These terms govern your use of the King Gambit website and services (kinggambit.com). By creating an account, entering a tournament, or playing the Stockfish Challenge, you agree to the terms below.
A King Gambit account is personal and must be created in your own name. One person may hold only one account.
You may not play using someone else's account, lend your account to anyone, or let anyone else play through your account — in casual games, tournaments, or the Stockfish Challenge.
Everything that happens on an account is the responsibility of its owner, including recorded results and rating.
The legal name on your profile must be accurate, because it is used for certificates and for paying out prizes. It can only be changed by an admin, with proof of identity.
One account may be used from at most two personal devices. A device belongs to a single account — a device already linked to another account cannot be used to sign in to yours.
The email address on your account must be verified. Since 30 August 2026, an account whose email is not verified cannot sign in; the verification link can be resent from the sign-in page. This verification is what lets your account be recovered if you forget your password, and what stops one person holding many accounts.
If a device is lost, breaks, or is replaced, you can ask an admin to swap it. Swaps are limited to three over the life of the account, with at least seven days between requests.
While playing, you may not use a chess engine, an opening database, or help from another person, except through features provided for that purpose (such as analysis after a game has finished, or playing against the computer).
You may not arrange results, lose deliberately to lower your rating, or use more than one account to influence a tournament or improve your chances of winning a prize.
We run automated checks comparing moves against engine choices, and against think-time patterns. Those checks are never a decision in themselves: the most the system can do is open a review, and what follows is an admin looking at the games.
Those checks run on every game played on our server — tournaments, games against people, rated bot games, and the Stockfish Challenge alike. Only critical positions are counted: positions where the best move and the best alternative were close enough that you genuinely had to choose. Forced moves and obvious ones are not counted, because every player finds those.
If one game passes the threshold, you are told so in the app. The first notice is a warning only: nothing about your account changes, your rating moves as normal, every tournament stays open to you, and no other player can see it.
If a second game passes the same threshold, a recording requirement applies: every tournament you enter and every Stockfish Challenge attempt must be recorded, and any prize you win — a tournament prize or the Stockfish Challenge prize — is held until an admin has reviewed that recording. Your account is not frozen and you are not barred from any tournament, prize events included — your rating keeps moving too. The requirement is lifted once the review is done, and you may raise an objection through the Contact page at any time.
We do not publish the threshold figures. The reason is simple: a player who knows the exact limit knows exactly how close to stay beneath it.
The accuracy figure shown after a game is not an engine detector and is never evidence. High accuracy is ordinary in simple games, and low accuracy is not a defence. We publish the full explanation, with the platform's own distribution, on the Accuracy page.
The Engine Detection tool you can run yourself — pasting a PGN from King Gambit or any other platform — is a study aid, not an accusation tool. Nothing it reports is ever grounds for action against anybody's account, including your own. Note that even a full-strength chess engine scores only about 64% on the same measurement, so a high figure is not proof that an engine was used.
Each tournament has its own rules, shown before it starts. By confirming your attendance you confirm that you have read and accepted them.
Tournaments may be run by King Gambit or by third-party organisers. For third-party events, responsibility for running the event and paying prizes rests with that organiser; King Gambit provides the platform and holds prize funds for the applicable period as a protection for participants.
Entry fees, participant limits, and withdrawal terms follow each tournament's own settings as shown on its page.
For winners, what is announced publicly follows the publicity consent you give when confirming attendance.
A rating-restricted tournament may only be entered by players whose rating in that category is already established, or who have verified a rating or a title. A new account's rating makes no claim about strength yet, so it cannot be the basis for entering a restricted section.
For online tournaments, attendance confirmation opens 5 minutes before the start time and closes the moment the first round is paired. There is no late entry. A player who does not press the attendance button within that window is not paired in any round, and where the tournament charges an entry fee, that fee is not refunded, in line with the tournament rules.
A player who makes no move at all in a round is not paired in the next one until they press the attendance button again on the tournament page.
Every online tournament board opens with 30 seconds of preparation, during which the clock does not run. In that time both players must agree to the video call and to the recording requirement. A player who has not agreed to both when preparation ends loses the game; if neither player has, both lose. As soon as both agree, the game starts after a 3-second countdown. A loss for not agreeing to the preparation does not change anyone's rating.
The video call is mandatory in online tournaments, so the device you play on must have a camera and camera access must be allowed. A device without a camera, or refused camera access, counts as not agreeing. During the game the camera cannot be switched off and the call cannot be ended; the microphone starts off and you may switch it on. The call ends automatically when the game ends.
