English Chess Forum

Just had an email from the "chess arena" proudly proclaiming that you can now register with no verification checks and start playing fide rated games on their (entirely unpoliced for cheating) website.
Now, obviously, it was April fools yesterday so I guess its truthfulness should be taken with a pinch of salt but I certainly wouldn't put it past fide to attempt such a desperate and foolhardy cash grab and if it is indeed true how bad of an idea is this likely to be?

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 02, 2025 10:01 pm

I certainly wouldn't put it past fide to attempt such a desperate and foolhardy cash grab and if it is indeed true how bad of an idea is this likely to be?

Is this anything new? They've had Arena "titles" and ratings for some years. In terms of popularity their Arena site is a long way behind chess.com and lichess.

The impression they give, though, is that rather then just the token titles they sell games played on their "site" will now be officially rated and appear as results on your fide profile

Joey Stewart wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 03, 2025 1:51 pm

The impression they give, though, is that rather then just the token titles they sell games played on their "site" will now be officially rated and appear as results on your fide profile

Arena Master titles have been displayed on the FIDE Rating website for many years. This is nothing new.

The Arena titles are worthless, and every experienced chess player knows this. As an arbiter, I generally delete Arena titles when they appear from a FIDE players download in a tournament entry. Some keep them, as they have been earned by results (whatever the required standard) and paid for, but my view is that online titles have no relevance to OTB play.

As for selling games, that's nonsense, an April Fool's.