25 April 2024 - Today marks the completion of a US$1.8 million investment round for Anichess, the progressive chess-based online strategy game created in collaboration with Magnus Carlsen, the five-time World Chess Champion, and Chess.com. Sfermion and Amber Group led the round, and additional participants included SNZ Capital, Aspen Digital, Fenbushi Capital, and others. The money raised will be used by Anichess to support team growth, marketing campaigns, and game development.
Animoca Brands and Chess.com, the top online chess platform worldwide, collaborated to create the Web3 game Nichess. By introducing spells that unlock new gameplay options and strategies, Anichess offers a fresh tactical take on the traditional game of chess, forcing players to reconsider the game's established rules as they expansive lore within the world of the gameboard.
In order to create an experience that makes chess more interesting and approachable for everyone, Anichess closed an oversubscribed US$1.5 million seed round in 2023 (see announcement of June 22, 2023). Anichess debuted its player-versus-environment (PvE) daily chess puzzles in January 2024. Since then, it has attracted over 1,000,000 registered players and maintained a daily active user base of 150,000 people, who have solved over 50 million chess puzzles between them.
On March 11, 2024, Anichess's Season 1 leaderboard became live. It ranks players according to the number of points they earn by completing daily puzzles and gathering Orbs of Power that they earn from playing games and attending social events. Q2 2024 is when the online player-versus-player (PvP) gaming mode for Anichess is anticipated to debut.
"We're excited to support Animoca Brands and Chess.com with the roll-out of Anichess, which represents an exciting foray into Web3 gaming for the timeless and global classical game," said Dan Patterson, general partner at Sfermion. "We think Anichess has the potential to integrate tens of millions of players into the community-driven, player-owned gaming of the future, thanks to the 150 million+ members of Chess.com and Web3 communities like Mocaverse. By designing for the players that crave the most difficult tasks, Anichess hopes to keep things interesting with the addition of strategic components and esports-like themes. We're excited to collaborate closely with the group and welcome a huge number of new players to Web3 gaming!"
Annabelle Huang, managing partner of Amber Group, said: "Anichess represents a refreshing take on one of the most classic games cherished by many generations and we are proud to support the team in realizing their vision of delivering an engaging, community-centric and decentralized player experience. The enthusiastic response to the debut of spell chess puzzles is a testament to the team's execution capability and we look forward to the release of the main game later this year."
"Chess is a classic game that has stood the test of time with its popularity, accessibility, and incredible strategic depth," stated Yat Siu, executive chairman and co-founder of Animoca Brands.
Regarding Anichess
A division of Animoca Brands, Anichess is dedicated to creating and expanding decentralized chess with its unique spell-chess gameplay. One of the oldest and most popular games in the world is given a fresh lease on life and inventiveness with Anichess, which modernizes and tokenizes it to capitalize on the potential offered by Web3 communities and technology. Anichess is an entirely free-to-play game that combines the fundamental principles of classic chess with an extra degree of strategy offered by novel features like unique spell mechanics and unique challenges. Anichess focuses heavily on skill-based gameplay and striking graphics to create an esports-like experience that appeals to both chess enthusiasts and newcomers.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands (ACN: 122 921 813), a Web3 leader that uses blockchain to provide digital property rights to customers worldwide in order to contribute to the development of the open metaverse, is a Deloitte Tech Fast winner, a Fortune Crypto 40 company, and one of the Financial Times’ High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2023. The company creates and releases a wide range of products, including games that are original, like The Sandbox, PHANTOM GALAXIESTM, Life Beyond, and Crazy Defense Heroes, as well as products that use well-known intellectual properties from the entertainment and sports industries, like Power Rangers, The Walking Dead, Formula E, MotoGPTM, and The Walking Dead.
Animoca Brands Japan, The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Darewise Entertainment, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, TinyTap, SPORTPASS, PIXELYNX, WePlay Media, Gryfyn, and Azarus are just a few of its subsidiaries. One of the most active Web3 investors is Animoca Brands, which has over 400 Web3 investments in its portfolio. These investments come from Animoca Ventures as well as direct investments from Yuga Labs, Axie Infinity, Polygon, Consensys, Magic Eden, Fireblocks, OpenSea, Dapper Labs, Yield Guild Games, and many more.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae