PawnShark was designed and built on three continents with one goal in mind, "to create a currency enabled chess community where friends can play friends." The idea came to the founders after hours and hours of play on standard chess websites, where during a game the inevitable question was asked, "Want to play for money?" And with that, the idea was born. There have been naysayers along the way. The most common comment being, "What about cheating?" Well, for the founders the idea of cheating was foreign because they wanted to play for money amongst each other and knew that many of their friends wanted to play other friends and so on. With that in mind it was decided to build a "Community chess" where a user could find a user, view a comprehensive history, communicate, see their picture, and make a friend. PawnShark's "chess community" concept is in direct contradiction with that of common chess sites today where random people play random people. Randomness allows shady players to have no accountability to anyone. Hence friends should play friends.

      Along the way the concept of the cheater monitoring system was offered by a group specializing in algorithm based detection software.

      One of the final hurdles was how to offer a more complete site with options for all chess enthusiasts. The solution was found via a handful of patents held by an institutional worker who had invented methods of chess he used to get inmates excited about the game. These methods where perfect, They strengthened offensive and defensive game play, catered to offensive or defensive players, and allowed for a more advanced strategy.

      One of the final decisions was the ranking system. As great as the Elo has been for the sport of chess, its design and functionality are all intended for one type of play, face to face, not for large online chess servers that have thousands of people coming and going hour by hour and day by day. The Elo has no problem managing antonymous groups of chess players in a controlled tournament setting, but the shear magnitude of players online simply overloads the Elo and creates what is referred to as a "bounce effect" that leads to an unremitting shift in ratings. The "Elo bounce" is a term used to explain this rolling phenomenon in online chess ratings. You will find that unless you are within the bottom or top five percentile, your rating will bounce up and down as you play opponents, that even though ranked lower than you are, are actually far more versed in the game or vice versa. The Elo bounce problem makes it impossible to accurately match same skill level players against one another, and the instantaneous rating changes would promote widespread sandbagging, which in turn would allow some players to easily prey on beginners, fleecing them out of their hard earned money. Because of the chess world's addiction to the Elo, a sort of crutch has manifested itself in a game that has thrived far too long to need one. The crutch is that chess players place way too much stock on their Elo based ratings. In turn, rampant cheating has flooded the online world, even seeped into live tournaments. Plain and simple, the chess world has an unhealthy obsession with the Elo.

      This may be hard to stomach for longtime chess fans, but we must accept change, as it has already begun. All chess servers use highly modified versions of the Elo already. The Elo has served a great purpose in its 40+ year existence. However, the 15 century old game of chess is ready to evolve once again into something far larger. The future of chess, as in any sport, is money. Whether you’re a chess purist or a beginner, you must accept that the current state of the world declares that chess and chess players will never get their fair recognition and respect until a dollar sign is attached to them. With that said, there is no better way to attach the proverbial dollar sign, than to attach a real dollar sign. This means the inevitable fading out of the Elo, and the complete acceptance of a new system that prevents cheating, promotes rankings, and allows for the exchange of money or points. And why? Because chess is a cerebral sport, the only sport of its kind, and cerebral athletes should be celebrated and provided the opportunity to make a good living. In short, unless we help chess evolve, the money and fame will all go to the poker players.