Betting On Chess: Addiction Risks And Cheating Concerns

Betting on the sport of professional chess is a losing position regarding gambling harm and game integrity.

Chess experienced a surge in interest following the popularity of Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit” and the game’s online accessibility during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The 2020-21 period marked what is widely considered the most significant uptick in chess interest in the U.S. since the late Bobby Fischer was the world’s most dominant player, inspiring millions of Americans to play the game in the 1960s and 70s.

With “The Queen’s Gambit” and social distancing fading into memory, gambling on the centuries-old board game was once contemplated as part of continuing the momentum for the sport in the U.S. The logic was to attract more sponsors and bring more money into the game.

For better or worse, that has not panned out.

Chess Betting Odds Scarce in U.S.

Chess betting is limited in the legal U.S. gambling landscape, nearly eight years after the Supreme Court overturned a prohibition on betting. Few states have approved chess betting markets, and it’s rare for a legal sportsbook to take bets on the sport even when permitted to do so.

Rex Sinquefield, founder of the world-renowned St. Louis Chess Club, told me in an interview in 2022 that he was open to betting on chess “as long as people are careful and there are mechanisms to protect people who can’t protect themselves.”

Sinquefield’s multi-million-dollar chess club is considered the capital of U.S. chess, with the World Chess Hall of Fame located across the street. An entire block in the city’s Central West End neighborhood is devoted to the royal game.

Every year, the club hosts tournaments featuring many of the game’s top grandmasters.

The conditions would appear ideal for fans to bet on their favorite players, especially if they’re watching from Missouri. Unfortunately, problem gambling has soared in recent years. The online gambling industry has shown it can’t offer a safe product.

Widespread chess betting could harm many of the game’s enthusiasts.

Hard to Predict

For chess fans, gambling on the professional tournament circuit carries significant addiction risk. An overestimation of prediction ability could cause financial losses and harm. 

Playing chess is a pure strategy game, but betting is not.

Dr. Rani Hoff, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale School of Medicine, told Gambling Harm in an interview that games with a strategic component can be more dangerous for some.

“If you know what you’re doing, you get that intermittent reinforcement more frequently,” she explained. “In poker, for example, you win more if you know what you’re doing. Intermittent reinforcement is the most powerful reinforcer for any living organism, for humans particularly.”

Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan of the Netherlands, one of the most prominent chess commentators in the world, was aware of chess betting in Europe in the 1990s. Seirawan said that although he was an astute observer, he still couldn’t predict a result.

“It wasn’t just the outcome of the game—there were all these other side bets,” Seirawan recalled about a tournament decades ago. “People like me, who were ‘in the know,’ made some bets. I bet Garry Kasparov would draw in the last round against Judit Polgár in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands). A draw sewed it up. It was obvious that he should make a draw, clinch first place, and go home. I bet on a draw, and I got bonus money if it was a quick draw. I lost both bets.”

Gambling on professional chess “is an interesting question,” Seirawan added. “In America, sports betting is getting bigger and bigger, but not everyone is thrilled by betting on chess.”

Chess Cheating

Let’s turn away from the harm that could be done to fans of professional chess. The game has a rich history that could be undermined by widespread gambling on the top grandmasters.

Game integrity is another reason chess betting has not taken off in the U.S. The professional circuit already battles with this issue, sans a gambling industry built around the sport.

The 2022 Sinquefield Cup was famously marred by controversy and captured global intrigue. The tournament is arguably the most famous example of “fair play” concerns in chess.

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen, the strongest player in history, shockingly withdrew from the event and insinuated that American Hans Niemann, the country’s top under-20 player at the time, had received computer assistance in their game.

There was never proof to back up Carlsen’s claims about his game against Niemann. Computer cheating is an “existential threat to the game,” Carlsen said at the time. Niemann later sued him for defamation.

With gambling in the mix, players may be more incentivized to use outside help. Computer-based cheating is a perpetual problem.

Pre-Arranged Draws

Gaining an unfair advantage in top-level chess tournaments comes in other forms. Grandmaster Sam Shankland of California told me in 2022 in St. Louis about other ways the game could be improperly influenced by gambling.

“For example, if there is a double round robin, and two players are friends and they usually make pre-arranged draws … that’s already against the rules, but let’s say you have people who do that, they might say, ‘well, let’s pre-arrange that black wins both games, and we can bet on ourselves.’ This is abuse you could see. It’s a different kind of cheating than computer cheating.”

Grandmaster Sam Sevian of New York echoed Shankland regarding pre-arranged draws.

“Compared to team sports, chess is riskier,” Sevian said of his chess betting concerns. “Because people could bet on themselves or the opponent, and this isn’t going to be easy to stop.”

According to Sevian, betting on chess events outside the top tournaments would be especially problematic. Smaller prize funds might incentivize some competitors to seek illicit ways to earn more money. 

Shankland said he has heard of chess players wagering on themselves.

Chess Props Could Corrupt Game

In some states, sportsbooks are allowed to offer the following chess props:

• First move
• Best finishing position
• Correct tournament score
• Game to end in a checkmate
• Game to end in a draw by repetition
• Last piece to be captured
• Number of moves made by white
• To go to tie-break
• To have a pawn promoted

Shankland took issue with some of the props for game integrity reasons.

“It depends on the prop,” Shankland said. “For example, the last piece captured, that’s one I wouldn’t take issue with. The first move of the game? Insider information. It’s the easiest thing to just game the system. Gaming sports betting websites… I wouldn’t shed too many tears if they lost some money because someone knew the game’s first move. But that opens the door to abuse.”

Time Delay

One reason why the sports gambling industry is generally uninterested in chess is that it’s not well-suited for live betting. That’s the activity of wagering during an in-progress event. 

Live gambling is fueled by so-called micro-betting, which is especially lucrative for the industry.

Cheating at the top level could be subtle. According to Carlsen’s public comments, a top player would only need a chess engine for guidance in a few crucial moments to become unbeatable.

To mitigate cheating risks, tournaments often implement a 30-minute live broadcast delay. This delay is not conducive to live wagering. Information on an in-progress game leaking to the public could cause losses for a sportsbook.

Still, the betting industry has done some live chess betting in rare circumstances.

According to Unibet Sportsbook, it was the first international online gambling company to offer live betting on chess when it did so on Carlsen in 2014 during his world title match.

No Chess Betting Whales

From the gambling industry’s perspective, recreational gamblers are not putting a lot of money into chess bets. To generate liquidity, a chess gambling market would also need whales.

However, a chess gambling whale could be an insider.

“There’s not much data, and it’s hard to make odds,” said a Las Vegas sportsbook manager. “It’s an inefficient market with low limits.”  The sportsbook manager added that a lack of “recreational business” and “low liquidity” deters betting operators.

Studies show that sportsbooks make most of their money from high spenders (often people with addiction).

Bottom Line

“[Chess] is so interesting in itself, as not to need the view of gain to induce engaging in it; and thence it is never played for money.”

—Benjamin Franklin

Betting on professional chess is unattractive to the U.S. sports betting industry. The juice is not worth the squeeze outside a couple of key events (the World Chess Championship and the qualifying Candidates Tournament).

Still, the World Chess Championship isn’t attractive enough for most U.S. online sportsbooks.

The main reasons are:

• Live betting doesn’t work well for professional chess
• There are too many ways for games to be compromised
• Pre-game markets are hard to make odds for
• Chess betting would attract too many ‘sharps’

Fortunately for fans of the game, gambling harm risks are relatively minimal. If you do find a website that takes chess bets, and you become concerned about your gambling, please call 1-800-GAMBLER.