You must record every round of an online tournament yourself: with the screen recorder if you play on a phone, or with a separate phone if you play on a PC or laptop, with your face and both hands visible throughout. Winners in places 1 to 3 must send the recordings of all their rounds to the King Gambit WhatsApp group as a condition of claiming a prize; recordings sent to the group can be seen by its members. If a winner in places 1 to 3 does not send those recordings, they keep their place but their prize is cut by 50%. That half first flows down to the winners below (each winner whose prize is smaller than the amount being passed down takes it, and their own prize moves on down), so a player who sent their recordings is never paid less than their own prize and nobody receives less than anyone below them; what is left goes to a player in place 4 or below who did send their recordings, who can claim it on the tournament page. An admin decides the cut and who receives it.
A player who finishes in places 1 to 3 of an online prize tournament three times in a row serves a champion's rest: they cannot register for online prize tournaments until three online prize tournaments they could have entered have started. Tournaments they could not enter, for example because of a rating limit, and private tournaments do not count. Counting is automatic and needs no registration, and a finish outside places 1 to 3 in a tournament they played resets the count to zero. Registrations in online prize tournaments that have not started are cancelled with a full refund. During the rest, rating, prizes already won, tournaments without prizes, offline tournaments and the Stockfish Challenge are unaffected. An admin may also set the same rest to keep the champions rotating.
A new account starts on an unmeasured default rating, marked as not yet established until you have played enough games. The marker is not a judgement of your ability — it means only that we do not have enough data to be sure of it.
You can verify a chess.com, lichess, or FIDE rating, and submit a FIDE or PERCASI title you hold, from the Profile page. Submissions are reviewed by an admin against the evidence you attach.
A verified title is shown on your profile with a verification mark, and an admin may set a rating floor matching that title, so that a titled player is not displayed at a starting rating that plainly misrepresents their strength.
Verifying a rating or a title is voluntary. What follows from it is set out elsewhere on this page: rating-restricted tournaments require known strength, and certain prize payouts wait for the same thing.
The Stockfish Challenge may be attempted at most three times per day per account.
The cash prize applies once per account, and is paid only to the owner of the winning account.
Every win is reviewed by an admin before payment. During that review we may ask for further evidence, including a video recording of the game or a supervised rematch.
Every attempt is checked for how closely its moves match a chess engine, and an attempt that passes the threshold is recorded against your account as described under Fair play. The threshold for the Stockfish Challenge differs from the one used for ordinary games, because the measurement itself differs.
If your account currently carries a recording requirement, a Stockfish Challenge attempt must also be recorded, and the link is asked for when you submit your prize claim. The requirement is shown on the Stockfish Challenge page before you start an attempt — a recording cannot be made once the game is over. The prize remains yours; only the payout waits, until an admin has reviewed the recording.
An attempt you walk away from without resigning keeps running on the clock. Once your time is gone it is finished as a loss on time, whether or not you come back to the page.
King Gambit may decline to recognise a win and withhold the prize where these terms have been broken, including where an account belonging to someone else was used, or where engine assistance was used.
Cash prizes are transferred only to a bank account in the name of the account owner entitled to the prize. The account holder name must match the legal name recorded on that profile.
We cannot process a payout to an account in someone else's name.
Token purchases and tournament entry fees are final once payment succeeds, unless the tournament is cancelled by its organiser.
Transfers to a BCA account carry no fee. Transfers to any other bank carry a Rp2,500 transfer fee, deducted from the prize. BCA Digital (blu) is a different bank from BCA, so transfers there are still charged. The net amount you will receive is shown before you submit your account details.
Every prize, every referral point cash-out, and every play-earnings cash-out has income tax (PPh 21) of 2.5% withheld from the gross amount, in line with the applicable tax rules, and remitted by King Gambit. The tax is calculated on the gross amount first, and the transfer fee is deducted after that. The full breakdown — prize, tax, transfer fee, and what reaches you — is shown before you submit your bank details.
Payouts to DANA (via its virtual account) are processed only if at least Rp20,000 reaches you after tax and the transfer fee. This applies to every kind of payout. If the amount falls short, use a bank account, or request again once your balance is large enough. A request that does not meet this rule may be rejected, with its amount returned to your balance.
Because that withholding has to be reported in the recipient's name, your national ID number (NIK) and a photo of your ID must be on file before a prize, a point cash-out, or a play-earnings cash-out can be claimed. You enter it once and it stays on your account for later claims, is kept as the record of the tax withheld, and is not visible to other players.
