The whole flow, in four steps
1 — Stake. You pick an amount and sign one transaction. Your ALGO moves into an escrow contract on Algorand MainNet — not to us. Until you sign, nothing has been taken from your wallet, and the app says so in those words.
2 — They match it. Your opponent's signature locks the same amount into the same escrow. From this moment neither of you can withdraw unilaterally — and neither can we. The pot exists on a public blockchain, and you can look at it in an explorer mid-game.
3 — Play chess. Normal blitz (3, 5, 10 minutes), full rules, clocks enforced on the server. Moves cost nothing and confirm instantly — the blockchain is the bank, not the board.
4 — Get paid. The contract pays the winner 90% of the pot, straight to their wallet, usually within about three seconds of the result. There is no balance to cash out, because winning is being paid.
Why crypto, honestly
Not ideology — mechanics. A smart contract is the one kind of counterparty that cannot decide to pay you late, pay you less, or freeze your account: the payout rule is code that everyone can read, published before you stake. Algorand specifically because blocks are final in about three seconds and a transaction costs a fraction of a cent — the two properties a chess payout needs.
Prefer playing Stockfish?
You can also stake against Stockfish at published odds. One rule: the further the engine is above your level, the more a win pays — from a near-even fight up to ×10 on the long shot. A draw refunds your stake. The multiplier is shown before you commit, always.
Start without risking anything
Practice against every engine level is free, needs no wallet and works offline. When you want a game to count, the app creates a wallet in seconds and you fund it with ALGO from any exchange. Duels start at 1 ALGO — pocket money, real stakes.