Grandmaster FAQ
Everything you need to know to play on PLAYAGM as a grandmaster (GM). For the general player-facing questions, see the main FAQ.
What are the necessary steps to be able to play on PLAYAGM?
Six steps take you from signing up to your first game. Each step after registering shows up as a banner at the top of the page, so you always see what's next.
- Register as a grandmaster. Click Sign in at the top of the page, open the Register tab, choose Grandmaster and pick your FIDE profile from the search. Your name on PLAYAGM is taken from it. You also give your country of residence.
- Confirm your email address. We email you a 6-digit code. Enter it in the banner at the top of the page.
- Check that we can pay you. We can pay GMs living in the EU, Liechtenstein, Norway, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. If you live elsewhere, a banner tells you so before you book anything, and you can ask to be notified if that changes.
- Get verified. Book a short video call from the banner. We confirm that you are the grandmaster your FIDE profile says (see How do I get verified?).
- Connect Stripe. Stripe, our payments provider, pays your share to your bank. Click Connect Stripe account in the banner and fill in your details on Stripe. You can do this while you wait for the verification call.
- Start a session. Once you're verified and Stripe is connected, start a session and choose your price, time control and how many games you play at once (see Sessions & capacity). Players can now book you from the lobby.
Your first payout to your bank takes about 7–14 days. This doesn't stop you from playing (see How do payouts work?).
How do payouts work?
You can start playing and earning as soon as your account is set up — the hold below only affects when money reaches your bank, never your ability to play or to earn. Your share of each game lands in your Stripe balance right away.
Your balance is paid out to your bank account automatically — you never have to trigger a payout. There's one thing to know up front: your first payout is held for about 7–14 days. This is a standard new-account review that Stripe (our payments provider) applies to every newly connected account; it isn't specific to you or to PLAYAGM.
After that initial hold, payouts roll automatically on a regular schedule (typically daily, arriving a few business days after each game settles). So if your money seems slow in the first couple of weeks, that's expected — it catches up and stays steady from then on. You can see your balance, payout schedule and bank details any time via Stripe payouts in your account menu.
How is my price split?
You set your price as a net (VAT-exclusive) amount — that's what you'd like to earn per game. The player pays that plus any applicable VAT at checkout. From your net price, the platform takes a small fee and you keep the rest.
The fee is a fixed amount plus a percentage of your net price (currently €0.50 + 5%). Because the fixed part shrinks as a share when your price rises, the fee is about 15% at the €5 minimum and a smaller share the higher you price — so raising your price is always in your favour. When you start a session, the session dialog shows you the live split for the price you pick.
When am I paid, and when is the player refunded?
PLAYAGM makes players one platform-wide promise: you pay unless the GM loses quickly. Concretely, the player is refunded automatically only if you lose in fewer than 30 moves (by getting checkmated, resigning, or running out of time). Every other completed game charges the player and pays you your share. The table below is the whole rule from your side:
| How the game ends | Are you paid? |
|---|---|
| You win, or the game is drawn (by agreement, stalemate, repetition, the 50-move rule, or insufficient material) | Yes — you're paid |
| You lose on move 30 or later | Yes — you're paid |
| You lose in fewer than 30 moves (checkmate, resignation, or flag) | No — the player is refunded |
The 30-move rule protects players from a GM taking games too lightly (or spreading themselves across too many boards), while still being fair to you: even a player cheating with an engine is unlikely to beat you inside 30 moves, so you're very likely to survive the window and be paid. Note that a draw always pays you — an early draw needs your agreement, and a draw by repetition, stalemate or the 50-move rule is a legitimate result.
How do I get verified?
When you register as a GM, you claim your real FIDE identity from a typeahead. That puts your account into a pending state: you can set up your profile and connect Stripe, but you can't start sessions yet. We verify you personally over a short video call to confirm you are who your FIDE profile says — then your account flips to verified and you can go live. Your FIDE title appears as a gold badge next to your name across the platform once you're verified.
Sessions & capacity
Starting a session makes you visible in the lobby and opens you up to players. You choose your price, the time control, and how many games you'll run at once (your player limit). You can adjust the limit at any time.
For the time control, pick one of the presets (5+3, 10+5, 15+10, 30+20) or set your own: 1 to 120 minutes, plus 0 to 60 seconds per move. Your colour is decided by a coin flip for each game. There is no chat: you and your opponent can send each other a handful of fixed reactions, like a handshake or "Good game".
Setting the limit to 0 is not a pause — it winds the session down: no new players can join, and the session ends by itself once your last game (and any pending join) finishes. Reopening later means starting a fresh session. Setting a limit below your current number of games doesn't drain you — the lobby just shows you as FULL and you self-heal as games finish.
Can I end my session while games are running?
Yes, but not immediately: your running games are always played to the end. Click End session and choose Stop accepting & auto-end session. No new players can join, and the session closes by itself after your last game. Setting your player limit to 0 does the same.
What happens if my connection drops?
Your clocks keep running on every board: a game never pauses because someone goes offline. With many boards at once, a short drop costs you time everywhere, and losing on time in fewer than 30 moves refunds the player. So play on a stable connection, and reload the page as soon as you're back: your games are still there. Closing the browser doesn't end your games either.
If you're gone for more than about 90 seconds, your session stops taking new players, just as if you had clicked Stop accepting & auto-end session. Your running games continue; to take new players again, start a new session after it has ended.
If the problem is on our side and PLAYAGM's server goes down, the time it was down is not charged to anyone's clock.
How do players find me?
- The lobby. While your session is running, you're listed under Active Sessions with your price and time control. When you're offline, players still see you under Registered GMs.
- Live alerts. Players can subscribe to you and get notified as soon as you start a session.
- Wanted GMs. Players vote for grandmasters they'd like to play. If you're on that list, players are already asking for you.
Spectator privacy (anti-scouting)
Live games can appear on a public board wall so visitors can watch. You choose how public your games are when you start a session, in the session dialog:
- Watchable (on by default): visitors can watch your live games. Each player can still hide their own game. Switch it off to hide all your games, for example if you'd rather other players couldn't watch you live to study your openings.
- Streamable: you broadcast your games to a public stream. Every game is public and players can't hide theirs (they agree to this before paying). Requires Watchable.
Both settings are fixed for the whole session. The dialog remembers your choice for next time. Finished games are never public: only you and that player can open them afterwards.