen?
On Lichess. Chess4prize does not run a chess server or a board. We handle registration, eligibility, results and prizes; Lichess handles the chess.
AccessHow do you stop people who didn’t pay from joining?
Two independent locks. Your Lichess username is added to the tournament’s entry list when your seat is confirmed, and Lichess refuses anyone who is not on it. On top of that, each player gets a personal entry code computed from their own Lichess account name, so it does not work for anyone else. Sharing the link, or a screenshot of your code, lets nobody in.
ChargesWhat if I close the payment page halfway through?
Nothing is charged and your seat is held as unpaid. Return to the tournament page and you’ll see a button to finish paying — you will not be charged twice.
PayoutWhen do I get paid?
After the tournament is settled and the winner check has run. Prizes are paid by the organiser who ran the tournament, and the status is tracked in your results history.
RefundsCan I get a refund?
A full refund is due if the tournament is cancelled or your admission check fails. The organiser processes it back to the original payment method.
IndependenceIs Chess4prize affiliated with Lichess?
No. Lichess is an independent, free, donation-funded chess platform. We use their public API to run tournaments there. We are not endorsed by or connected to them.
07Take a seat
Your move.
Create an account, connect Lichess, and take a seat when a tournament opens. The account costs nothing — you pay an entry fee only when you enter one.