If your rating was not yet established when you registered and your performance in that tournament far exceeded it, the payout is held until your playing strength can be confirmed. This is not an accusation of cheating and is not recorded as a breach. The prize is released automatically once your rating becomes established through ordinary play, or once you verify a rating or a title; an admin also reviews these periodically.
Prizes from tournaments organised by King Gambit are transferred within 2x24 hours of the claim being accepted and any applicable checks completing. That is a service promise, not a countdown running in the app.
Play earnings is a promotion: every qualifying game pays an amount of money to both players, the one who won and the one who lost. The amount per player, the start date and the end date are set by King Gambit and are always shown on the Play earnings page.
A game qualifies when all of the following hold: your opponent is a person (games against the computer or a bot earn nothing); the game reaches at least 15 moves from each player; both players' clocks together use at least 2 minutes, or 40% of the starting time for shorter time controls (Bullet 1+0: 24 seconds); the game finishes with a result, so an aborted game does not count; and it is played inside the promotion window. Tournament games and ordinary games against people both count.
Draws earn too, except draws that arise from threefold repetition or the fifty-move rule. Those two are the endings that can be reached by moving pieces back and forth, so they do not count.
Against the same person, at most 10 paid games in one week (Monday 00:00 WIB through Sunday). Once that is reached both players are notified, and further games against that person no longer add to the balance until the following Monday. There is no limit on how many different people you play.
Where a game is already known not to pay before it starts — the promotion is not running, your opponent is the computer, or the weekly limit with that opponent has been reached — the reason is shown on the board before you play and has to be acknowledged. Reasons that can only be known once the game is over, such as falling short of 15 moves, too little clock time used, or a draw by repetition, are given on the game result screen.
The play-earned balance is separate from referral points and is cashed out separately, with a minimum of Rp10,000. Everything in Article 6 applies to it: the account holder must match the real name on the profile, 2.5% PPh 21 is withheld, the ID number and photo must be on file, and the transfer fee applies to banks other than BCA.
King Gambit may change the amount, extend, shorten or end this promotion at any time. A change takes effect when it is shown on the Play earnings page and applies only to games finished afterwards — a balance already earned does not change in value, does not expire when the promotion ends, and remains cashable.
Arranging games in order to collect the money — agreeing it with another player, or playing against another account of your own — breaches Article 2, and Article 9 applies in full, including withholding a payout and voiding a balance obtained that way.
A KG Coach is a trainer who has applied and been approved by an admin. The requirements are: a FIDE ID with a FIDE title verified on King Gambit; at least three podium finishes (1st to 3rd) at provincial level or higher, with certificates or documents as proof; a verified identity (real name, plus ID card number and photo); a profile photo showing yourself or a logo; and a clean record — not banned, not quarantined, and not flagged for engine use in the past 12 months. An official coaching licence is optional; coaches whose licence is verified are marked "Licensed".
Coaches set their own rates. King Gambit sets no minimum or maximum price; the Rp10,000 floor per payment is only the payment provider's technical limit. Private classes are for one student; group classes take at most 10 students and run with however many have booked.
Students pay through Midtrans, and King Gambit holds the money until the session has ended and 24 hours have passed without a complaint. Then 70% goes to the coach's balance and 30% to the platform. A coach's balance is cashed out with a minimum of Rp50,000, and everything in Article 6 applies to it: the account holder must match the real name on the profile, 2.5% PPh 21 is withheld, the ID number and photo must be on file, and the transfer fee applies to banks other than BCA.
A student who cancels 24 hours or more before the session starts gets a full refund. Cancellations less than 24 hours before are not refunded, and the payment goes to the coach, who kept that time free. If the coach cancels, the session's whole value goes to the student's Coach Credit and the cancellation is recorded on the coach's account.
From the start of a session until 24 hours after it ends, the student can report a problem — for example the coach not showing up, or the session being cut short. The money stays held while the report is reviewed. An admin decides whether the session's value goes back to the student's Coach Credit (and is recorded on the coach's account) or is released to the coach, and both sides receive the decision and its note.
Coaches may sell packages: a number of sessions of one class for one price, valid for a number of days the coach chooses, at least 30 days from when the payment is received. Package sessions are booked from the coach's schedule with no further payment, and only for sessions that start before the package ends. Sessions not used by the end of the package are forfeited and their value goes to the coach. Students are reminded 14 days and 3 days before their package ends.
For a package session: a student cancelling 24 hours or more before it returns the session to the package, not money; cancelling less than 24 hours before uses the session up. If the coach cancels, or an admin upholds the student's complaint, the session's value goes to the student's Coach Credit. If an admin deactivates a coach, the value of every package session not yet booked goes to the student's Coach Credit. One package session is worth the package price divided by its number of sessions.
Coach Credit is the student's own balance for coaching. It is filled only for the coach-side reasons above, or when a payment arrives after its seat is no longer available. It does not expire, is used automatically first when booking a session or buying a package from any coach (Midtrans charges the rest), and can be cashed out to a bank account with a minimum of Rp10,000. As it is the student's own money coming back, a Coach Credit cash-out has no PPh 21 withheld and needs no ID card; the account holder must still match the real name on the profile, and the transfer fee applies to banks other than BCA.
A student's own cancellation of a single (non-package) session is refunded the way it was paid: the Midtrans part through Midtrans, the Coach Credit part back to the credit. Some Midtrans methods, such as bank transfer and virtual account, cannot be refunded automatically; for those a King Gambit admin transfers the money by hand.
Sessions take place in the King Gambit session room: video and audio, and a shared board the coach controls and may hand to a student. The room opens 10 minutes before the session and closes 15 minutes after its scheduled end, and only the coach and the booked students can enter. Students join with their microphone off; the coach can mute all students, and can end the session early, which closes the room for everyone at once. Ending early changes neither when the payment is released nor the complaint deadline, both of which still run from the schedule. Video and audio pass through King Gambit's server but are never recorded or stored in any form. Only each participant's join and leave times are logged, and admins use that log as evidence when a problem is reported, such as a coach not showing up.
A student may share their playing-style profile with a coach whose session or package they have paid for, one coach at a time. A coach given permission can see that profile, including the training advice and checklist progress, but cannot change anything and must not pass it on. The student can withdraw permission at any time, with immediate effect; the profile is also no longer visible to a coach who has been deactivated. Without that permission, a playing-style profile is visible only to its owner.
Only a student who actually booked a session can review it — one review per session, 1 to 5 stars. The coach may reply once. An admin may hide a review that is abusive or unrelated to the session, but never edits it. Testimonials written by the coach are shown separately and labelled as written by the coach.
An admin may deactivate a coach profile that breaches these terms, including through repeated cancellations or no-shows. The profile and its history are kept, and its schedule and packages can no longer be booked or bought.
Where a breach is suspected, King Gambit may withhold a prize payment while the review is underway.
Where a breach is established, King Gambit may void the result or the win, adjust or remove rating, cancel the prize, and suspend or close the account concerned.
Before deciding, we will notify the account owner and give them an opportunity to respond.
While a review is underway, an account may be placed in quarantine. Quarantine stops three things: entering anything that carries a prize, rating movement, and payouts. You can still sign in, play against other people and against the computer, and see your whole history. Quarantine is not shown on your profile and cannot be seen by other players.
Quarantine is not a punishment and not a finding of guilt. There are two distinct reasons for it and they must never be conflated: first, that your playing strength cannot yet be confirmed — this is not an accusation of cheating, and it ends by itself once you verify a rating or title or your rating becomes established; second, that particular games are under review — that one can only be ended by an admin after looking at those games. You are always told which one applies to your account.
Where suspected engine use is reported by a number of different players, a prize claim from that account must include a video recording of the player at the following tournament, with hands and screen visible, and is paid after an admin has reviewed it. A number of reports is a reason to look, never proof of guilt.
An admin may grant a quarantined account special permission to keep entering prize tournaments. It is granted case by case, never automatically, and it runs on the condition that every tournament entered is recorded with two recordings: one of the room, showing that you are alone and are not wearing an earphone, a headset or a hearing aid, running for the length of the tournament; and one of the screen with both hands, unbroken from the first game to the last. Those terms are shown and must be accepted every time you register, and a prize you win can only be paid once both recordings have been received and reviewed. The permission ends by itself when the review of your account finishes or a new review is opened.
Where a prize is held because your account is quarantined under suspicion of engine use, you have 24 hours to send a link to video of yourself playing, and an admin reads it. Accepted, the hold is lifted. Refused, or nothing sent by the deadline, and the prize moves down to the next finisher in the standings who is not themselves flagged. This does not apply to a quarantine opened because your playing strength could not yet be confirmed — on that track no deadline runs against your prize at all.
A banned account can still sign in and read why it was banned, because the account owner is the person who has to be able to appeal. Each ban may be appealed once. While banned, every action that changes data is refused.
After an account is banned, the WhatsApp number, email address, IP address, and devices linked to it may be refused when registering a new account. Because IP addresses and some device characteristics are shared by unrelated people — one household, one office, one mobile network — an automatic refusal is not applied to an identifier that demonstrably belongs to several healthy accounts.
A video call happens only between the two players of a game in progress, and only once both of them have pressed agree. That agreement covers one game; the next game asks again. Outside online tournaments, either player may mute their microphone, switch off their camera, or end the call at any time — and none of that affects the board, the clocks or the result.
In online tournaments the video call is mandatory, as set out in section 3: agreement is asked for in every board's preparation time, not agreeing means losing the game, and once agreed the camera cannot be switched off and the call cannot be ended until the game is over. You may still mute or unmute your microphone. An opponent's video that looks empty or black can be a device rendering problem and does not affect the game.
The call's sound and picture travel directly between the two browsers. Where that direct connection cannot be made, for example on some mobile networks, the call is connected through King Gambit's server, which only forwards the sound and picture. Either way, we keep no recording or copy of any kind, including for the purpose of handling a report. You should know what follows from that: if something happens during a call, there is no recording for us to open. A report about what was said or shown in a call can only be reviewed from both people's accounts of it, and what we are able to do is limited to what those accounts allow us to conclude. What is always in your own hands is ending the call on the spot, at any moment, without affecting the game. We still choose to keep no recording, because storing players' faces and voices creates a larger risk than the one it would solve.
Showing anything indecent, threatening or abusive over a camera breaks these terms. A report button sits in the video call panel and on every profile page, and every report is reviewed by a person. King Gambit may switch the video feature off for one account, or for the whole site, when that is needed.
Broadcast mode lets a player stream their own game to their own channel. The board, the moves, the clocks and both players' names are public from the first move — anyone may watch a game in progress and download its notation once it is over. A broadcast therefore does not require the opponent's permission. They are told about it all the same, along with who is streaming.
What does require permission is the opponent's face. A player's face may appear in a broadcast only if they allow it, that permission may be withdrawn at any moment, and not answering means no. Putting somebody's face in a broadcast without their permission — including by capturing a screen that contains the call window — breaks these terms.
King Gambit runs no streaming server and sends video to no platform. The channel, the content of the broadcast, and meeting that platform's own requirements are entirely the streaming player's responsibility.
We also store the IP address and device characteristics you sign in from. Both are used for two things only: enforcing the two-device limit, and linking accounts used by the same person where a breach is suspected. Neither is ever shown to other players.
What we store: your username, email address, and password (kept encrypted, never in its original form); your profile picture, display name, and nationality if you provide them; your legal name, used for certificates and prize payouts; your WhatsApp number; your full game history, rating, and game notation; your payment and token purchase history; and your bank details if you submit a prize claim.
What is public and visible to anyone: your username, display name, profile picture, country flag, rating, achievements, and the notation of your finished games — all shown on your public profile. Tournament standings and results are public too. Your legal name, email, WhatsApp number, and bank details are never shown on any public page.
A winner's legal name and WhatsApp number are announced to the King Gambit WhatsApp groups only where you gave publicity consent at tournament check-in. Without that consent, only your username is announced.
Others who process this data: Midtrans, our payment provider, for payment transactions (card and payment account details are handled by them, not stored by us); Google, if you sign in with a Google account or through page-visit analytics; and email services used to deliver notifications. For third-party tournaments, the organiser can see their own participants' registration details. We do not sell personal data to anyone.
We do not currently send notifications over WhatsApp. Your WhatsApp number is held so that organisers and admins can reach you when needed, and the King Gambit number only replies to messages you send first and posts in groups. You can remove your number from your profile at any time. Official notifications are sent in the app and by email. Bank details are used only to make the prize transfer.
You can deactivate your account temporarily — it is hidden and comes back when you log in again — or delete it permanently from your profile page, both confirmed with your password. Permanent deletion removes your username, email, legal name, profile picture, WhatsApp number, nationality, token and point transaction history, and your Stockfish Challenge attempts. Game history and tournament results remain without your identity attached, because those results are also a record belonging to your opponents and to other participants. Records of prize payments already made are kept as financial records.
We may update these terms — for instance when a feature is added, prize mechanics change, or fair-play rules are adjusted.
King Gambit may change these terms at any time in the interest of the community, including to close a loophole being exploited, and a change takes effect when it is published on this page. For changes affecting prizes, payments, or sanctions we aim to post a notice in the app, but a change does not depend on that notice to be effective.
The effective date at the top of this page always identifies the version currently in force. By continuing to use the service after that date, you accept the current version.
Changes apply going forward only, and are never applied retroactively to games, tournaments, or prize claims that already took place before the effective date.
If you do not agree with a change, you may stop using the service and close your account at any time from your profile page.
Questions about these terms can be sent to admin@kinggambit.com.